Judge Rhodes rocking out.
From outward appearances, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes looks pretty straight-laced.
But guess what? Rhodes, who is overseeing Detroit's bankruptcy, plays rhythm guitar in a rock n' roll band called "The Indubitable Equivalents," The Detroit News reports.
Ok, it may not be coolest band around. But they do play rock music. The group is comprised of folks with links to the bankruptcy world.
The band's 29-song set list is packed with tunes to go broke to, Robert Snell writes:
There’s “Gimme Some Lovin’” for impaired creditors and “Keep Your Hands to Yourself,” for secured creditors. For debtors: “Running on Empty.”
“That’s your bankruptcy theme song,” sideman Ted Gavin tells The News. “We’ll be playing that.” Gavin is a turnaround expert from suburban Philadelphia.
The band of about a dozen off-hours rockers who work in the bankruptcy world have a two-hour gig tonight at the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Northeast Bankruptcy Conferenceat Stowe Mountain Lodge in Vermont, one year and a day after Detroit filed bankruptcy. The gig gives Rhodes, one of the band’s rhythm guitar players, a break from the stress and spotlight of the biggest municipal bankruptcy case in U.S. history, and a chance to be normal, not “Your Honor.”
His bio from the band's website reads:
Steve's father was an accomplished classical guitarist and so at age 15, Steve just could not resist the temptation to pick up his guitar and try it out. Of course, in the 60's, folk and rock interested him much more than classical, so dad taught him a few chords and finger-picking techniques. Almost immediately, Steve was serenading his future wife, Kathy, with such classics as "Sound of Silence," "Eve of Destruction," "Sloop John B." and many others that just made her heart flutter... Well, in what seemed like only a nanosecond later, Steve was playing at his daughter Marjie's Bat Mitzvah and then his daughter Sara's wedding. By then Steve had graduated from to a Martin steel string, which is the guitar he used to break into the Indubies. He now hammers on a Tayor T5, a very sweet instrument, more suited to playing 3 straight hours, anytime of the day or night. In the meantime, "Grandpa" Steve has begun to work his guitar magic on his granddaughter, Ava, with totally rapt results... Steve is the chief bankruptcy judge in Detroit and vice president of research for the ABI.
