Bad Larrys play GPDM benefit

The Bad Larrys music duo played at Saturday night’s Great Plains Dinosaur Museum benefit at the Tin Cup in Malta on a night featuring great food, music and merriment.

The evening started with a dinner of lasagna, corn, and French bread, or if you preferred you could order off the menu. I believe about 75 people came for dinner and another 75 people just came for the music! The music started at 7 p.m. The Bad Larrys are two musicians from Kalispell area who play a myriad of different styles and genre. Chris Arndt is accomplished on many different bass stringed instruments which are explained as he picks them up to play. Jay Aiken is the lead singer and the business manager plus he plays several different styles of guitars.

When I entered the Tin Cup venue, I saw immediately a beautiful bouquet of flowers with many old bones nestled in amongst the flowers and greenery! Lo and behold! It was from a longtime supporter of the GPDM, Sue Frary! Mardy Demarais made the arrangement! Very creative! Thank you, Sue!

The audience paid a $10 cover charge for the music as they streamed through the door. A board raffle was also available for ¼ 4H beef awarded from the Triangle Telephone to a nonprofit and second prize $100 dino bucks. Each square was $10. We had 170 squares and most of them were sold!

The first set of music was one hour long. Then the music took a 15 minute break when we threw a quarter at the board on the floor to award the two prizes! Jackie Sorlie won the beef and Char Wasson won the 100 dino bucks! Congratulations ladies!

The whole time guest waiters were serving drinks, food, and chatting with the ladies! David Boothe, Vince Schmoeckel, Danny Lundstrom, Lecil Demarais, and Tony Kindle had their job cut out for them running back and forth and making sure they didn’t spill or lose their customer!

The second musical set was 45 minutes and the third also 45 minutes. So the music kept on rolling and the guys only sang one song twice!

The music wrapped up about 11.

One observation I made is that most the people who came for dinner were older and many left at 8 or 8:30 p.m. between the sets. The younger people came about 8 p.m., never sat down in the dining room but stood in the bar visiting and listening. All of the people were great supporters of the GPDM which made my heart happy! This was a wonderful success!