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Rocked Otts
June 2nd, 2007
The Deck Band returned to Ott's Tavern on the Green
on the first lively Saturday in June. Kicking off the first
of four sets just prior to 9:30, the band was in good
form and a good time (we hope) was had by all. It was
probably the best sound situation the band had ever
played with, with Steve Jr able to use Sneakin'
Around's top gear. Four Carvin speakers, EV monitors,
and 2500 Watts of power. Zero feedback, a clean setup,
and a great night overall.
Many thanks to endless people who shared the night
with us, starting with the lovely Irene Lambrou who sat
in for Wild Nights with TC, and performed Bobby
Maghee, Crazy on You, and Blondie's One Way or
Another.
Big Mike was back at Ott's with harmonica in hand, and
he filled the middle of Brown Sugar, while also
returning to join TC in the Romantics What I Like
About You. All good stuff.
For those that missed the night, here's what was played.
First Set: Learning to Fly, Take it Easy, Mrs. Robinson,
The Middle, Lady, Inside Out, Who Says You Can't Go
Home, Jet Airliner, Message in a Bottle, Interstate Love
Song, Breakup Song. Second Set: Brown eyed girl,
Wild night (With Irene), Me & Bobby Magee, (Irene),
Crazy on You (Irene), Hotel California, What I Got,
Behind Blue Eyes, Steady as she goes, One Way or
Another (Irene), Keep on Rockin. Third Set: Want You
to Want Me, Brown Sugar (Mike), Secret Agent Man,
Jenny (867-5309), Vertigo, Don't Fear (the Reaper), What
I like About You, Talking in Your Sleep, White Wedding
(dedicated to bachlorette party lady), I Saw Her
Standing There. Fourth Set: Beverly Hills (Louie
Louie), Two Tickets to Paradise, Higher Ground, Just
What I Needed, Come Out and Play, Little Miss
Kryptonte, Low, One. Encore: Come As You Are, and a
mystery ending...
TC wanted to thank his Sicklerville Psycho Soccer
teammate Pat Moughan, and his friends who helped
make Linda and her bachlorette party one to
remember. A fine performance with a double lap dance
on "White Wedding." Harmonica Mike and his sound on
"Brown Sugar." A very special thanks to Justine who
always rounds out our stage with her lovely moves.
Kev wanted to mention a thanks to Irene, soundman
Steve, Maria and John of Ott's, and as always, the
patrons of Ott's.
Whitey's special thanks to Fredo and Becky Kurtz, new
fan Melissa, Tank Sherman, Chipper, Justine and Mike,
Tina's crew, and Steve for great sound.
Check out our Blog for some insider thoughts of the
evening.
Next gig, Trios Tavern on June 16th in Williamstown.
Back to the Spot
Friday April 18th, 2007
Friday night The Deck Band joined Heather and her
crew at the Little Spot for three sets of music and fun.
After a pleasant setup, albeit a bit cramped with the
new pool table jammed in the corner, the band was
ready to roll.
From the get go, our sound was a problem. With our
speakers forced further up front and Whitey and JR
behind them, hearing the music was difficult. TC said
the sound was pretty good from his vantage point,
while several fans said the guitar and vocals were a bit
low.
After a lackluster start in set one, the band ended a few
songs early to work out those issues, and an acoustic
guitar problem as well.
The second set kicked off where the first ended, with a
nice rendition of Happy Birthday for a bar patron, sang
by several bar patrons. Johnny Be Good was
scheduled to be launched, but with guitar volume still
issues, was bypassed for our next show. Message in a
Bottle was really close to being nixed too, but Whitey
threw caution to the wind and persevered. It got nice
reviews. From the back of the stage, Secret Agent
Man, Mrs. Robinson, Two Tickets to Paradise, White
Wedding all sounded okay, while The Middle may have
been the best of the second pack.
The third set kicked off with the Beatle’s Saw Her
Standing There, a song JR thought went well. Other
strong tunes from that set included Who Says You Canâ
€™t Go Home and Brown Sugar. Both were well
played, and well received.
Overall, the band felt like it wasn’t nearly their best
performance and will work to improve on our sound
issues. The attitude is and always will be, to focus on
the good things each time out, and recognize our faults
and work to improve them at subsequent practices.
Hey, if we didn’t make any mistakes, we wouldnâ
€™t learn anything!
Thanks to Heather and the Little Spot clientele. We
heard you guys had a good time, and that’s really
all that matters. Also a special thanks to Fredo Kurtz
who found two babysitters and drove over 40 miles
from Levittown, PA.
Back to work on Tuesday night at Carey’s Pub!
Viva La Trio!
