Ferry Cross the Hudson - The Rhodes
by Peter Aaron
...“But after a while that music wasn’t
very fun to play.”
“Or for the people in the audience
to listen to,” adds LaViola.
After testing the waters locally and recording
a demo CD, the ambitious foursome set their sights on the
Big Apple. Using a one-room apartment in Jackson Heights as
a base, the band played every bar or club gig available at
night and busked on the streets by day. The experience was
humbling, to say the least. “In Queens, we mostly played
for the drug dealers that were working the block,” Daunicht
says. “And in Washington Square, some crazy squatter
guy tried to break the drums.” After two months of urban
reality the group beat it back up north, reclaiming its slot
on the local circuit and periodically trekking down to New
York for gigs.
Last November the band performed in Woodstock’s
illustrious Garage Rumble, an annual battle of the bands organized
by tireless musical matriarch Kristin Garnier and featuring
mostly teenage players. Competing against eight other promising
young groups, The Rhodes were crowned the best band, winning
a session at Nevessa Studios in Saugerties and an appearance
on Time Warner Cable’s “Poughkeepsie Live.”
“I think we played really well and
the whole experience was really great,” says LaViola.
“And [Garnier] deserves a lot of credit for putting
it together, she’s a real powerhouse,” offers
Daunicht.
Not a band to rest on its laurels, The Rhodes
have kept busy since the win, adding more and more shows to
their itinerary and preparing to wax their debut disc...CONTINUE....
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