4. Lights, camera, action! We’ve got a lovely new lighting setup, and sweet new camera on staff this summer. We’re finally able to document all the concerts like we weren’t able to before – we’ve got a new camera, Jon’s Canon 60D to be exact, and we’re going to light the Hedge House stage for cinematography. That is, we’re going to make it look really classy and pretty – not just the colored PAR lights anymore (though they’ll still be there). Expect lots of great HD video, and maybe even a fun documentary-type movie recapping the summer. Here’s a video from our June 4th show (no lights, because it was an afternoon show):

“Cambridge” – Ben Carter, Live June 4, 2011 from Jon Dorn on Vimeo.

Stay tuned for #3…

5. New names! “Acoustic Nights Free Concert Series” and “Plymouth Independent Music Festival” – like a band changing it’s name, it’s time for a fresh start so we can keep on growing. The shows were previously the School’s Out Summer Concert Series, and Schoolhouse Rock, reflecting our initial focus on the cause of public education – we haven’t abandoned the cause though! This year, we put on No More Pencils, No More Books, a free graduation day concert at the Hedge House to celebrate the graduates of Plymouth Schools and show our appreciation for the school system that produced us.

Stay tuned for #4…

The other night, May 6th to be exact – and almost exactly 6 years to the day after our junior prom, incidentally – we were honored with a prestigious ARTY award from the Plymouth Cultural Council. We really can’t express how truly honored we are to receive such recognition for the work we’ve done in our hometown. Thank you to everyone, especially our good friend and co-founder Harry Quinn, all the friends and family members who’ve helped us over the years, all the amazing musicians we’ve worked with, and another ARTY award-winner last Friday, Donna Curtin of the Plymouth Antiquarian Society. Also a big thank you to local artist Carly Tefft for performing at the event (she’ll be playing 8/5 at the Hedge House too!).

But just because we got a really cool award doesn’t mean we’re stopping! Get ready for a crazy summer of free concerts, for one thing, and check out a short film we just helped shoot, “Clean Pop”, directed by Jon Dorn, starring members of the Eagle Hill Band and Nick A (production photos up soon).

Check out the ARTYs photos!

1) The 2010 free concert series came to an anticlimactic conclusion when we had to cancel the final 2 shows, making the (awesome) show w/ Greg Loftus and Steve MacDonald on 8/20 the last for the year. We’ve got big things in the works for 2011, so keep on the lookout for clues.

2) We did side-stage sound at the Black Mountain Music Festival in Jackson, NH this past weekend (feat. Rustic Overtones, Barefoot Truth, Audio Kickstand, and more), and it went great…..until we tried to drive home. On our way home, we had a big truck problem and we had to get towed back to Plymouth from NH. Fortunately AAA Gold covered the towing distance for free. Unfortunately, those AAA free miles don’t apply to trailers – so we had to pay to get the trailer towed back. It was quite a bit.

3) We’ve got 3 events on the calendar at the moment: A kids concert in Boston, the Canton Fall Classic road race, and the PSHS Talent show. Should be a great fall – keep your eyes peeled for more shows!

Toodles.

Jon & the Brewster team

Naukabout Music Festival 8/7 @ the Barnstable County Fairgrounds, all day.

Hey there,

Just a quick summer update on the Brewster site. (don’t forget to go check out our School’s Out Summer Concert Series, running until 9/3[w/ LUCAS CARPENTER!] on the Plymouth Waterfront)

We’ve got quite the festival-filled august ahead of us. We’ll actually be doing sound production at 3 music festivals this month. Yikes! First you can find us manning the side stage at the huge Naukabout Music Festival on Cape Cod 8/7 (featuring the likes of Bela Fleck, Ryan Montbleau Band, Barefoot Truth and more); then we’ll be running our very own music festival, the 4th annual Schoolhouse Rock Free Music Festival on the Plymouth Waterfront 8/14; then we’ll be running the Jenney Grist Mill stage at the Plymouth Waterfront Festival 8/28.

It’s gonna be a crazy month, so come check out some of this great music – we’ll be there.

Later!

Jon

This afternoon 6/26 we’ll be closing up the Showmobile at the end of the Relay For Life at Plymouth South High School (go panthers!)

Tonight 6/26 – we’ll be providing sound production for the SAIL Plymouth Boat Parade in Plymouth Harbor. It’s a cool event, check it out. 8pm.

Tomorrow 6/27 – we’ll be at T-Bones Roadhouse on Court St., Plymouth, doing sound for the inaugural T-Bones/Plimro Records Chilifest Cook-off  from about 4pm to midnight.

Also tomorrow, we’ll opening/closing the Showmobile for the Sceleroderma Foundation Walk on the waterfront.

Wednesday, we’ll be taking care of our Showmobile duties for the 1st Project Arts free concert of the season.

Thursday we’ll be doing the same for the L. Knife & Son free concert series.