April 29th, 2007
Not sure exactly what that means, but it felt like it fit. On
Saturday April 28th The Deck Band rolled into a new
establishment, just after a hundred or so fine folks rolled out
as the last stop of a day-long South Jersey pub crawl. That
resulted in a somewhat later than anticipated kick off, but the
boys are getting pretty good at the quick set up, and off they
rolled.
The first of four sets at Trio’s Tavern in Williamstown got
the mood set. Another great crowd supported TC, JR, Kev,
and Whitey, and they were in the mood to party. Too many
to name, but just know without your pearly whites we’d
never leave the basement.
Hopefully Next Time…
Irene Lambrou was scheduled to sing with the band during
the 2nd set on Saturday night, but was a little under the
weather with laryngitis. We wish her a speedy recovery and
are looking forward to hooking up next time out (hooking up
in the ‘gathering’ sense, not the other way- not that
there’s anything wrong with that!).
Hope all is well…
We also hope Steve from Sneakin’ Around is well. He
was penciled in to do sound, but something must have come
up. Phone calls on Friday and Saturday went unreturned,
which isn’t the norm for him. Plan B was enacted, with
Whitey adjusting levels with TC’s guidance. Seemed to
work out well, and in case nobody noticed, the entire first set
was played without one of the two PA speakers plugged in.
How about dat!?
Also, props go out to TC for his first public keyboard work
(working the Korg keys on Bon Jovi’s Who Says you
Can’t Go Home, and The Cars Just What I Needed).
How about them lights?! A second set of props to TC for
supplying a cool little lighting rack, which added to the
evening’s ambience.
As long as the props are flying around, here’s some
more…
• Kev played flawlessly as per usual. Gets extra props for
keeping his volume level at the pre-described number…
• Props to Donny for offering up his bass rig too.
Sounded great!...
• Props to JR for not only playing his new axe, but also in
incorporating a new sound board too. Tough enough to get
the feel for a new guitar, but he completely changed his rig
less then a week before the gig. Schweeeeettttt (also, broke
only one string all night, unsure of how many picks lost their
lives however).
• Props to Deck Fan John for sitting in on drums during
Tommy Tu Tone’s Jenny, great job in overcoming the
nerves and letting it all hang out.
• Props to Whitey for dropping zero sticks on Saturday
night. Always good when that happens, when he doesn’t
break anything, and of course when nobody loses an eye…
• Props to the whole crew for their Apollo 13 moment
during Wrap It Up. Not to give away the ending, but it was
deemed a ‘successful failure’. Also, good job in
completely re-arranging the 2nd set pretty much on the fly, to
conquer the changing landscape.
• Last but not least, props to Joe Trio for having us at his
place, before ever hearing what we play or how we played it.
He sounded pleased at the end of the night, so who knows,
maybe we will see you all at the Trio Tavern again at some
point this summer!
So there you have it. The 2nd Deck Band night out during
the 2007 Tour deemed a success. Thanks again to all that
came out, hope to see you again on Friday night, May 18th
at the Little Spot Tavern in Somerdale, NJ.
A Great Start to 2007!
Jaunary 19th, 2007
In November Johnny was approached by the folks at Ott's,
about a gig at their Washington Township establishment.
Ott's has been home to some of South Jersey, and the
Delaware Valley's best bands. The Deck Band had only been
together in the current arrangement since August. You can
imagine the pressure the guys placed on themselves.
For what we considered to be our biggest break, we went
right to work with single and double weekly practices to be
ready. Three sets seemed like a million miles away, but
each week we plodded away, added new stuff, and always
had a great time in doing so. All throughout, JR repeated
"Let's just go out and do our best, we'll be fine".
The good news of course is that it never seems like work,
and is still one of the weekly highlights we all share. The
weeks grew shorter, the holidays came and went, and before
we knew it we were staring at what could be a great night, or
a not so great night.
After talking to lots of established bands, one message was
constant. You will never be completely ready. When
opportunity knocks, you'd better answer. Go for it.
Then The Deck Band unleashed the secret weapon. YOU!
Our friends and family. We must say, you get a bunch of the
Deck Heads in one room, play some loud tunes, pass around
a few tambourines, sprinkle in a little booze and you've got a
full blown party. Whitey even contemplated calling 2007 the
"Party in a box" tour. Nonetheless, we knew we could pull off
this venue if we could just get our secret weapons all out on
the same night. It worked!
Many thanks to the Tweed Farmers crew, The Medford
Teaching Posse, all the Carey Friends and Family, the ex-
folks from Philly Park, PhillyPurge.com for the T-shirts (cool
site by the way), JR's boys, the Whitey's Pub Hall of Famers,
and everyone else that didn't leave! Special thanks to our
sound guy Steve as well.
Hope to see you all soon. We will keep working to bring out
the best of us all for next time out!
