Greetings from Brewster Productions land! We’ve been working real hard this summer on our School’s Out Summer Concert Series, as well as expanding the business side of things. To give you a little taste of what we’re up to (and so perhaps you can come say hello and give us a high-five or something), here’s our schedule for the next week-ish:
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.
Howdy everyone. Hopefully you’re following along with the School’s Out Summer Concert Series, which is in full swing right now in Plymouth. But in other Brewster news, we’re working on releasing “The Brewster Sessions, Vol. 1″, a collection of Storyteller-type in-studio live recordings we did with Ben Carter, Shaun Dever, Nick Amendolare, and Seth McFadyen. You can check out and download a sneak peek of the album HERE, and listen below to a recording we did with Ben on the day he came in for his Brewster Session. More for fun than anything else (it’s not a live recording like the rest of the Sessions), it’s “41″ by Dave Matthews, performed by Ben Carter:
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?
(R to L) Jake Hill, Jim Calandrella, and Brian Hitchings rocked Sweetwater Cafe in Boston Thursday, April 29.
The other night was our last show at Sweetwater Cafe in Boston for a little while, but it was something else. Originally, Hitch from 3rd Left was scheduled to play, with support from the Eagle Hill Band acoustic. Then, Jake Hill showed up. And then James Calandrella, “the best sax player in Boston”, according to Hitch (he’s not kidding), showed up and played. It was an incredible show. Here are the photos.
Check out the photos below, and stay tuned for concert series news (and go to the web site). We’ll be seeing you all quite soon, outside on a warm night on the glorious Plymouth waterfront. Until then, keep both feet on the wheel.
Shaun Dever is joined on stage by Ben Carter at Sweetwater 3/19/10.
What a show we had last night. Wow. From right before the show when Seth McFadyen and Ben Carter went outside of Sweetwater into the street and played “Semi Charmed Life” and “Island In the Sun”, to Ben unplugging his guitar and singing Jewel on a chair in the middle of the crowd, to Shaun Dever leading a group amorphous jam of “What I Got”, this show was something else.
Hero Ben Carter.
Last night at Sweetwater Cafe in Boston, Shaun Dever, Ben Carter, and Seth McFadyen rocked the crowd for an incredible night of wild acoustic jams and packed-room sing-alongs. At one point, Ben even called a girl from the crowd, sat her in a chair in front of him and played a song for her – she apparently was from Switzerland, which led Ben to thank her by saying, “Welcome to America.” Seth put on a great last-minute opening set, and Shaun rounded off the night with his rad tunes and some more great sing-along jams.
Last night we were giving out little flyers for a FREE DOWNLOAD of the Brewster Sessions, Volume 1 sneak peek album. More on the actual album later. But for now, go download the 6-song album for free here: brewsterproductions.bandcamp.com.
Now, here are a multitude of photos from last night. Thanks to Shaun Dever for some of them, and for the nice settings he put in the camera for the ones of him. We’ll add some video soon.
Tomorrow’s show (2/6/2010) at Sweetwater Cafe in Boston with Ben Carter, Darren Hawe, and Seth McFadyen is going to be a great one. We’ve even heard there might be an acoustic cameo from the Eagle Hill Band.
The folk-poppy stylings of Ben, Darren, and Seth are sure to get cozy downstairs of Sweetwater singing along tomorrow night, and you definitely want to be part of the show. It’s 21+ with a $5 cover, so if you can make it, do what Ernie Boch Jr. says and come on down! (awkward beckoning wave here)
In related news, Ben Carter will be recording and putting out an acoustic EP with a little help from Brewster Productions – we’re really excited about it, and you can bet he’ll be testing out some cool new stuff at the show. Ben and Darren rocked Club Passim in Cambridge the other night, and Ben was caught working on a song (see the photo) – so I’ll say it one more time: Don’t miss the show!
Billy Simons from NYC is headlining at Sweetwater Cafe 1/30 w/ support from a few Brewster guys.
This weekend Brewster Productions is proudly presenting a few of our good friends in support of Billy Simons, a talented singer-songwriter out of NYC. Come down to the show at 9pm, and catch Billy, Nick Amendolare (of Comboguy and the Juicebox Graduates), and Seth McFadyen (of the Eagle Hill Band). It’s sure to be a cool show with lots of singing along and all that. Info:
Billy Simons
w/ Nick Amendolare & Seth McFadyen
Sat. 1/30 @ Sweetwater Cafe
Boylston Place, Boston
9pm, 21+, $5 cover
Boston's own The Release rocks to a packed house at Copperfield's 10/17. Photo by Shaun Dever.
Saturday night was a-rockin’ at Copperfield’s Bar on Brookline Ave. in Boston. THE RELEASE topped off of an evening of half acoustic folk/pop (Shaun and Ben) and half rock & roll (The Release and the Eagle Hill Band), and it was certainly a great time had by all.
Shaun Dever opens the night with his brand new guitar.
We were hoping for a big turn out, since this is one of our first shows in Boston and our reputation was riding onit, and man we got a great bunch of people there. The show was a huge success, with some highlights being the crowd dancing and going crazy to The Release and EHB, and Ben Carter’s rendition of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me.”
Just announced: Brewster Productions will be sponsoring the Plymouth South HS talent show in November. We’ll be volunteering our sound services for the evening 5 years after the talent show our senior year. More info soon.
Peace out Brewster-Land,
Jon
Photos of The Release by Shaun Dever:
Photo: The Okay Win at the Acoustic Nights Free Concert Series, 2011.
