|
Face it, you can’t swing a dead ferret in NJ without splattering it’s greasy carcass over a dozen or so Jersey cover bands who are all playing the same worn out songs and doing it with great gusto and mediocrity.
Well, at a Hired Guns show, the ferrets are ALIVE and running up your pants leg till you leap around on the dance floor like somebody with a live ferret running around inside their pants screaming at the top of your lungs: "MAMA, mama, please get this ferret out of my pants, it tickles!"
Ok, we don’t really unleash ferrets on the audience (any more) but we do different songs; tunes that are more ambitious than Honky Tonk Women and Sympathy for the Devil. We have to work a little harder to learn a Red Hot Chili Peppers or Squeeze song, but it’s worth the effort.
If you’re a mature, educated rock fan who was lucky enough to be at the kind of shows they used to have at places like the Capitol theater or the Fillmore east, where you could see Hendrix, Janis and the Doors all in one show; then you will probably get a nice surprise when we pull out a Humble Pie tune or some Foghat.
We’re called Hired Guns, because that’s what we are. The North Jersey music scene still has a few clubs left where working bands can get in front of audience; and those bands often need to recruit talent on short notice. We are the ones who get the calls from local working musicians to show up and make magic on the spot. Fate brought us together and we decided to combine our skills to do something special that we would really enjoy together.
We have two lead guitarists, and they are two of the best I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Victoria Warne has a reputation in NJ for coming up with brilliant arrangements that reinvent classic songs, and she does this consistently in her own blues rock trio featuring the renowned Ken Serio on drums. Vicki has a voice that can melt butter and can tear it up on guitar like nobody’s business.
Mike Henchey is a fierce, powerful lead guitarist and singer who has played professionally for decades and is a master of his instrument. A veteran of wedding bands, club dates, etc. he can play just about any song, and do it well. He pays attention to subtle details of the songs, and when it’s time to let loose, it’s really something to see and hear.
Our drummer, George Schaefer, is the musical encyclopedia of the band. His iPod actually melted into a puddle of slag because it just couldn’t handle the bizarre compendium of tunes he had loaded into it, ranging from Danny Gatton to Zappa and then shooting straight out of the galaxy with Type O-Negative, Jean Luc Ponty and the like. Besides knowing everything there is to know about music, George also knows how to hit the drums quite nicely and can riff it up or lock in super tight with the bass guitar to build a powerful tribal pulse-beat.
My name is Steve Giordano, I’m the bassist of the band, and I’ve been around the block with every kind of band; from original new wave punk bands in the seventies to a Bob Marley cover band, with every kind of rock and metal in between. I’ve also done folk, funk, R&B, and soul music, and I liked it all just fine!
I’ve always wanted to be in a band that had no weak links or fatal flaws that could play any kind of music and do it justice. My dream has finally come true and I am having a ball working with such talented musicians who are so easy to work with, thoughtful and ever so professional.
We did our first show in the summer of 2007 and have had some incredible audience turnouts for the gigs we’ve done so far. We hope you will come see our next show and tell us how you liked it.
::
|