June 2nd, 2007
The Deck Band returned to Ott's Tavern on the Green
on the first lively Saturday in June. Kicking off the first
of four sets just prior to 9:30, the band was in good
form and a good time (we hope) was had by all. It was
probably the best sound situation the band had ever
played with, with Steve Jr able to use Sneakin'
Around's top gear. Four Carvin speakers, EV monitors,
and 2500 Watts of power. Zero feedback, a clean setup,
and a great night overall.
Many thanks to endless people who shared the night
with us, starting with the lovely Irene Lambrou who sat
in for Wild Nights with TC, and performed Bobby
Maghee, Crazy on You, and Blondie's One Way or
Another.
Big Mike was back at Ott's with harmonica in hand, and
he filled the middle of Brown Sugar, while also
returning to join TC in the Romantics What I Like
About You. All good stuff.
For those that missed the night, here's what was played.
First Set: Learning to Fly, Take it Easy, Mrs. Robinson,
The Middle, Lady, Inside Out, Who Says You Can't Go
Home, Jet Airliner, Message in a Bottle, Interstate Love
Song, Breakup Song. Second Set: Brown eyed girl,
Wild night (With Irene), Me & Bobby Magee, (Irene),
Crazy on You (Irene), Hotel California, What I Got,
Behind Blue Eyes, Steady as she goes, One Way or
Another (Irene), Keep on Rockin. Third Set: Want You
to Want Me, Brown Sugar (Mike), Secret Agent Man,
Jenny (867-5309), Vertigo, Don't Fear (the Reaper), What
I like About You, Talking in Your Sleep, White Wedding
(dedicated to bachlorette party lady), I Saw Her
Standing There. Fourth Set: Beverly Hills (Louie
Louie), Two Tickets to Paradise, Higher Ground, Just
What I Needed, Come Out and Play, Little Miss
Kryptonte, Low, One. Encore: Come As You Are, and a
mystery ending...
TC wanted to thank his Sicklerville Psycho Soccer
teammate Pat Moughan, and his friends who helped
make Linda and her bachlorette party one to
remember. A fine performance with a double lap dance
on "White Wedding." Harmonica Mike and his sound on
"Brown Sugar." A very special thanks to Justine who
always rounds out our stage with her lovely moves.
Kev wanted to mention a thanks to Irene, soundman
Steve, Maria and John of Ott's, and as always, the
patrons of Ott's.
Whitey's special thanks to Fredo and Becky Kurtz, new
fan Melissa, Tank Sherman, Chipper, Justine and Mike,
Tina's crew, and Steve for great sound.
Check out our Blog for some insider thoughts of the
evening.
Next gig, Trios Tavern on June 16th in Williamstown.
Back to the Spot
Friday April 18th, 2007
Friday night The Deck Band joined Heather and her
crew at the Little Spot for three sets of music and fun.
After a pleasant setup, albeit a bit cramped with the
new pool table jammed in the corner, the band was
ready to roll.
From the get go, our sound was a problem. With our
speakers forced further up front and Whitey and JR
behind them, hearing the music was difficult. TC said
the sound was pretty good from his vantage point,
while several fans said the guitar and vocals were a bit
low.
After a lackluster start in set one, the band ended a few
songs early to work out those issues, and an acoustic
guitar problem as well.
The second set kicked off where the first ended, with a
nice rendition of Happy Birthday for a bar patron, sang
by several bar patrons. Johnny Be Good was
scheduled to be launched, but with guitar volume still
issues, was bypassed for our next show. Message in a
Bottle was really close to being nixed too, but Whitey
threw caution to the wind and persevered. It got nice
reviews. From the back of the stage, Secret Agent
Man, Mrs. Robinson, Two Tickets to Paradise, White
Wedding all sounded okay, while The Middle may have
been the best of the second pack.
The third set kicked off with the Beatle’s Saw Her
Standing There, a song JR thought went well. Other
strong tunes from that set included Who Says You Canâ
€™t Go Home and Brown Sugar. Both were well
played, and well received.
Overall, the band felt like it wasn’t nearly their best
performance and will work to improve on our sound
issues. The attitude is and always will be, to focus on
the good things each time out, and recognize our faults
and work to improve them at subsequent practices.
Hey, if we didn’t make any mistakes, we wouldnâ
€™t learn anything!
Thanks to Heather and the Little Spot clientele. We
heard you guys had a good time, and that’s really
all that matters. Also a special thanks to Fredo Kurtz
who found two babysitters and drove over 40 miles
from Levittown, PA.
Back to work on Tuesday night at Carey’s Pub!
Viva La Trio!
