Worshipful Brother Dave McNeil and Brother Jeff Mosley are 'Max Thrust'


Brother Jeff Mosley of Troy Lodge #34, lead guitarist for Max Thrust





Worshipful Brother Dave McNeil, twice Past Master of Troy Lodge #34 and lead singer for 'Max Thrust'


I have mentioned the band 'Max Thrust' on this blog a number of times before. 'Max Thrust' is a classic rock cover band that performs in and around the area of 'Lake St. Louis' where I live. The lead singer of the band is Worshipful Brother Dave McNeil, who just happens to be my next door neighbor. He also started up the Troy chapter of DeMolay that I am currently the chairman of. His two sons, Kyle and and Sean, have been the previous two Master Councilors of the chapter in fact.

The funny thing is that I have known Dave for a number of years now but I knew him personally for several years before I became a Master Mason. I never knew he was, himself, a Mason and only found out when I showed up at an installation of officers at Troy Lodge and saw him there. That is how I learned about DeMolay and got my own son involved.

Where I originally knew Dave from is his band Max Thrust. Max Thrust started as a kind of garage band among some laid off airline pilots from TWA. I originally heard them playing quite loudly inside of Brother Jeff Mosley's garage. Max Thrust plays at a number of community events and is now so popular that they have a regular and steady set of bookings. Max Thrust also helps sponsor the Poker Run of the Lake Saint Louis Commodores which is a charitable group within the community; an event I look forward to every year.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a performance of Max Thrust at a local nightclub called 'Maggie Malones'. This is the same week I got my new digital DVD camcorder so I was optimistic about recording the band. Unfortunately the volume was so loud that it entirely over saturated the highly sensitive microphone; designed to pick up quiet conversations from a distance. Also, since this was the first time I used the camcorder, I didn't realize there was a 'night-mode' button that dramatically improves the quality of the image.

This past Tuesday I went to 'The Train wreck Saloon' at Westport Plaza for Karaoke night. My friend David Whatley was there with his girlfriend Emma. Emma is a remarkably talented singer and performed a number of incredible songs that I recorded. I plan to scan a couple of the songs in and upload them to YouTube this weekend. This time I realized I had a 'night mode' on the camera and the recordings turned out great; though I still have not figured out how to lower the gain on the microphone.

The lead guitarist in Max Thrust is a newly raised Master Mason and, also, member of Troy Lodge #34. He has a lovely wife, Kelly, and I have known both of them for years. Interestingly neither myself nor Dave, the lead singer in the band, submitted Jeff's petition. Instead it was through someone else he worked with, that neither of us knew at the time. His first line signer was Brother Ken Birch, a remarkable ritualist who managed to deliver the entire first degree lecture after he had been a Master Mason for barely three months.

Speaking of Freemasonry, I now have barely four weeks until I will become a Worshipful Master for the first time. I need to start adding a lot of action items to my calendar. I have to get my officers selected and notified, set up a caterer for the meal, and send out invitations. I am very honored that my mentor Right Worshipful Brother Russ Tinker, 33rd degree Scottish Rite Mason, will be performing my installation on September 15th at 1pm.

On Saturday I will be attending the Masonic Youth Day hosted by the Grand Lodge in Columbia Missouri with my son and the rest of the chapter. Afterwards I plan to have dinner and spend the evening with my mother and father in Jefferson City Missouri.

I hope you enjoy the short video clip of my favorite band. And I hope you look forward to some excellent Karaoke shorts I will upload soon. As long as YouTube is stupid enough to give me gigabytes of free bandwidth I am quite happy to start uploading digital video shorts to my blog to help augment my poor excuse for a memory.

My man purse (or Murse if you will) is getting quite heavy what with the camcorder, digital camera, GPS, Archos, books, papers, rituals, and many other items I cram into it. Nevertheless, it is nice to always feel prepared for whatever comes up at any time.




Max Thrust performing at Maggie Malones

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