10-Nine: The Summer So Far

For those who are not aware, I play bass in a band called 10-Nine with 4 of my best friends. Last summer we recorded a 6 song EP entitled "What Lies Ahead" that is now available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes. The month of June was a very busy and productive time for us as we inched ever closer to worldwide super stardom. It all started off with a rousing 10 minute set at open mic night at the nationally renowned venue The Space in Hamden, CT. There we played the old classics Set Me Free and Marathon. The show was highlighted by not only tight performances, but a stellar job of bantering with the packed house of 18 people from our lead singer Stephan Juergensen. In all seriousness, this was a great little ice breaker for us to start off the summer. We had only played one official gig as a band at this point and to get to play in a place that had an actual concert hall type feel to it was very fun and very special, even if it was only for a short period of time. From there we prepared for our second show at The Funky Monkey in Cheshire. We previously played there last summer and had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Due to external forces, we had to play indoors this year as opposed to being out in the courtyard like last summer. While we were initially dissapointed, this turned out to not be such a bad thing. The Funky Monkey is fairly small, so it was nice to play in what was essentially a packed house. We had put in some serious practice for the show and were somewhat exhausted, but definitely ready to shine. We knew this would be our first show where we were selling CD's and we expected a good crowd so it was important to bring our 'A' game.

The show turned out to be a great success. The turnout was phenomenal and we actually sold alot of our CD's. We busted out 5 new original songs that we are pretty excited about, and played them all with a high level of energy. The upbeat funk/blues rocker "Floozy" is a particularly exciting song that we really enjoyed playing. Our drummer Dan Shidler gets to really let loose on it and show his chops behind the kit. Another new one that went over well was "Wasted", a song I wrote in late May of this year. I was really nervous to play it because I was on guitar as opposed to bass and sang lead vocals. Once I settled into the reggaeish groove though any worries I had disappeared and we really nailed it. It was so cool to see the crowd getting really into a bunch of songs that we had never played before. We also used the show as a chance to bust out some new covers that we recently added to the catalog. We played "What I Got" by Sublime, "Take The Money & Run" by Steve Miller Band, "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers, and "Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" by Sly & the Family Stone all for the first time. I felt like we did a strong job of covering songs that appealed to our age group as well as the older groups such as our parents and other relatives. When it was all said and done we played for just shy of 2 hours and it was such a rush to perform in front of people again. Their is such a strong excitement you get from seeing people's reaction to your music and sharing the moments with the audience is definitely something I cherish. Our crowd ranged from high schoolers to grandparents and all of them were respectful to the music and enthusiastic about our playing. We were all very grateful to be able to pull in such a great crowd for that show. After the show a bunch of my good friends came over and we drank and reminisced about the night. I always enjoy spending time with our great group of friends. It was a perfect way to cap off a fantastic day.

During our practices for The Funky Monkey show, we were able to secure a Saturday show at Side Street Grille in Hamden just two days before Stephan would have to go back to Tufts for the month of July. Needless to say we were pretty psyched to 1) get another show in before we took a little break and 2) have a show at a bar. While we feel we are a good band, we know that everything is just a little bit more enjoyable when alcohol is involved. We opened the bar show, appropriately, with our new Black Keys-esque song "Half Hearted Bar Bet", which we're having alot of fun with. It's much heavier than our normal fare, and has a really cool stripped down rock feeling to it. Due to the show being only 2 weeks after The Funky Monkey, we didn't have a ton of time to learn more new material, but were were able to fit in a few new cover songs for this show. We did versions of "Funk #49" by Joe Walsh, "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" by The Beatles, "Chicken Fried" by Zac Brown Band, and easily the most ridiculous cover we've ever attempted, "Lollipop" by Lil' Wayne. "Lollipop" really had the crowd growing and was a surprise that worked on a humorous level and I felt was actually good musically as well. The look on Stephan's mother's face when he uttered the line "She licked me like a lollipop" was priceless. That made the performance completely worth it. The show overall was a great time for both us and the crowd. We had some issues in the first set performance wise that may have slid under the radar to those in attendance, but they were somewhat dissapointing to us as a band. I was terribly out of tune for a few songs and we had a few minor fuck ups here and there. I felt like we really pulled it together towards the end of the first set until the end of the show though. It was so great to see some faces in the crowd that we did not expect in attendance, and the turnout was again solid. We're feeling very lucky as we start to see some good support locally. Afterwards we hit the bar and bullshitted with old friends over some drinks. I probably could've done without the Jager shot and the 3 drinks I ordered at last call, but what the hell, you only live once. So now we're on a little break while Stephan takes care of his business up at school, but I'm very proud of what we've been able to do. I think that we have a bright future locally and can do some good things in the next couple of years. We're very much looking forward to going back into the studio next summer to hopefully lay down a full CD. No matter where we end up it's just a thrill to be a part of something like this with my best friends. It really is a rewarding experience and is so fun to share our music with our other friends and see what they think of it. Big props to all the band's family members for their support, specifically the Shidlers, who let us practice in their home night in and night out. Our friends Kat, Brit, Matty C, and Katie have also been big supporters who come out to our shows and talk us up to others. Hopefully there are big things in the future of 10-Nine. So that is the summer so far for the band, check back on this blog or http://www.myspace.com/10nine for news and information in the future. I'll leave you with YouTube audio of the lead track off of What Lies Ahead, "Reason For Rain". Enjoy!