Wastin Daylight Band gets a Hoochi Coochi raving review! July 11 2009

“Wastin Daylight” Review by Patrick Clelland Allen July 11, 2009

Messages from a sixth sense told me that my night was going to be exciting. I was seeking to rate bands in the area for my upcoming website on the net. Tonight I was lurking at the Signatures Bar in Aurora on July 11, 2009, in cognito from my famous name, the Hoochie Coochie Raving Reviewer. It had become my new pastime to spy on fresh new talent. It was my pleasure to spend the early part of the evening sipping Pepsi and eating pretzels while interviewing a new and very professional enterprise, a band named Wastin Daylight, which I felt sure was destined someday soon to sever the musical empire. The juke box expelled cover tunes into the stage area along with a variety of other musical genre to set the background and atmosphere. Sometimes rhythm and blues tunes would be played and then suddenly the tune choice would change to the country music realm. I was confused at the customers’ diverse appetite for music from the entire musical spectrum.
Soon some of the band members began showing up through the stage receiving doorway with an abundance of gear. Scott Allen and Naomi Brady were the first to arrive on the scene. The sight of the lovely Naomi Brady entering the joint somehow instantly changed the atmosphere of the bar, because she’s a knockout, boys. Courageous and somewhat anxious I managed to catch Scott Allen off guard and asked him what “axe” he was going to play during the evening performance.
“A special SG model. It’s an Epiphone made by Gibson,” was his friendly reply.
Wow! I felt encouraged by his understanding of my position to inquire. Then he even brought the guitar over to me so I could study it. I enjoyed holding it for a minute and felt even more gratitude. I mean, this guy’s a real quality player, folks. I’d already heard his original stuff on the net and I liked it.
“Is your band cutting some originals together?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, we’re working on some original stuff right now.”
“Good, I look forward to purchasing the Wastin Daylight CD. I’ll try to be your first customer!” I told him. “What kind of amp gear do you use?” I then inquired.
“I use a Marshal half stack,” was his response. “It has plenty of drive for the solo work and a smoothness to the bite that most people enjoy hearing in spots.” I was already impressed so I let him and Naomi continue to set up their instruments. I just wanted to hear this band play.
Before long Naomi had her JP-90 bass guitar placed in a guitar mount next to her tambourine, harmonica, guitar and cowbell. I had to think to myself, “This girl came to play! Whoo!” Naomi was already hitting my Hoochie Coochie charts.
Soon “Big Daddy” May showed up with his seven-piece Tama drum set enclosed in its special carrying cases. While he was unpacking I sneaked into the scene to grab up some more information first-hand about his drum playing history. “Hey, Big Daddy, how long have you been playing the drums ....? Oh, I mean the skins?” I immediately corrected. “Well, it goes back a long time. I was a little into my fifth year when I dusted the skins off of an old used set and I just started playing the skins and haven’t slowed down much on them since that time. If you have the beat in you then the drums are the instrument.”
“What is going on with the live performers these days in the drum world? I mean, have electronic drums taken over?” I had to ask him.
“Oh no, not at all,” he said. “Trigger sets are big these days. The percussion instrument field is also very diverse. Yeah! Some cats like to use the e-drums but for me it’s in the wooden stock. Man, I would miss the timbre that the wooden sets always provide. In my first band called Vertigo I used the wooden set and have never wanted to change into the e-world of percussion as some players have done.
I had also found out through my own private sources that Big Daddy was also a pilot and owned his own 1984 Pitts airplane.
“Hey, Big Daddy,” I gathered his attention again and then I asked him a parting interrogative. “Do you listen to tunes while your flying?”
“Well, what the heck do you think, man? Of course my plane has an AM/FM cassette player. Sheesh!” he replied and then asked, “Are you sure you’re the Hoochie Coochie Raving Reviewer?”
Upon that remark I retreated like a spanked puppy back to my table with my icy Pepsi still awaiting me but also thought to myself, “Yeah, sure enough! Big Daddy was cool, and I liked him.”
As I was looking over at the center of the stage and viewing the vacated microphone jack I wondered, “Where is the lead singer for this band named Wastin Daylight? Did she use a Shure microphone?” I wondered ever more deeply. Within minutes the clatter at the bars stopped and there was a moment of silence. Even the juke box was placed on pause and many chairs instantly reeled around up at the bar where Tom the bartender at the Signatures Bar was pouring someone a draft beer. The bar crowd all noticed her arrival and so did I.
