In the last week, I played 4 gigs with 4 bands:
Good Life Band, Red Car Brewery, Torrance. Ecclectic pop (a term I had to come up with when a confused patron asked exactly what kind of music we were playing!) Rhumbas, rock, calaypso, bossa novas, ska, straight ballads... ecclectic indeed!
Rip Masters, Joe's Great American Bar & Grill, Burbank. Roots rock, country, rockabilly. I've worked with him since 1981.
Karling Abbeygate, the Pike Bar & Grill (owned by the ex-Social Distortion drummer who apparently kept his money!) A Brit with a penchant for old country and Americana. Lots of uptempo country swing and shuffles. I started working with her in early 2009.
Thursday I hosted at the Crest Jam, Torance, with Brian Sisson, a jazzy/rock guitarist who may play Zappa, Miles Davis, Caravan (without the drum solo,) I Got You Babe, Mr. Soul inna ska style, You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party as a swingy, sneaky-blues shuffle. I absolutely never know what to expect, but there's also no pressure to get everything/anything exactly the way he wants it, because he's having the most fun of all. As a result, it turns out sounding great... mostly.
Also rehearsed with Idle Hands, an electric blues & rock band I joined in 2005.
It's nice to be busy and have some variety, too.
I also work with:
Rough Cut, a tribute to Neil Diamond. Don't laugh, this is actually great fun and the band - 10 members in all - is quite great. The singer sings like Neil and bears a strong resemblance. We also perform the studio versions of Diamond's hits, which makes us somewhat unique among the other acts out there. We're still in the forming stages with only 2 gigs under our belt, and shooting for the showrooms at the local casinos and maybe Vegas.
Rolling Clones/Silver Beat, sixties/seventies cover band. It's fun playing Animals, Herman's Hermits, Three Dog Night, Monkees, Beatles, Stones, etc. I love getting paid to play music I love!
And I get calls to play with a handful of other bands playing classic rock & pop, instrumentals with a bit of Hawaiian, blues, etc. And of course my primary gig with Al involves playing a lot of styles at the theater-shed level.
Bermuda