THEN we have our very own big weekend: FRIDAY 7/2 we’ll be back in action at the Hedge House with Sean P. Rogan (of Big D and the Kids Table), and SATURDAY 7/3 we’ll be celebrating Plymouth’s 2nd biggest holiday (you know, besides the one with the turkey dinner), the Third of July at the Waterfront Main Stage with popular local acts 3rd Left, Jake Hill, The Eagle Hill Band, and Nate Cristofori.

It’s going to be a busy, fun week. We’ll be around various places, so look for the Brewster “CREW” shirts, and come say hi!

Rock on.

-Jon

Enjoy, and don’t forget to come to the FREE School’s Out Summer Concert Series in Plymouth, MA all summer long!

- Jon

NOTE: For concert series news, photos, updates, go to the concert series web site: brewsterproductions.com/concertseries – we’ll only be adding Brewster Productions-specific posts here throughout the summer!

There are only a few days til opening night of the School’s Out Summer Concert Series 2010, and obviously we’re quite excited. I’m going to keep this one short. First, the the show is Friday May 28 at 6pm, featuring The Eagle Hill Band, Doug Logan, and (just added today) our great friend Ben Carter. Check out the rest of the shows and get your lawn chairs and blankets ready!

The Eagle Hill Band
w/ Doug Logan + Ben Carter
6pm @ The Hedge House Lawn
126 Water St.
FREE, all ages, outdoors

FOR RAIN AND CANCELLATION UPDATES, FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! That is in all caps because it’s very important. The only way you’ll know the show is cancelled the second we decide is to follow us on Twitter – as soon as we call a show because of rain (hopefully this won’t happen at all!), we use our cell phones to update Twitter. Otherwise, you’ll just get there are see no concert. Who wants that? I certainly wouldn’t.

Also, please pledge some money to help support the concert series! Click here to find out what cool things we’re giving away for donations, like CDs, backstage tours, and autographed posters.

See you at the show! Rock & roll!

- Jon

Saucy Seth & the Clams of Death before our performance at prom May 7, 2004. From left: Jon Dorn, Seth McFadyen, Andrew Thompson, James Grinsell, Phil Hulse.

Sure, this is kind of a self-happy-birthday wishing, but that’s okay, I love my band and I figured I’d write something quick about them/us.

It’s been exactly 6 years since the band originally known as Saucy Seth & the Clams of Death took the stage Friday, May 7, 2004 at Lombardo’s in Randolph as the band for the Class of 2005 Plymouth South High School junior prom. We officially changed our name to The Eagle Hill Band in July 2008, and played our last show as the Clams of Death on December 30, 2007, but the band hasn’t changed a whole lot except for the name and a little thinning out of membership. What is now a 3-piece of Seth McFadyen, Phil Hulse, and myself (James just practiced with us yesterday, so we may be +1 this summer), was once us three, plus James Grinsell on the rhythm guitar, and the ridiculously talented Andrew Thompson on piano.

I think one of the big reasons we changed our name is that we don’t really consider ourselves Saucy Seth & the Clams of Death without the full 5-piece. It may sound weird, but to us, ‘Saucy Seth’ is a sacred name. It’s the first band I was ever in, and we achieved a pretty good amount of popularity at South HS – we had the honor of being in the long line of bands like the Skakopaths, the Leftovers, Leftout, Drive It Like You Stole It, Underage, and [our immediate predecessor] Comboguy. It’s not a lot in terms of the world of music, but it’s a pretty big deal to be the popular band in a high school for a short period of time. The big difference between us and those other bands was that we played classic rock. We all came from pop-punk and ska backgrounds, except Thompson, but we took that and decided to start a classic rock band. And it was damn fun.

And it still is damn fun. We’ve played a bunch of shows as a band over the past 6 years, sometimes with 5, 4 or 3 people, sometimes with our friend Nick Amendolare, and once as a 3-piece we called Nantucket Sleigh Ride. We’re still going strong as the EHB with Seth, Phil, and me holding down the fort all these years. We’re probably one of the more casual bands around, and I’d say that’s our best quality. We play when we want to – when we have time and when we can find a show. We’ve never once gotten too serious, or taken ourselves too seriously. We’re not a band “trying to make it” – we’ve already made it as far as I’m concerned – we’re a group of friends who can get together whenever they can and play music with incredible chemistry, and people seem to have fun watching us play.

So if I have a message to all you young musicians out there it would be: Make a band with your friends, don’t try to make friends from a band. If you’re only goal as a band is to get a record deal, chances are you’re not going to have much fun with it. If you’re looking to have fun, you’re much better off getting a group of your own friends together to play. With Brewster Productions, I’ve seen a lot of different young band scenarios, and my anecdotal evidence suggests that the laid-back attitude of my beloved EHB is the one that lasts 6 years (and counting).

Have fun with music – if you’re not having fun, what’s the point?

Yours in nostalgia,
Jon

(ps – check out some Clams of Death stuff below)