When The Rain Comes

Most times when a good old fashioned, Michigan rain sweeps in and flexes its muscle, it puts a damper on any party.

Not so at Bumper’s Landing.

Nope, those folks just step back for a moment until it passes and then go back about their business of partying like there’s no tomorrow.

Pretty awesome if you ask me.

Saturday was just that kind of night out in Harrison Township.

When we drove up, the parking lot was mostly filled, with only a few spots to be found.  We selected ours and proceeded to unload and set up without much fanfare.

However, as we took the stage at 6:00 to begin our first set, we began to notice the sky getting darker and clouds beginning to gather.

We played each song looking over our shoulders as the clouds approached from behind.  Around 7:15 the sprinkles began and brought out the tarps we had waiting in the wings to protect our musical gear.

By 7:30 the rain hit us in full force, scattering the customers and sending most everyone running somewhere.

Most of them went inside, or back to their boats, but a fair amount simply backed into the Tiki bar to wait it out.

A few gathered under our pavilion to share a pizza and a few more brews.

That’s the way it’s done!

Doing our best to be patient, we scrutinized the weather maps and hoped that the storm would pass.  The prevailing thought was to wait until the rain broke, then move everything inside in case another storm returned.

We decided however, to wait a few more moments and hope that we would be in the clear from that point on.

That’s exactly what we did.

The storm passed, the fine staff dried the tables and the night blossomed into another amazing evening-by-the-water.

Our second set was mostly dance music, since everyone was ready to party after that brief intermission.

The cast of characters on this night was something to behold.  Some were drunk, some were full of energy.  Some were eating, some were chatting.  Some were taking pictures.  Some were dancing all around, with anyone or anything in any way that was possible.

Happy?

Everyone was happy.

We were happy because we survived the rain.  The patrons were happy because they were at an amazingly fun party-clubhouse.

The Bumper’s faithful make it so much fun.

We knew, (well we hoped), the rain would pass, but we were not so sure that the people would stay outside.  Well, they sure did!

It was full again, as we began our third set.  More dancing music, and lots and lots of requests to get to.  The 80’s seemed to be the thing on this particular Saturday.

Everything 80’s was met with dancing feet and thunderous applause.

Funny how something as simple as music can bring people who have never met each other together as one.

Next up on this interesting night was a young woman who wished to delight her friends and fans with her rendition of the classic, 4 Non Blonds hit, What’s Up?

Perfectly done and artfully sung, it was just the right touch at just the right time.  Now it was a a party!

At this point of the night, anything goes.  everyone was on-board with the entire evening.  The food had settled, the alcohol had worked its magic, and the time was right to bring this party to its’ inevitable conclusion.

Time to unleash our musical “Kraken“.  The dance floor was filled, the night air was clear and without any type of moisture.

Before anyone knew it, the unmistakable sounds of The Village People were bellowing out of our speakers with Carl suggested that everyone visit their local YMCA.

No better song could wrap up this day that had so many different looks.  As we finished, there were shouts of “Encore!” raining down upon us.  The only rain we felt for the rest of our night.

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