April 29th, 2007
Not sure exactly what that means, but it felt like it fit. On
Saturday April 28th The Deck Band rolled into a new
establishment, just after a hundred or so fine folks rolled out
as the last stop of a day-long South Jersey pub crawl. That
resulted in a somewhat later than anticipated kick off, but the
boys are getting pretty good at the quick set up, and off they
rolled.
The first of four sets at Trio’s Tavern in Williamstown got
the mood set. Another great crowd supported TC, JR, Kev,
and Whitey, and they were in the mood to party. Too many
to name, but just know without your pearly whites we’d
never leave the basement.
Hopefully Next Time…
Irene Lambrou was scheduled to sing with the band during
the 2nd set on Saturday night, but was a little under the
weather with laryngitis. We wish her a speedy recovery and
are looking forward to hooking up next time out (hooking up
in the ‘gathering’ sense, not the other way- not that
there’s anything wrong with that!).
Hope all is well…
We also hope Steve from Sneakin’ Around is well. He
was penciled in to do sound, but something must have come
up. Phone calls on Friday and Saturday went unreturned,
which isn’t the norm for him. Plan B was enacted, with
Whitey adjusting levels with TC’s guidance. Seemed to
work out well, and in case nobody noticed, the entire first set
was played without one of the two PA speakers plugged in.
How about dat!?
Also, props go out to TC for his first public keyboard work
(working the Korg keys on Bon Jovi’s Who Says you
Can’t Go Home, and The Cars Just What I Needed).
How about them lights?! A second set of props to TC for
supplying a cool little lighting rack, which added to the
evening’s ambience.
As long as the props are flying around, here’s some
more…
• Kev played flawlessly as per usual. Gets extra props for
keeping his volume level at the pre-described number…
• Props to Donny for offering up his bass rig too.
Sounded great!...
• Props to JR for not only playing his new axe, but also in
incorporating a new sound board too. Tough enough to get
the feel for a new guitar, but he completely changed his rig
less then a week before the gig. Schweeeeettttt (also, broke
only one string all night, unsure of how many picks lost their
lives however).
• Props to Deck Fan John for sitting in on drums during
Tommy Tu Tone’s Jenny, great job in overcoming the
nerves and letting it all hang out.
• Props to Whitey for dropping zero sticks on Saturday
night. Always good when that happens, when he doesn’t
break anything, and of course when nobody loses an eye…
• Props to the whole crew for their Apollo 13 moment
during Wrap It Up. Not to give away the ending, but it was
deemed a ‘successful failure’. Also, good job in
completely re-arranging the 2nd set pretty much on the fly, to
conquer the changing landscape.
• Last but not least, props to Joe Trio for having us at his
place, before ever hearing what we play or how we played it.
He sounded pleased at the end of the night, so who knows,
maybe we will see you all at the Trio Tavern again at some
point this summer!
So there you have it. The 2nd Deck Band night out during
the 2007 Tour deemed a success. Thanks again to all that
came out, hope to see you again on Friday night, May 18th
at the Little Spot Tavern in Somerdale, NJ.
A Great Start to 2007!
Jaunary 19th, 2007
In November Johnny was approached by the folks at Ott's,
about a gig at their Washington Township establishment.
Ott's has been home to some of South Jersey, and the
Delaware Valley's best bands. The Deck Band had only been
together in the current arrangement since August. You can
imagine the pressure the guys placed on themselves.
For what we considered to be our biggest break, we went
right to work with single and double weekly practices to be
ready. Three sets seemed like a million miles away, but
each week we plodded away, added new stuff, and always
had a great time in doing so. All throughout, JR repeated
"Let's just go out and do our best, we'll be fine".
The good news of course is that it never seems like work,
and is still one of the weekly highlights we all share. The
weeks grew shorter, the holidays came and went, and before
we knew it we were staring at what could be a great night, or
a not so great night.
After talking to lots of established bands, one message was
constant. You will never be completely ready. When
opportunity knocks, you'd better answer. Go for it.
Then The Deck Band unleashed the secret weapon. YOU!
Our friends and family. We must say, you get a bunch of the
Deck Heads in one room, play some loud tunes, pass around
a few tambourines, sprinkle in a little booze and you've got a
full blown party. Whitey even contemplated calling 2007 the
"Party in a box" tour. Nonetheless, we knew we could pull off
this venue if we could just get our secret weapons all out on
the same night. It worked!
Many thanks to the Tweed Farmers crew, The Medford
Teaching Posse, all the Carey Friends and Family, the ex-
folks from Philly Park, PhillyPurge.com for the T-shirts (cool
site by the way), JR's boys, the Whitey's Pub Hall of Famers,
and everyone else that didn't leave! Special thanks to our
sound guy Steve as well.
Hope to see you all soon. We will keep working to bring out
the best of us all for next time out!
| Rockin SJ One Party at a Time! |
| The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is in how you use them. |
