When did Eric start playing guitar for the Fleshtones?

This past Saturday night was the record release party for the new Fleshtones album, "Take A Good Look" at Manitoba's on Ave. B.  I was excited for a number of reasons.  For one, as anyone who knows me knows...I'm a HUGE Fleshtones fan.  So much so, my band the Subway Surfers recorded a track for the Fleshtones tribute record, Vindicated. 

In addition to having copies of their albums for sale at the show, the Fleshtones would also be selling copies of the tribute.  This would be my first (only?) chance to see people I don't personally know buying copies of the album I'm on.  The first person I saw getting a copy was beyond my wildest dreams.




Yeah, that's Peter Buck from REM.

My goal for the evening was to get a picture with Handsome Dick Manitoba, bar owner and punk rock legend, with us both holding  a copy of "Vindicated".  He's also on the tribute, singing "American Beat", backed by the Nomads.  I thought we had the best track on the record, but HDM blows us out of the water.   I digress.




That sounds like a pretty full night, right?  That wasn't even the half of it.

For the last few years the Fleshtones have been doing this bit for the song, "Push Up Man".  They pull members out of the audience to do push-ups.  During the song, Peter Zaremba grabbed me and pointed at the bar.  Not sure what to do, I ditched my leather jacket, climbed up on the bar, while patrons cleared their drinks and planted myself down and proceeded to do about 20-30 push ups on the bar.







I've been working out with a trainer lately, so I had much better endurance than I did even a few weeks ago.  That said, THANK GOD I got the tap when I did.  Peter (or was it Keith) told me to stand up on the bar and I was handed...Keith Streng's guitar. 



I got to play Keith's guitar, with the Fleshtones, ON the bar at Manitobas. 



A couple that I knew when I used to be a regular at Manitobas came in just as this was happened.  The husband turned to the wife and asked, "I know we haven't seen him in a while, but when did Eric start playing guitar for the Fleshtones?"