Happy Holidays to all the fans of SIX, old and new!
2008 was a great year for SIX, and we hope you all got to experience SIX at least once in 2008 - and we're promising more opportunities for SIX in 2009...
We kicked off 2008 playing for the birthday party of our friend Jody Mullane in January. After 3 months off while we expanded our repertoire, we played as part of a fundraiser for Lawrence Academy in Groton, MA, opening for "Five O'Clock Shadow", one of the area's premier a cappella groups. A number of photos from this gig can be seen on our website (www.ILikeSIX.com - but you knew that, didn't you?) in the "publicity" section.
June was a milestone month in the history of SIX (where we played from one end of the state to the other). First, we travelled across the state to Williamstown, MA to perform at Williams College, our guitarist Walter's alma mater, for his class reunion party. A power outage in the area prior to the gig almost forced us to do our gig "unplugged", but luckily power was restored in time. Thanks to the increased volume we have when there is electricity(!), we were almost forced to shut down by local police for the second time - some of you will recall that in June of 2007, our performance at a private party in Winchester was shut down by local police. Ironically, both performances occurred on Winchester's "Town Day" - perhaps we should take that weekend off in 2009?
But, June was just getting started for us, as only 5 days later, we were back in Eastern Massachusetts - Boston to be precise - to play our first (and so far only) official club gig, at Berklee College of Music's "Cafe 939" (a student-run nightclub on Boylston St.). We nearly packed the 200-seat club (thanks mostly to YOU, our loyal fans) and played 2 high-energy sets that could not be stopped, no matter how many guitar strings (2 - one by Walter and one by Bruce) were broken! The gig was also notable as an article about the club and the concert series we were a part of appeared on PAGE 1 of the BOSTON GLOBE (May 13th, 2008). In addition, tickets for the gig were available through TicketMaster - just like the major concert acts! And perhaps best of all, some video of us performing (and being interviewed prior to the gig) was released on the web - check our website (www.ILikeSIX.com - in case you'd forgotten) for a link to the video. Rounding out the month of June, we were part of the festivities for a party thrown by our bassplayer John (who wore a tux for the event).
Speaking of our website (www.ILikeSIX.com - did we mention that yet?), SIX was recently mentioned in an international music magazine! Keyboard Magazine has a monthly "Weekend Warrior" feature where they profile amateur musicians. Wendell sent them some information, and lo and behold, they printed it!
After the (relatively) hectic performance schedule in June, we took most of the summer off. Actually, performance-wise, you might say we took the rest of 2008 off! However, fear not - we have not "disbanded". We've been practicing nearly every weekend this fall (just ask our drummer Scott's neighbors!), continuing to improve on our 50-plus song repertoire. But, with so many great songs out there, we're also expanding our list of songs. Some of the new songs include "I Thank You" by ZZ Top, "Shambala" by Three Dog Night, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by the Beatles, "Get Off of My Cloud" by The Rolling Stones, and Deep Purple's classic head-banging tune, "Smoke on the Water". There's a few more, but we ought to have a few surprises (but they'll include "more cowbell" from Steve) - plan on seeing us in 2009 to see what else we've got in store for you!
Steve, Wendell, Scott, Walter, Bruce, John - aka "SIX"www.ILikeSIX.com
