VernBlog - April 7

So a couple years ago some friends of mine emailed me & asked if I’d like to sing in a reincarnation of their band that was, & still is, called the Kites. Not sure exactly what they were thinking…I don’t think any of them had seen me sing karaoke or in my church choir when I was a kid, which were basically my only vocal experiences in my life. But, not being one to back down from an interesting challenge, I accepted their offer. Admittedly it took us a while to get things in motion. We had a few meetings to discuss the concept of the band & well that took about one year, then last fall we actually started to practice consistently. After that we tweaked the lineup of the band which includes some names you may know if you are an avid fan of the local music scene:

Adam Schabow – guitar & vocals

Adam Tregre – bass guit

Harris Lemberg – keyboard & vocals (Harris is also the Mallards Organist)

Larry Braun – drums

Victoria Echeverria – baritone sax

Daniella Maria – multiple instruments & vocals

Crazy thing about the lineup of the band is that all of the people in the band have great musical credentials having either played their instrument their entire life, or played (or still play in) multiple bands around Madison & beyond. Well everyone except me that is. So I’ve been spending the last several months trying to catch up with the rest of the band & we’ve gotten to the point where we actually booked our first gig! We’ll be playing at the High Noon Saloon May 7^thth Anniversary Party. Pretty exciting to be playing our first show at the same venue that I’ve seen Dick Dale, Stephen Malkmus & more play at…kind of overwhelming. for the Dane101.org 4

So what do we sound like? That is a good question. The blurb on the High Noon Saloon website describes us as punk rock. I’m not quite sure that is accurate. The original Kites were probably best described as punk, but the new version is pretty eclectic. In my opinion our songs range from pop rock to punk & we’ve even got one song that may qualify as a rap song. Adam Schabow described us as “multi-generational” once, which may accurately describe the bands lineup as well as our musical style.

Like I said before, I can’t say enough about the quality of the musicians in the band. So I really feel like our show will be pretty entertaining, but don’t expect to see us playing at the Duck Pond anytime soon. I don’t think our style is quite right for the park & more importantly I’m pretty confident that I couldn’t handle the pressure of a gig & a Mallards home game on the same night! On top of that the bands that typically have the best reaction at the park play more covers than we do (we actually only play originals, so far at least), so I think you’ll have to catch us around town for the time being. See ya soon!