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Our
History
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away......... oops, that's a
different saga. Actually, it wasn't all that long ago that we
started this trip. I tell this story many times at our shows, so I
figure I had probably better get it out straight here once and for all,
before the tequila kicks in again.
I was in a neat swing-type band called "Tad
Faster". Mully and Sue, two good parrothead friends of ours, got married in
Hawaii. When they returned from their wedding, Mully asked
if my band would like to come and play at his wedding party. Well,
the other guys in Tad Faster were unable to make the party, so he asked if I'd
just bring my guitar over and strum a few Buffett tunes. You see,
Mully and I and our wives have been going to see
Buffett together for, oh, well over fifteen years now. We've seen
him everywhere from "Great Woods" in Massachusetts, to Madison
Square Garden, from Hartford, CT, to the MGM in Las Vegas, in San Diego,
and Orlando. So he knew I could play the Buffett stuff.
Well, I did play at his party, and what a blast we had. I
figured that it might be fun to start a new band and just pay homage to
Bubba. So I did my homework. Looked at all the Buffett
tribute shows I could find on the internet. Went to see quite a
few of them. Lots of great bands, I tell you. A1A, the
Corona Brothers, the Baha Brothers, Matt Hall and St. Somewhere,
Latitudes, Parrotbeach, Son of a Sailor, the Landsharks.
Whew. I really didn't want to compete with any of those
folks. Scott Nickerson from A1A was very supportive to my queries
over the internet. But it seemed that there was room for a
group that did it just a wee bit different than the others. I have
friends in some very "serious" tribute acts to the likes of
Elton John, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. What appeared to
missing was the big "theater" part of the equation, I call it
the "BeatleMania" factor. You see, I had a decent day
job. I quit the heavy road work some time back (yes, I really did
live in tour busses for many years, but that's yet another tale), so I
wasn't looking to get into "heavy rotation", so to
speak. I didn't want to have to make it work for every nightclub
on the circuit, and wasn't aiming to be able to play 5 nights a
week. If I was going to do it, it had to be large, and we
were going to do it 110%. I would not water down our set with any
"non-Buffett" material, and really focus on the complete
package, sets, props, clothing, and band members. I looked
for musicians of like mind, "believers in the cause", so to
speak. I found 'em, for sure. The level of musicianship in
this band is amazing, yet, to a person, every individual is a wonderful
human being. Great people to play with, travel with, or just hang
out with. We rehearsed until we got it all down, then rehearsed
some more. I spent forever designing our stage. I found an
incredible artist named Jim Moquin to do our backdrops, speaker covers,
and "tiki-totem-guys". I built electric 6-foot
tiki-torches. Bought tons of grass (for decoration, silly),
inflatable sharks, and electric palm trees. I'm always adding new
stuff to the stage. Then we got out and
kicked it around a bit. Found lots of terrific support from the
parrothead groups in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut,
and Maine. And that brings it to where we are today. Winning over a huge span of generations at our "non-parrot
head" shows, and gaining the approval of the toughest critics around, the
"hard-core" parrotheads. No small task, that. . Making some great new friends along the way,
too.
We'll keep fine-tuning it as we go, but so far, I'm quite
happy with the results, and I hope you will be too.
Steve K
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