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From: hink~ervtech.com (Patricia M. Hinkle)
Date: Sun, 19 May 1996 20:58:22 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Big Dave and the Ultrasonics

Just saw these guys for free down at the Lilac Festival here in Rochester.
Unfortunately, the lilacs are just beginning to come out and the festival
is just ending. Fortunately, he was worth seeing. Big Dave was definitely
the best talent in the band IMHO (<- note the new spiffy net-speak) and was
a solid LW/SBWII/... style harp player. He did a lot of neat tonguing
things and some of those clucking sounds that harp guys sometimes do. How
do they make those sounds anyway? The vocalist was solid but not unique
enough for my ear and played solid guitar. Their sound was a mixture of
upbeat swing blues and a slow R&B influenced sound. These two sounds were
entirely separated, i.e. one song would be swing blues in a Mark Hummel
vein and the next would be a slow R&B type thing. They covered help me and
cross eyed cat and did some originals. I brought a harp and magic marker
but the guy I went with had to be home early so I didn't get a chance to
talk to him afterwards. He was playing LO's (yick) through a bullet of
some sort (green bullet?) into a Bassman. They seemed to be having a
little trouble with the volumes. Big Dave was a charismatic presence on
stage, as was the keyboardist. The singer/guitarist was slick-looking and
slick-sounding and the bassist and drummer staid in the back for the most
part. The highlight of the show, or at least of the part I saw, was a
several minute harp cadenza in a standard boogie. Dave really had the
audience going. My ownly real quam with him was that he kept begging for
the crowd to applaud, which I think is a cheap trick. If your music makes
them shout and dance, then they will shout and dance, or at least that's
how I see it. Somewhat calm crowd with more people there for the festival
than for the music. I say confidently that he blew away the Eagle's cover
band that was on stage before him. A question: what kind of band spends
its existance covering one group? Then again, I've been tempted to form a
Paul DeLay cover band at times ;) I would recommend you see them if you've
got nothing better to do. I made the decision to skip performing at a
BBQ/party to go and I'm not upset that I made the decision to watch Big
Dave and co. but I'm not entirely sure I made the right choice, if that
helps quantisize how good they were for any of you. Thanks to Hugh for
putting up the list. I wouldn't have known about them otherwise.

-Tom Hinkle-

p.s. My name's Tom, not Patricia. I'm using a spare accout of my mother's
so I can keep harp-L mail and personal mail separate.