CL beauty

[Major_Rager_4MF]

odd? check. nerdy? check. potentially cool? hmmm...

 

[JGbassman]

Definitely a gimmick. I'd say it was silly, but silly has proven to make a lot of money in the right circumstances.


Would I be interested? Nope.

 

[MattZilla]

Gettysburg Gwar.


I know a dude who'd be into this.

Based on the pics he's shown me of the size of the reenactments, these guys would probably have a pretty lucrative built in following- not as large as Christian Rock, obviously, but still pretty big, and mostly daylight gigs.

 

[Michedelic]

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[BassCliff]

Hi,

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Paul Revere and The Raiders. Ha! Didn't Gary Puckett and The Union Gap dress in period uniforms too?

Hardly "metal" but I thought they all looked great.

Gary and the boys look a little different these days. Don't we all.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[richntiff]

OMG. I have so much more to say - but it would earn me my third strike.... so.... nope....

 

[charlie monroe]

Hi,



Paul Revere and The Raiders. Ha! Didn't Gary Puckett and The Union Gap dress in period uniforms too?

Hardly "metal" but I thought they all looked great.

Gary and the boys look a little different these days. Don't we all.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Looks like there were some court martial sand demotions. There’s some stripes missing in the modern photo.

 

[catcauphonic]

Kicks just keep getting harder to find

I think it's a good idea. Not sure that I'd audition just cuz I'm not all in with Metal, but I can see it being a fun thing for a bassist also into the reenacting scene... those folk can get downright fanatical

 

[Michedelic]

Hi,



Paul Revere and The Raiders. Ha! Didn't Gary Puckett and The Union Gap dress in period uniforms too?

Hardly "metal" but I thought they all looked great.

Gary and the boys look a little different these days. Don't we all.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Yeah, but obviously they were going for a Civil War motif(fluctuating between blue and gray), and came along 1967/68, just as PR&R's original run of hits started to cool off a bit. As both bands were on Columbia Records, I'll bet some bright bulb in A&R or management thought that, however Johnny-come-lately/copy cat it might have been, the period uniform thing would be a visual hook. Paul Revere(full name Paul Revere Dick), formed his band circa 1961 with vocalist/sax player Mark Lindsay, playing stuff that would be eventually be referred to as 'Frat Rock', in a manner similar to rival Pacific Northwest bands like The Kingsmen and The Wailers(while GP&UG emerged from San Diego, Puckett himself was from Washington state). The Raiders reportedly recorded and issued "Louie Louie" a little ahead of the Kingsmen, but fate, and being on a small label at the time, hindered their success, but it did gain the interest of Columbia. As this was the era of silly matching band clothes, they by chance stumbled on to some Revolutionary War costumes in an antique store, and in a "ah-ha" moment, found their visual gimmick(fitting in perfectly with the name), all of this happening before the Beatles hit the US. Afterwards, in publicity, they touted themselves as fighting off the 'second' British Invation, but actually dropped the watered-down R&B sound for something more contemporary, somewhat influenced by the Rolling Stones. And it certainly got them attention as house band on Dick Clark's "Where The Action Is" TV show. Sure, while it may not technically be 'heavy metal'(the genre not invented yet), their hit "Just Like Me" is a power chord fest, with a relentless rhythm, and a double tracked guitar solo that holds up to any garage rock of any time, any continent...

Add to that "Steppin' Out", "Kicks", "Hungry"(Kurt Cobain swiped a riff out of that one), "Ups and Downs", and my favorite, "Him Or Me".
Gary Puckett and The Union Gap, on the other hand, never rocked; they just churned out slick melodramatic housewife pop/ballads. They showed up with their matching uniforms just as that sort of thing was becoming uncool and out of date with the emergence of psychedelic rock; The Raiders soon ditched the look themselves, hits slowed down(although their biggest charting song was "Indian Reservation" in 1971), and faded away as a current band, just as Puckett(who had gone 'solo')did.
The only other act with the 1776 look(at least for a while)that I can think of was a Chicago band, The New Colony Six, who, like their windy city brethren The Shadows of Knight, didn't get too far into the national scene beyond one hit...



Now, if you wanted the French Revolution...

 

[Relsom]

Adam Ant had that 18th Century period theme going on in his heyday. Friend Or Foe.

 

[buldog5151bass]

One cool thing is you could play in smaller areas. Not sure there is a market, but it's metal. You are fighting for gigs anyhow.

 

[bearhart74]

Just because you can does not mean you should.

 

[turf3]

I think it's potentially very cool.

No one who's currently attending metal shows is old enough to remember Paul Revere and the Raiders or Gary Puckett. It will be all new to them.

I think the key would be to really go full-out reenactor. Not some guys some of whom are partially dressed in stuff kind of reminiscent of the Revolutionary War period, but everyone REALLY decked out, queues, powdered wigs, the whole nine yards.

It could take off and make them a nice little niche, or it could sink without a trace, but I think they ought to go for it.

So little time, so many marketing opportunities!

 

[FugaziBomb]

I'd be down. I've been listening to a lot of Hamilton lately...

 

[klejst]

Hell I'd join...anytime I can wear a wig outside of Halloween and it's "acceptable" I'm down!

 

[dalkowski]

@Michedelic beat me to the Upper Crust. Those guys were actually movers & shakers on the 80s / 90s Boston indie scene, in bands like the Flies, The Titanics, and the Satanics. Mastermind Nat Freedberg still going strong.

 

[gln1955]

So, does the CL guy want to be Yankees or Redcoats?

BTW, what's the best three-cornered hat for metal?

 

[mikeoso]

So, does the CL guy want to be Yankees or Redcoats?

BTW, what's the best three-cornered hat for metal?

A tri-cornet

 

[40Hz]

If you can have a band (The Zambonis) that play nothing but ice hockey themed rock songs (and get gigs!) anything is possible.

 

[micguy]

Civil war uniforms were undoubtedly wool. I'm very allergic to wool. I'm out.

And why do the guitarists have to be intermediate level? If a good one came along, would you throw him or her out?