dudes with instruments, that dude and those guys, trepidation
went to the ridglea theater to see the latest batch of rock camp kidzzz get their rawk on: 14 students ages 9-16, making up three bands that'd been practicing four hours a day, five days a week for the past two weeks under the tutelage of camp instructors lee allen, dave karnes, chris white, and bryce harp in preparation for this event. the results were pert darn impressive: i know lotsa _adult_ musos who'd a had trouble putting together a half-hour set under that kinda time constraint. they even made flyers to promote their show -- a good lesson for aspiring musos: in the real world, marketing 'n' promo are as important as learnin' yr axe and writin' da toons if you wanna make it from the rec room to (at least) the wreck room. besides the moms, dads, siblings 'n' schoolmates, the fair-sized (esp. for a sat'day arvo) crowd included wreck bartender / jam godfather / gideons frontguy carl pack, muso marcus lawyer 'n' his sweetie edjumikator / activist jen cooper, and fred's owner jennifer chandler.
the li'l bit contingent, who dubbed themselves "dudes with instruments" (unfortunate acronym, that) were trained by fwisd itinerant strings teacher, longtime jubilee theatre pit-band mainstay, and multi-instrumental jazz scene fixture chris white. the three diminutive gtrists were dwarfed by their full-size stratocasters, but did a credible job, anchored by a solid riddim section (including a singing drummer) of slightly older players (proving the old adage that if the engine room is tight, you can put anything you want on top). "when _i_ was 9 yrs old, i didn't even know how many strings there were on a gtr," the jam-meister quipped afterward. the tiny toonmeisters were only seemingly defeated by the spectre of chuck berry, proving that the I-IV-V progression ain't necessarily common knowledge anymore. (next time get bryce to show 'em the blues boxes on gtr.)
tops in stagecraft (starting with the thematic costuming -- varicolored jumpsuits -- worn by the three principals) were "that dude and those guys," a pop-rock juggernaut trained by berklee grad / jazz 'n' sunward stickman dave karnes. opening with queen's "fat bottomed girls" (and three-part harmonies!), they played an energetic and rawkin' set, with a pint-sized dynamo of a frontman who was as much of a natural performer as he's prolly the bane of his middle school teachers' existence: a classic smartass in a tradition that goes all the way back to the coasters' carl gardner from the daze before his parents were prolly thought of (or at least were wearing clothes w/safety pins in 'em, pre-punk). there was a real band dynamic between him, the mohawked lead gtrist and the bassplayer. high points o' the set included judas priest "breaking the law" and especially tenacious d's "tribute," which gave the band's somewhat diffident second gtrist a chance to shine on sit-down acoustic. and the closing "hey jude" (with the frontkid on keys -- the next justin pate?) had all the moms 'n' dads sangin' along.
because "the bassplayer quit in the middle of the tour," rock camp-meister lee wound up playin' bass 'n' vocalizin' with the last band, "trepidation," and you could see him working his ass off to keep up with these young fireballs, whose lineup featured three, count 'em, _three_ shredaholic gtrists, on toons like pantera's "cowboys from hell" (dime being only the latest martyr o' the gtr a la jimi, randy, and srv). like every great teacher, tho, he took pains to put himself in the background, hiding from the audience behind a speaker during the opening instrumental "highway to hell" and anytime he wasn't sangin'. a couple of the players (gtrist rowdy carter and drummer chris white -- yeah, the son of _that_ chris white) were familiar faces from previous rock camp performances, and it was impressive to see how much they've gained in chops 'n' confidence in a little over a yr. when trepidation essayed led zep "dazed and confused," i couldn't help thinking to myself, "damn, they play this toon (and follow lee's direction) better 'n the wednesday night jamcats do half the time." the already-high intensity kicked up another level when the singer, gtrist and bassist from that dude and those guys took the stage to rap over trepidation's jams.
overall, as entertaining a show as i've seen this yr from all three bands. they came. they rawked. they put their feet on the monitors.
rock camp starts another session on monday. interested rockers should go to rockcampusa.com to register.
oh, btw -- my sweetie took some pics.
the li'l bit contingent, who dubbed themselves "dudes with instruments" (unfortunate acronym, that) were trained by fwisd itinerant strings teacher, longtime jubilee theatre pit-band mainstay, and multi-instrumental jazz scene fixture chris white. the three diminutive gtrists were dwarfed by their full-size stratocasters, but did a credible job, anchored by a solid riddim section (including a singing drummer) of slightly older players (proving the old adage that if the engine room is tight, you can put anything you want on top). "when _i_ was 9 yrs old, i didn't even know how many strings there were on a gtr," the jam-meister quipped afterward. the tiny toonmeisters were only seemingly defeated by the spectre of chuck berry, proving that the I-IV-V progression ain't necessarily common knowledge anymore. (next time get bryce to show 'em the blues boxes on gtr.)
tops in stagecraft (starting with the thematic costuming -- varicolored jumpsuits -- worn by the three principals) were "that dude and those guys," a pop-rock juggernaut trained by berklee grad / jazz 'n' sunward stickman dave karnes. opening with queen's "fat bottomed girls" (and three-part harmonies!), they played an energetic and rawkin' set, with a pint-sized dynamo of a frontman who was as much of a natural performer as he's prolly the bane of his middle school teachers' existence: a classic smartass in a tradition that goes all the way back to the coasters' carl gardner from the daze before his parents were prolly thought of (or at least were wearing clothes w/safety pins in 'em, pre-punk). there was a real band dynamic between him, the mohawked lead gtrist and the bassplayer. high points o' the set included judas priest "breaking the law" and especially tenacious d's "tribute," which gave the band's somewhat diffident second gtrist a chance to shine on sit-down acoustic. and the closing "hey jude" (with the frontkid on keys -- the next justin pate?) had all the moms 'n' dads sangin' along.
because "the bassplayer quit in the middle of the tour," rock camp-meister lee wound up playin' bass 'n' vocalizin' with the last band, "trepidation," and you could see him working his ass off to keep up with these young fireballs, whose lineup featured three, count 'em, _three_ shredaholic gtrists, on toons like pantera's "cowboys from hell" (dime being only the latest martyr o' the gtr a la jimi, randy, and srv). like every great teacher, tho, he took pains to put himself in the background, hiding from the audience behind a speaker during the opening instrumental "highway to hell" and anytime he wasn't sangin'. a couple of the players (gtrist rowdy carter and drummer chris white -- yeah, the son of _that_ chris white) were familiar faces from previous rock camp performances, and it was impressive to see how much they've gained in chops 'n' confidence in a little over a yr. when trepidation essayed led zep "dazed and confused," i couldn't help thinking to myself, "damn, they play this toon (and follow lee's direction) better 'n the wednesday night jamcats do half the time." the already-high intensity kicked up another level when the singer, gtrist and bassist from that dude and those guys took the stage to rap over trepidation's jams.
overall, as entertaining a show as i've seen this yr from all three bands. they came. they rawked. they put their feet on the monitors.
rock camp starts another session on monday. interested rockers should go to rockcampusa.com to register.
oh, btw -- my sweetie took some pics.
posted by stashdauber at 7:26 AM
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