bingo!
Preservation Hall, New Orleans, LA
April 24, 2005

story by Ritchie Champagne
photos
by Ritchie Champagne
bingo 1. a game of chance played with cards having numbered squares corresponding to numbered balls drawn at random and won by covering five squares in a row 2. a canine’s name-o 3. a unique band of musicians and maniacs that could only be spawned in New Orleans

For the last six years, Clint Maedgen has been delivering food via bicycle to the hungry citizens of the French Quarter. It was during these delivery runs that he began to compose songs in his head about the city he loved and its people. The problem was that these new songs were inappropriate for Liquidrone, the rather unique rock band that he fronted. Liquidrone was known for their loud and dynamic songs and these new tunes were laid back, country songs, waltzes, you name it. Maedgen acquired an old manual pump organ and a batch of old bingo cards and a concept was born. Bingo! consisted of Maedgen on keyboards, saxophone, acoustic guitar, flute, and whatever was handy at the time, Brynn Savage on violin, Steve Calandra on upright bass, and Liquidrone drummer Ryan Farris on skins.

bingo!
Taking up residence in the back room of Fiorella’s, the restaurant Maedgen delivered food for, Bingo! delivered music and homemade movies between rounds of bingo to a faithful crowd every Thursday night for years. Eventually, Bingo! petered out and Savage left town, leaving Maedgen to concentrate on Liquidrone once more.
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