So, on Thursday, August 28th, we took a short road trip to Milwaukee to compete in The Midwest Grammy Showcase. Contests have been very good to our band. Long ago we won the “Battle of the Beatle Bands” at Beatlefest in Chicago. That small contest led to a relationship with our long-time producer Joey “The Don” Donatello. One song we recorded with him, called “First Time” won another contest: Garageband.com. In that case, we were awarded a record contract and had the opportunity to record in San Francisco. We had not participated in another contest since that time, so we were not sure how things would play out in Milwaukee.

The showcase was setup to where each band would play set infront of about 2000 Harley fans. The fans were not actually judging the bands. That job was left for several prominent Grammy members: Mike Bailey (Narada Productions, Inc.), Jeff Battaglia (JBM), Kathy Dunaj (Sound/Video Impressions), Rob Gillis (Mobile Fidelity), Christopher Greene (Alien Arts, Sound & Syndicate), Mary Mazurek-Kahn (Pegasus Recording), Doug McBride (Gravity Studios), Kate Moss (Moonshine Design), Shawn Murphy (ASCAP), John Ovnik (Deaf Dog Music), David Silbaugh (Summerfest Entertainment), Brad Smith (Hal Leonard Music Publishing) and Mars Williams (Liquid Soul).

There was obviously quite a lot of expertise sitting at that judges table. They were an intimidating crew to play for so we decided the best approach was to play for the crowd rather than the judges. At least that way we could just do our show without feeling unnatural. We just prepared to get on stage and do what we do. To that end, we played a very short set, only six songs. It was incredibly hot! The stage was black and the sun was just punishing. Guitar players like to sweat though…it makes the playing more fluid. Before we knew it the show was over and the next band was getting ready to take their shot.

Since we played first, we had all afternoon to watch the other bands and look at millions of motorcycles. The crowd enjoyed our set but it was a relief to have the pressure off. After the final band performed the judges tallied their votes and gathered themselves and all the bands on the stage for a nice group photo.

Right after the photo was shot they announced the winner….and it happened to be Monovox!

Right away a great guy named Larry English came up onstage and presented us with our first of several prizes: a Billy Idol series electric guitar by Washburn. We also received a folder with redeemable certificates for an endorsement contract with U.S. Music Corporation, a live photography from Barry Brecheisen Photography, a personalized publishing from ASCAP, a Recording Industry Sourcebook on CD-ROM, and a copy of 100 Years of Harley-Davidson by Willie G. Davidson along with other merchandise from Harley-Davidson. In addition, Shure microphones provided all the participants with a set of Shure E2 sound isolating in ear earphones. That made for a donation of about thirty plus pairs of in ear monitors for each of the musicians!

On top of that, we received a Shure KSM27. This is a really high end studio microphone used to record vocals and other sensitive instruments. Since we record many of our demos in our rehearsal studio, this was especially sweet.

Best of all, we were almost immediately shuttled off to the Marcus Amphitheater, where the grand prize was to take place. We had won the opportunity to perform with Billy Idol at a sold old show at the Marcus Amphitheater.

Once we arrived at the Marcus we got to stand on the stage when the amphitheater was completely empty. We were left to imagine how it would appear just two days later when we opened for Billy Idol on Saturday night. We were stoked.

The next day was spent rehearsing for the show and making sure all our guitars and equipment were working. Some years ago we got our first big shot at a huge audience when we opened for CandleBox at Summerfest. At that show we had amps blow up, Anthony’s guitar broke and it really made the show tough. We’ve come a long way since then, but it still pays to make sure we’ve got all the extra cables, strings, power tubes, and helping hands we can get. We were able to draft Paul’s dad John into being a roadie for the show along with our favorite live sound engineer Eric Brusewitz. We also invited a terrific photographer named Shane Gardner along to document the event.

Before we knew it, Saturday arrived and we got up early and once again drove to Milwaukee. We got to the Marcus at 2pm and began loading everything in. While we got comfortable we got to watch Billy Idol’s sound check. The stage sounded amazing! Then it was a matter of waiting while the amphitheater quickly filled...

At 7pm we hit the stage!The energy was unbelievable! Then we hit a snag…Kramer blew up his kick drum. Flashbacks of the Candlebox show came to mind. But we’ve learned a lot since that show and no one panicked. The crowd was patient as we got the problem handled. John was the real hero here, in a moment of inspiration he ran to Billy Idol’s drum set and borrowed the piece Kramer needed to make his drum kit work. Of course, this didn’t please Billy Idol’s drummer when he found out later…but he came around. Desperate times call for desperate measures and we were not about to tell 22,000 people that our show was canceled because our drummer plays too hard! The show must go on!

The show went on after that without a hitch. The best part of playing the Marcus was the test of courage. I had just seen Radiohead the week before and when they hit the stage I had to ask myself if I could get up in front of that enormous crowd and really deliver. I don’t get stage fright, but this was an extraordinary night. I’m happy to say that all five of us rose to the occasion and fed off the tremendous energy coming from that crowd. They were amazing! As a final though, it was poignant to play on the same stage that so many of our heroes have stood on. I remember watching Jimmy Page with the Black Crowes in particular. It’s pretty hallowed ground. I hope we proved ourselves worthy!

After the show we were shuttled off again to play yet another show at Shank Hall. We had booked this show months ago and needed to play both in the same day. The crowd at Shank was rowdy with all the Harley festivities going on. It took us more than an hour to drive the five miles from the Marcus to Shank Hall. Block parties had spilled into the streets as Milwaukee seemed to have become one big party. The energy was incredible. We finally made it to Shank Hall and played our show to a fired up crowd. After that show we packed up and finally returned to Madison. It was an outstanding day for Monovox!

About two weeks after our show at the Marcus we drove to the Washburn guitar factory in Illinois. There we met our newest fan, Larry English. Along with a great guy named David we got a complete tour of the Washburn factory. We got to see the entire process from tree to guitar along with the division that makes their guitar strings, cabinets, and amplifiers. Best of all, as part of our new endorsement deal, we were allowed to choose one guitar each to take home with us. Anthony is a lefty, so he has to wait for his guitar to be ready and Cliff chose a special bass that wasn’t available but Paulie and I both got excellent old school hollow body guitars on the spot. You’ll see those on stage with us from now on!

The entire experience was special for our band. After all the difficulties we experienced after Garageband Records went bankrupt this contest, the concert at the Marcus, and the support of Larry English and all the Grammy judges came as a real shot in the arm for our momentum.

And finally, we are grateful for all of our fans who support us in good times and the tough ones. Making it through the bad times makes us appreciate these good ones that much more.

Thanks for reading!!!!!!

Best,
All of us in Monovox

To read more (as if this weren’t enough):

http://www.grammy.org/chicago.html