Vernon’s is my favorite venue to play. Easy load in/out, the restaurant really takes care of the band (decent food/drink allowance, they pay well and on the spot), the crowd is cool/appreciative and it’s just a fun place to be. The only downside is that the stage faces into the sun so for the first couple of hours of the show, it’s hot. Meanwhile the outdoor dining section has shade and fans and is quite nice even on a hot day. So great for the patrons. In June it was 108. I drank three liters of water the first two sets. But then the sun goes down, the breeze comes in off the lake and people start dancing. It’s pretty well perfect then. Last night when I arrived it 89 with cloud cover so really pleasant. As for requests it runs the gamut and that’s the fun part. We had a group of soccer moms who wanted “Don’t Stop Believing,” and a fella who wanted “Take it to the Limit” both of which everyone knows but we had never played together as a band before. But they went off as crowd pleasers. Then someone wanted a Bob Seeger song that had a lot of changes and didn’t really fit the mood, so we wound up settling on a kind of semi Metallica style “Turn the Page” instead. There was some Cody Jenks requests, and some newer country stuff like that which I’ve heard, but not often and certainly have never played before last night. But the folks requesting cheered at the end so all good. That’s really all I need to have happen to consider it a successful night.