Beat Crazy Band


In August 1998, I joined a forming disco/dance/party band, which was later named as "Beat Crazy".

Finally, this band was exactly what I had been looking for!! For so many years, I wanted to play the A-rooms, I went out to clubs like the old Headliner, Jenkinsons, Tradewinds, Osprey, Bar-A, etc. and knew exactly what it would take to get in there. But I could never find bandmates who really wanted to do what it took. They all said they would like to play the good rooms, but never actually went there themsleves and were totally clueless on the format. They wanted to play only the songs THEY liked, which was boring, dive-bar classic rock music. And on top of that, had tons of dead space between each and every song, and further had no stage presence whatsoever. And they didn't want to put the effort into polishing the songs to make them sound tight. So for years, I was stuck playing local dives, thanks to be surrounded by turkeys.

Then in mid August 1998, I was shopping late at night at a 24-hour supermarket, and I saw the ad: "A-room dance party band seeks lead guitarist/vocalist... "!!!! I was so psyched I wanted to call right then and there at 2:30AM. And this opportunity couldn't have come at a better time either. From 1997, I was in a classic rock cover band called "Roscoe Simpson". There was alot of talent in the band, but everyone was kinda laid back and lazy, and it seemed I always had to be the guy to kick the band in the ass to get the songs sounding really tight. But even though things were going great for Roscoe Simpson, the guys resented me being such a "dic-tator" and in early August 98, fired me from the band. I was devastated by that, because I had put so much heart and soul into making the project a success (for what it was). I put more than 10 times the effort into it than did all the other 3 combined. So when Beat Crazy came along, it was salvation - this was finally the right band that would allow me to play the rooms I always wanted to play.

We had played a few B and C rooms to get started, but then started playing some good clubs too, such as Joe Pops in LBI and Reddy's in West End. But the band's achilles heel was always the bass player, as we went through a total of 3 in less than a year, and finally the band ended in late 1999.

Of course, with the great crowds we had at the Joe Pops and Reddy's gigs, nobody brought a camcorder. But here are some audio clips from the demo CD, which I made sequentially using my 2-track computer recording equipment.

Turn The Beat Around (partial clip)
Turn The Beat Around (full song)
Jump Jive & Wail (partial clip)
Jump Jive & Wail (full song)