Weekend of local rock volume 52

This series has been gone (since last November) but not forgotten, and I got a chance to dust off the camera, clean the cobwebs out of my musical ears, and check out some of the local bands at the Pig and a Jig BBQ Festival last weekend, Out of the five scheduled, I saw at least part of the final three performances. Perhaps next year we will arrive early enough to see more of the bands; as it was we missed out on The Hot Meals and The Zen Monkeys. (I’ve featured The Zen Monkeys previously in this segment, though.)

So it turned out that our dinner music was an acoustic act called The Stims.

Was it anything groundbreaking? Not really. But it was good enough to eat ribs by and served as the soundtrack for the event, which was held at a former auto dealership turned body shop.

While they didn’t seem to take requests, I think they were making up the playlist as they went along.

This turned out to be especially true after the awards presentation, when they came out to play a couple extra songs while the next band finished their preparations.

I did notice another interesting musical trick though. Check out what the percussionist was sitting on.

Bongos without the setup. It seemed to fit in well with the acoustical theme.

But we were plugged in for the next group, one very familiar to WLR fans.

In most cases, being the penultimate band in a lineup of more or less equally unfamiliar bands would expose you to the largest audience. But it really didn’t work out that way for Semiblind, and that’s a shame. I think just the fact it was a very chilly Saturday for May worked against them.

It worked well for getting good individual photos, though.

Being friends with Michele and Jim Hogsett (top two photos above) does mean I have a little idea of how they enhance their show. For example, I know that Michele is a stickler for knowing just how the band sounds to those out in the audience, so she will wade out into the crowd during the first or second song at an unfamiliar venue.

And yes, she was singing. I’ve not actually seen a venue where Michele is the DJ for the evening (she also works locally as DJ Siren) but I imagine she will check her sound in the same manner when she’s spending time in that capacity.

And I’m sure that Jim likes the outdoor venues because he doesn’t have to wait for a break to catch a quick cigarette.

In fact, you could almost say I have a backstage pass with this pair.

The same can’t be said for Bad Mojo, but I wanted to hang around long enough to at least get a sample of their work.

The gathering gloom didn’t do much for the photography, but I had no objection to how they played their standards. In many respects, they served as the extension of Semiblind, just with a male vocalist and added keyboards.

As it was said later, those who remained kept warm by dancing the evening away, so their mojo wasn’t so bad after all.

I’ve noticed all three of these bands get around, so if you are out and about on Delmarva chances are you’ll run into one of them soon. In fact, I encourage it – we need to support our local music! I know Michele is in the DJ business, but I’d rather see a band make its stamp on a song given that most of us have access to internet radio and other means of hearing the original work.

Hopefully I can get back to making this a more regular series. Unfortunately, I missed two of the prime multi-band shows over the winter and early spring because of previous commitments, so it was great to resurrect the WLR after a long hiatus.