Saturday, March 22, 2008

Finding a voice when it leaves you...
Current mood: awake

I had the pleasure to go see my favorite local band Strict9 last night. And I had a blast. Those boys rock. And my heart went out to Gary the lead singer. He had laryngitits..and that boy still was able to belt out the tunes and bring the house down. If you want to hear and see what true musicians in the State of Maine look and sound like..Go see Strict 9. They may do cover songs but they are musicians that know the show must go on, no matter what. Gary struggled, and I worried. I really thought he was going to blow his vocal chords. But he pulled it out of his ass. Strict 9 is a band that makes me proud to be a fellow musician in this State.

It was an honor to be asked to sing with them last night. And I had a blast. To hear the crowd screaming when I took the stage and to get that kind of response from the crowd was amazing. And the response from the crowd after I stepped down was amazing too. This goes to show you that Strict9 fans are loyal and there are many, many, many of them. Club Texas was packed last night, drive way full, and people waiting in line for 20 or so minutes for someone else to leave so they could come in. Even Jenny, the owner of Wardens had to wait in line. (I tried to tell them you were my siamese twin Jenny and you had to go where I went, sorry it didn’t work) I love this band. And I guarantee you if you have never gone to see them, and you go just once, you will be a loyal fan of them forever. Gary and I talked last night about getting old..(Gary is older then me..Nanni Nanni Nanni) and how the older you get, the harder it is to do show after show after show and not feel like you need a wheelchair by the end of the weekend. But yet these guys take the stage, weekend after weekend, back to back shows..a full night of music, and never seem to falter, even when their lead singer can’t make his voice come out when he’s talking to you. I truly am glad I made it to their return debut show after being on hiatus for a few months. If I had missed this show..I think I would have truly kicked my ass..and..I almost didnt go. I’m glad I did. VERY glad I did.

Hey! We've posted a bunch of pictures from recent shows on our website - Strict9.net. If you've been to a recent show, go check it out, maybe you're up there! If you haven't - go see what you've missed!

While you're there, sign up for our mailing list and get all our cool mailings. Then you can brag to your friends that you know stuff they don't! (unless they are already on the list...)

You can also check out our Medicine Shop and get a bunch of cool Strict9 merch to show off. (sure.... we'd love to sign your thong....)

In either case, leave us comments and sign our guestbook. We LOVE to hear from you! You ARE the reason we do this, after all!

See ya all at the next show! Be sure to shout out and say hello!

"Strict9 is one of the best cover bands I have seen and I gotta tell any cover band out there that they should take in a Strict9 show and take some notes. These guys go out and play the songs as if they wrote them. They put on a show and they keep things current. Gary, the singer, may not mimic the singers exactly tone for tone but he does a damn good job at making it sound like he is trying his best. The guitarists and bassist do their homework enough to hit every note played on the CD and Luke, the drummer, has a system to trigger the sound effects that are on the tracks and CDs. They play a Ra song that has all of the CDs intro, it kicks ass. This is the cover band to model after."

Read the entire article HERE.

Thanks, Erik!