“Heather Dubin has just entered the building!” someone said out loud. The men and others in there had already heard of Heather’s singing through the grapevine I suspected. I, the one and only famous Hoochie Coochie Raving Reviewer, lost my pride, became anxious and rushed over to lend Heather a hand but a fellow patron had already beaten me to the task.
“Dirty dog. Gee!” I commented under my breath.
Later on while she was busy going over some new lyrics and chatting with Naomi and some of the other band members my determination led me to get the skinny from this lead singer of Wastin Daylight, Heather Dubin.
I asked of her quickly. “Are you a southern girl?”
“Yes! I am from Baton Rouge. I sang in a choir there. I was a choir nerd you might say!” she replied, then smiled and even giggled.
I thought something like this. “Today is my lucky day, man. Whoo!”
All of the interrogations. Somehow I was beginning to feel obtuse with myself. This was a real cool lady and a pleasant band member so I didn’t want to blow anything, especially with Heather. I had espied her Shure microphone and that was enough, but I thought maybe I could run one more question by her.
“How long have you been living here in Colorado?” I queried.
“About five years ago Jesse and I moved here from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And just recently, say six months ago, we formed the Wastin Daylight band.”
She was smart and thought well ahead of me so I didn’t have to question her about the forming of the band for she had nicely answered that for me. After deciding that I could be slowing the set up and performance of the band I let her go from my little special inquiry.
I have always felt that a good band needs to be in complete control of its sound levels. No loud aching feedback or sizzling distortion that’s out of control and invades its audience’s ears during interludes of the repertoire. This band had actually taken the time to remove any possible noise factors. I had to rate them very high for this because for me it was a sure sign of professionalism. “Man this is going to be a fun night,” I thought. I could already tell that there were good quality musicians coming here.
Later in the evening and finally came the sound check. “Wow!” Sound check, and it was good because all levels were brought into play. Even the band’s voices came in and every instrument including the percussion was brought into a completely graduated sound field. “All clear” was signaled by a nod from each player. “So cool the way the team worked together,” crossed my mind at that time.
The band kicked into high drive with a Fleetwood Mac song called “Gold Dust Woman”. Everyone present dug it and wanted plenty more. Heather and Naomi were only getting warmed up and it was still barely a little after at 8:00 PM. Somehow I sensed that with these girls singing the “choir” was only going to pick up more steam, and did they ever. Then came some more very excellent cover tunes. Even some Pink Floyd was pouring out of their song repertoire.
“Excellent performance,” was my opinion. As the band choir intensified I was actually getting excited and very impressed with their song list which included an original tune called “Santa Fe”, some Southern rock, eighties and nineties rock and more.
Pete Ameri came through with some really fine guitar work on his Yamaha T-60 power half stack amplifier system. He used a Mike Saldano head it was a premier boutique tube amp coming straight out to the crowd for some sizzling lead guitar work. He hugged his 1982 vintage Charvel guitar with style. He even laid down some whammy work backed up by his Floyd Rose locking head nut.
“The wild one Pete can run some sweet chops when he’s up there in front of a crowd, just like the greats would do it,” I thought to myself while listening to him get down with his extra fast riffs and guitar. “ Hey these guys even do double leads.”
Scott Allen did a superb job and often times he would trade into the lead singer seat with Heather Dubin. He has a fine tenor voice with high pitch levels if needed. Scott’s special SG model guitar and his Marshal stack packed a punch throughout the whole night.
I was sitting next to a fellow patron named Tim near the stage area who commented, “Both Scott and Pete work good on the guitars and everyone’s singing is excellent, but personally I like their brass man’s style of jamming. He’s a little shy with his horn work right now and that is normal for a new guy, but it’s good stuff that he’s doing on that trumpet of his. He’ll be coming around and he’ll bring it out real big when he emerges strong. He’s got the talent, but confidence is hard to find in front of a crowd sometimes.” Then he went away to dance again with someone from the crowd, and I smiled.
The Wastin Daylight performance on July 11, 2009 has registered a big one on the Hoochie Coochie scale.
My rating is a cool Rocktown #9.
The Wastin Daylight Band itself impressed me with their professional performance, band control, and talent.