Mission Mountain Wood Band draws crowds to Polson park
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The Mission Mountain Wood Band floated in front of Sacajawea Park on the Fourth of July at approximately 8 p.m., highlighting an afternoon of entertainment by Montana Dark Horse and Out in The Woods.
The weather was beautiful — blue skies, a little overcast — ordered up specially by band member Tim Ryan along with Rob Quist, Steve Riddle and Greg Reichenberg.
They opened with “Take a Whiff on Me,” and instantly the crowd roared.
The band has been planning this concert since February, “barging in and barging out and singing ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ as the fireworks begin,” Riddle said.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to have a concert on a barge,” Quist added.
Brett McCrumb of McCrumb Construction and Marine had a barge. Anderson Broadcasting found a generator in Great Falls, and the gig was on. Sound people Joe Brown, Walter Peckham and Mike Jones worked their magic.
For the band, it was a bittersweet day because it was the 27th anniversary of the Fourth of July when Terry Robinson and Kurt Bergeron, both original M2WB members, and the remainder of the Montana Band died in a plane crash near Somers after a private concert.
The concert was also a release party for M2WB’s new album “Now And Then,” Riddle said.
The master arrived at Riddle’s house on July 3, and Mary Ann Riddle rushed it to Missoula for processing.
“We had a big steak fry at my house,” Riddle said, “and put it on the stereo and cranked it up.”
Ryan flew into Missoula the night before the concert. He loves playing with the M2WB since “I get to be in my state.”
Polson on Flathead Lake, Choteau, Philipsburg, Swan Lake are all great venues, according to Ryan, and traveling with M2WB is the big lure because he gets to drive the state.
“I’ve been on every dang back road,” Ryan said.
He turns the radio off, rolls the window down and “breathe in as much as I can.”
As with all the members of the band, he has nothing but good to say for all the hard work of Anderson Broadcasting and the City of Polson.
After they floated in and anchored, the band played all the old favorites — “Take a Whiff on Me,” “Sweet Maria,” and “Mountain Standard Time” — and new music.
It was Aber Day, the redux, for crowd members of a certain age, who attended Aber Day keggers at the University of Montana in the 1970s. Aber Day keggers featured 1,000 kegs of beer, were put on by the University of Montana and raised money for the university library. Students and other folks paid $8 or $9 to get in, for a day of music and beer.
“If you are still here when there is no beer, and they haven’t had to haul you away, you ought to get a medal for being a survivor of the annual Aber Day,” Quist quoted, grinning.
In 1978, Quist remembered one Aber Day when M2WB played. The kegger was up Miller Creek at the K-O Rodeo Grounds with 13,000 people attending.
“There was a solid mass of humanity,” he said, and the adrenaline at the event was amazing.
With M2WB playing at Sacajawea Park, “it seems like summer,” Allyn Cass said.
Attending the University of Montana during the Aber Day years, Cal Simshaw remembered attending M2WB concerts 10 or 12 times around the state.
A lady told her niece, “This is my music.”
Other people remembered standing in the beer line or dancing in the rodeo arena, and everybody got a misty look.
Then and now, people danced, swayed, clapped and enjoyed themselves in the summer twilight.
