It’s close to Jim Testa’s birthday so Lazlo of BlowUpRadio.com—who hosts these events with Jim—planned a surprise. Lazlo’s wife Naomi baked a couple of cakes too. And we … um … sorta … sang. It always amazes me how no one can sing when presented with the Birthday Song. Here we have a room filled with all sorts of musical types and still … I cringe.
Gibby of High Speed Chase was up first with his dropped tune guitar hollering thru his set in his usual balls out style. After a touching speech about his two decade plus friendship with Jim, Gibby called for the cake to be served. To which Jim replied, “Too late! I got mine already,” bringing a smile to the room. As did Gibby’s impersonation of Jim’s philosophy of, “Your music sucks. I like it but it sucks. No really it’s not too bad, but it could be better.” And so on. Jim is a champion of local music and will tell you honestly what he thinks. One thing you can count on is, if he likes you as a friend, he will support you.
Gibby also made my night. At one point he joked about how God was gonna strike him down for spouting his views about religion on stage. And that I would write in my journal, “It was great. Gibby’s head exploded. I just wish I could have talked to him about it afterwards.”
Mike Robertson of the band Mason Dixon started with some nice blues riffs. His thumb seemed detached from the rest of his hand. With the help of his other thumb muting strings, it kept a solid metronome rhythm. It was downright hypnotic. His more straight ahead rock numbers had catchy hooks with a California-country feel. Third song .. there goes that thumb again and the guitar player in me is getting jealous. Another NY area vocalist named Amy Miles came up to add some really sweet, shy harmonies bringing even more Americana to the sound.
Jim Testa introduced Dave Calamoneri as, “That kid I used to see at American Standard shows and as the guy that sold me tomatoes at the Hoboken Farmers Market. Then I find out he has a guitar and … here we are.” I’ve seen Dave several times at open mics. His is a very bluesy, folk sound. A working man’s anthem that all can relate to.
As the night wound down, I met Alana of the band Six To Eight Mathematics. As we chatted with my friend Stacy, we realized that we were all paying our bills thanks to the world of publishing. Alana works for a weekly newspaper, Stacy for a weekly magazine and myself a handful of monthlies. We tossed around such geeky work subjects like QPS, Quark, InDesign, PhotoShop, Illustrator and so on. It was nice to place Alana’s face with the name. I get emails for her band all the time, but have yet to check them out. I’ll have to make it a point to do so.
See Also
Jersey Beat
BlowUpRadio.com
Goldhawk
Gibby
(High Speed Chase)
Mike
Robertson (Mason Dixon)
Amy
Miles
Dave
Calamoneri
Six
To Eight Mathematics
