The very friendly bartender hands me my drink. I look at the clock behind him; 10:01pm. I turn to the stage and see three musicians tuning up and turning on their amplifiers. I later learn they are Dave Nerbak (guitar), Corey Many (drums), and Aaron Albee (bass). Dan Parks then saunters onto the stage from the back, grabs his guitar and starts pounding out the opening chords to the Rolling Stones' “Dead Flowers”. And WE ARE OFF.
You cannot not watch this band. They jump, kick, laugh, drink, stick out their tongue (Parks), but more importantly they are tight. They are good. The vocal harmonies are good, and with great musicianship, they unrelentingly bash you in the face. Corey Many hits the drums hard, Albee's bass shakes the ground beneath you, and Nerbak plays guitar as well or better than anyone I have seen in this type of setting (John Mayer or Clapton in an arena doesn't count).
They hit you with U2, Mike Doughty, Matchbox 20, Green Day. After 3 or 4 songs, I thought someone had put something in my drink, but quickly realized it was this band who was assaulting my senses in a good and powerful way. They are driving the vehicle, and you're just along for the ride. I remember looking at my two friends and thinking, “Do these guys know they're leading this audience up/down, in/out, or are they just oblivious and having fun?”. Although the room was a bit too loud for us to talk (or maybe we just didn't want to miss anything), I could tell they were thinking something similar, or at least understanding my look of enjoyment and surprise.
About halfway through the set I see Parks turn back to Many and yell, “One, two three, four!”, and Dan Parks and The Blame begin an original song called “Take and Take” from the CD of the same name, which beats you up like I would imagine a professional boxer would beat up a high school kid. This song has a chorus that was in my head for three days (“you just take and take, i won't lie awake, and won't see you again”).
They finished off this 90 minute set with The Stones' “It's Only Rock & Roll” with Parks and Nerbak trading licks during a guitar “solo” that made the audience look like they were watching a tennis match; back and forth, back and forth. They finally come to a halt. Parks is covered in sweat, reminding everyone the bar is open and they will be back shortly. I notice how warm it is, time for another drink.

About 20 minutes later, Parks walks out alone, I notice he is wearing a different (dry) shirt. Only half the stage is lit. He begins playing the familiar opening chords of Live's “Lightning Crashes”. An odd opening song for a band that runs so hard, I thought, but before I gave it a second thought, the band had joined him for the second half of the song. The driving chorus had the audience singing, and I looked back to see 95% of the audience fixated on the stage.
They continued their (second) barrage with Gin Blossoms, Spin Doctors, Guns N Roses, The Ramones, more Stones, they even played a crazy rockin' version of Johnny Cash's “Folsom Prison Blues”.
Then, Parks is saying something about being on a National Lampoon movie soundtrack, and they launch into an original song called “I Want It” (not on the aforementioned CD). This song has a pulsing, sexy groove and is a bluesy tune delivered at high velocity. The song somehow feels dirty. Parks makes sex noises, and the rhythm is the rhythm of sex. The lyrics say something about “wanting to do your tight ass”, and this tips the scales. The audience is loving it. We are jumping up and down, waving our hands to the sky (to the stage?). The room feels like a balloon that is filling up with air, “how much more can it take before it bursts?”, and that's when it happened. I swear, I pee'd myself a little bit. I was too in the moment to care, but yes, I pee'd a little.
They eventually finished the 1 hour+ set with perhaps the single best version of “Sympathy For The Devil”, another of the handful of Stones covers that night, that I have ever heard.

When the show was over, I visited the ladies room and while waiting for my friends to do the same, I headed back stage in hopes of saying hello. I didn't see Nerbak or Many, but Aaron was nice and asked if I enjoyed the show. Parks said hello. I don't know what the hell I said, but he gave me a CD.
Soon, we girls were off into the night air. Thank you to Dan Parks and The Blame, for making my second trip to Vermont so enjoyable and memorable. The only reason I gave you four stars instead of five is I didn't sleep with one of you. lol!