There were no fireworks. No balloons or streamers either. Just a message. A short one at that.
“Do you want to open for The Guess Who?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
That was it. That’s all there was to the moment when local singer/songwriter Adrian Niles agreed to perform at the Capitol Theatre on April 27. The Guess Who first hit the American music scene in the late 1960s as a Canadian band with hits like “American Woman” and “These Eyes, and now a five-person version is traveling the nation.
“Yup. That’s the story,” recalled Niles. “It was really that quick because who would say no to that question?
“It’s a great opportunity, and I’m really looking forward to playing on the Capitol stage again. That’s a special stage for me,” he said. “I’ve played on it a couple of times, and so did my dad. He was on that stage a lot. So, yeah, it’s going to be very cool.”
Niles was the band leader of “Cadillacs,” one of several bands that performed at the Capitol during the community show on September 23, 2009, just a few months after the venue was purchased by the Wheeling Convention & Visitors Bureau. Since then, he performed in another show nearly 10 years ago when eight local bands presented an evening of live and local music.
“I wish we would have a better band name than ‘Cadillacs’ that night,” he said with a smirk. “But I remember, the theatre was packed and when that curtain opened, the whole weight of everything hit me and my knees started shaking. For a moment, I really didn’t know if I was going to fall over.
“It really was that crazy,” Niles remembered. “And I think we played three songs, and it was great. Something to remember forever. There’s so much history on that stage. It’s kind of intimidating at first, but we’re so lucky to have such a venue.”
Niles says such things because he truly believes the residents of the Upper Ohio Valley have a gruesome habit of taking amenities like the Capitol Theatre for granted.
“The history of this area is really incredible and look at what we have here now thanks to the people who were here before us. This historic theatre is just one of those things, and the people in charge through the years have brought in bands that bring in people like John Mellencamp, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, and so many more.
“And in late April, The Guess Who,” Niles continued. “I’m really glad to see a lot more shows at the Capitol have been coming in the past couple years. It’s a big deal to Wheeling and to music fans in this area.”
The Shadyside native has played throughout the Upper Ohio Valley for nearly 30 years, and he’s been featured a few times during the Heritage Blues Fest at Heritage Port, as well. Niles has performed on local radio shows a number of times, too, and he maintains the “Adrian Niles Internet Radio” station that streams his original roots rock.
The Guess Who show is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. with The Adrian Niles Trio taking the theatre’s original stage, but, as of this week, he has no idea how many songs he’ll perform or how much time has been allotted for his performance.
“We’ll play until they kick us off,” Niles said with a chuckle. “But I really don’t know. I can play for 10 minutes or for two hours. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m just honored I was asked. I know they’ll tell me the particulars when we get there, or someone will call before.
“And I don’t know what songs we’ll play yet because we have more than a month until the show,” he added. “I just can’t wait to get back up there and play the theatre again.”
