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Hey Rockers! I'm the bass player, backup vocal and comedian of the band. I grew up in Nashua, NH and now live in Hudson, NH.
My music career started back when I was back in high school. Whenever there was a concert, I went to it. It didn’t matter who was playing, I just wanted to be in that atmosphere.
Some people may remember the Cape Cod Coliseum or the Boston Garden. Well, I practically lived there!
During the late 70's and early 80's I was learning guitar, but every time I turned around my
brother Jim was playing it (today, Jim blows doors on guitar).
Then I went to a Van Halen concert and saw David Lee Roth.
I brought my brother Jim and he saw Eddie play.
That night my whole life changed. I wanted to be the
front man. And Jim? Well, Jim followed Eddie. Every time Van Halen came around,
I had to be there.
I followed my dream and started a band with my brother Jim and
two friends, Roger B. and Al D.
We called this band "On The Side" because Jim and Roger were in another band.
Later, Al left the band and Roger brought in a friend of his to replace him who was also named Al.
We played for a few years,
made a tape and video etc., and then broke up.
Later, I put together another band and hooked up with Jean G. from Teazer, a bass player Darrell C. and Chris M. on Drums.
We played for a while as Highway Cruise. We lost Darrell, who left for religious reasons. I
don't remember how it happened, but we ended hooking up with Mike H. from Teazer.
We were in my mind, "THE BAND", but as always in a band, shit
happens and the band
folded in 1990.
A year or so passed. I wanted to start another band.
I couldn’t get Chris or Jean back so I hooked up with my brother Jim,
his friend Bill B. on bass, Rick B. on guitar and John J. on drums.
We played a bunch of shows for about a year. After that, Rick wanted out and
Bill was moving away. John hooked up with The Curtis Night Band.
So! Here we
are once again, just me and my brother Jim. I knew no bass players who were available, so I called up
our old bass player Darrel, and asked him if he still had his stuff and then I
bought it. We called up Chris and he said he would play, but not permanently.
I learned bass guitar from scratch, playing with Chris and Jim.
We now called ourselves Obstructed View (after the seats in the Boston Garden).
We were ready to rock and heard Greg T. wasn’t busy.
We called him and jammed together for a few years. Greg left in 1998 after a Backstreet show.
We grabbed Jim's brother-in-law John D. and for a few years we rocked
as The Now Project Mess. Jim then bought a house and asked for some time off.
It ended up being 6 months off. (Yuck!)
Without Jim, Chris and I hooked up with Jim L., Smilly, and Roger B. looking to continue roc king. Unfortunately, none of that panned out. Meanwhile, I played with Leatherhead
for the summer. My
nephew Jeff mentioned Greg was free and wanted to rock again. I called Greg and he hooked up. When I told my brother Jim that Greg was back, Jim immediately came back to
the band. (Hurray!)
Now, with new players we wanted to start something new. We heard Al G. from
The Bulkheads wasn’t too busy and he wanted to rock with Greg. We called Al
and he played keyboard and bass with us for about a year. Later, as we were learning tunes that
have no need for keyboard, it wasn’t to Al's advantage to hang with us, so he left.
Things started going fine. Suddenly, like a ton of bricks falling, Jim wants to leave the band (again!), which he did in August of 2003. We gave our friend Phil P.
a call to cover for Jim. Phil's now a permanent member of the band.
As
you can see, I have gone from guitar, to front man, to bass player, but have always
stayed with what I love, and that’s music. We have a great relationship in
our band, we're all friends and that’s the bulk of it. Also, we have agreed some rules amongst ourselves. In particular, you can't quit if
we have booked gigs. You must wait until we have a replacement, and your
replacement must be ready to rock by the time you leave.
In doing this, the band can remain active
and not lose out on any shows, or seniority in clubs. It's like
giving notice to quit. It's the nice thing to do.
See ya,
Dave
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