Geneseo

Last Saturday the PBBB headed south to Geneseo, NY to play the village's summer concert series. One thing was for certain, after the fiasco that was later coined 'The Gowanda Incident', we decided to leave the trailer behind for this one.

One cool thing about this gig was that we had a guest drummer come in a play with us. Dave Goebel, a fellow Eastman-ite, stepped in and we had a blast. The crowd was great. Some intermission-rain chased off a few, but there were many dedicated followers of the funk who stayed to weather it out. They weren't disappointed. The rain let up quickly and we played another hour of in-your-face rocking craziness.

We're going to Shortsville, NY in a week and a half or so, and will have lots of friends playing with us on that one. Catie Hickey, an old friend, is back in town and will sit in on this one with us while Chris Van Hof and TJ are in Germany on a tour with their brass quintet. Coming in on bass will be Dave Baron, another Eastman-ite who is quite ridiculous on both the string and electric bass. We're also bringing our old friend, Mathew DeGuarnere, sound-extraordinaire as well as the producer of our debut album, 'Bone Break' to run our sound and maybe sing a few with us.

That's all for now. There are many exciting things coming up that I can't get into now, but suffice it to say we're close to announcing our Fall Tour dates as well as a special debut appearance in NYC. Spring Tour dates are upcoming as well and many many more. Thanks for all the love and support. We'll keep you posted!

ej

A Tale from the Road...

Yesterday the PBBB headed out of town to play at a music festival in a great little town south of Buffalo called Gowanda for the Gowanda Moose Fest; a charity event made to raise some much-needed dollars for a much-needed cause. Sometimes things just go wrong and lemme tell you, yesterday was a story that could never be made up...you had to be there to believe it!

The band was heading toward our destination, having a good time and enjoying laughs. We had the gear in a trailer and many of the guys were driving out to meet us there. As we entered the Buffalo area, all of the sudden, the tire on the trailer exploded...literally exploded. We were on a pretty busy stretch of the NY State Thruway and there was really no place to pull over. We had to make an immediate stop on the median between the 4-lane highway.

With cars wizzing by at ludicrous speed in close proximity, Chris Teal, Mike Frederick and I went to work like a NASCAR pit crew trying to fix the situation. We realized this would be a difficult task since we had no car jack, and apparently none of my wrenches fit the actual size of the tire's lug nut. CRAP.

Thus began a 45-minute endeavor to find help...either by a tow service or AAA. I had to call the festival and let them know we'd be late getting there. In the chaos of the situation I ended up slamming a car door on the trailer's lock, thus lodging a key inside the lock and making it impossible to open.

And then it began to rain...

Well after quite a tribulation we were able to get a tow service out to help us put on the tire (never felt like less of a man before) and we were on our way to the show!

After getting a little lost, we finally manage to make the festival...but couldn't get into the trailer because of the broken lock and lodged key. So after several firefighters and a few hacksaws and cable cutters, we were able to get into the trailer and play the show...45 minutes late, agh!

Well the good news was that the people in Gowanda were truly understanding of the situation and were very sympathetic. I have to give props to Delaney Peters, the man running the show, and his great attitude toward the whole thing.

We managed to rock out the house and the people were definitely feeling the groove. We made lots of new friends in Gowanda and will be coming back soon!

We'll be out in Geneseo next Saturday, hopefully a little wiser after this weekend, and will definitely come ready to rock!

Thanks for all the love and support, Gowanda! Keep it good and funky!

-ej

Whirlwind-weekend

Hello, All,
We had a heck of a Saturday this week, playing the Big Rib Blues and BBQ in Highland Park and booking it on over to downtown ROC for the Cornhill Arts Festival.

Despite the deluge that forced the opening act off the stage, the Po' Boys pushed on with a hard rockin' set for the couple of hard-core funk and rib fans who stuck around. . .

Over at the Corn Hill Arts Festival, they were cleaning up after the rain, but the sun came out for a beautiful Rochester summer afternoon. We kicked things off with an old-school second-line parade through the art exhibits and vendors that took us all the way up to the main stage for another solid hour of the groovebone.

When we finished all of the guys were pretty well worn out, but several headed out for evening gigs with jazz and Latin bands. . . It may be a sign of the Apocalypse that four trombone players each played 3 gigs in one day! Even Tuba T. J. got three gigs in (but the third was on bass). . .

Be well and keep it funky, Rochester!

Keepin it funky all summer long...

Hi everybody! This is Erik from the Po'Boys. We've been basically neglecting this blog thingy since Nick came up with the idea to start one. But here's my attempt at getting into it. The 'Boys have been very busy this summer. As you can imagine, when you live in a region covered under a thick layer of ice for half the year, when the sun comes out, the people want to dance and have a good time. That's where we come in!

It's been a great summer for us both as a band and as individual musicians. We just finished playing the Rochester International Jazz Fest. This was the first time we have been able to truly play on an international stage in front of an international audience and we didn't disappoint. Neither did the people who came out in droves! Between our two set we must've had at least 5,000 people crammed on our tiny street corner to hear some good old funky brass! We can't be more appreciative to John Nugent or the rest of the great guys at the Jazz Fest for taking such good care of us and giving us a chance to shine. And of course, without our fans this would've never been a success and we're so appreciative of great people like you who let us go and do our thing!

As for individuals in the band. Well everybody up and graduated the Eastman School of Music this spring (with exception to me...the 'baby' who will be in school another 2 years). Mike, Chris Teal and Nick Finzer all walked the stage. Nick got his BM in Jazz Performance, and Mike and Chris both got Masters Degrees in Jazz and Contemporary Media. TJ is about ready to wrap up his Doctoral work and will soon be the first tuba player to receive a doctorate in over 10 years at ESM.

In addition to all this, Dubblestuff, Nick, Chris Teal, and Mike Frederick's other band/project, are set to release their newest album with a new lineup of characters. If you've never heard Dubblestuff, you've gotta hear these guys. I call them 'sophisticated funk' and they're amazing. You'll have your chance at the Corn Hill Arts Festival. Don't miss it! More info about Dubblestuff here. Buy their CD at Corn Hill!!

We have several more shows this summer all over New York and plans are in the works now for a pretty ambitious Fall Tour through New York and Pennsylvania. We're also developing a new website with the big help of Beth Sumner of Otaku Lab. And of course I'd be remiss to forget mentioning Blank Media, the newly-launched project of the Po'Boys Art Team and those great folks responsible for our new logos and merchandise line!

That's enough blabbering for now. I should do this more often so I don't have to waste your time with all this stuff. Thanks for reading and for supporting us as always!

Enjoy the pic from RIJF. The crowd was great and the vibe was good!

-ej