OVERHANG

OVERHANG played two short sets at a gathering (called "The Pulse Chicago" in Chicago's Chopin Theatre last Monday night. Music and movie reviewer from the Chicago Tribune Lou Carlozo was there to check out this upstart group of people sharing their work and experience as artists and as Christians. Carlozo also conducted an onstage interview with Kimberly Guerrero, an actress currently working at Steppenwolf Theatre (You may know her as Jerry's Native American girlfriend in the Cigar Box Indian episode of Seinfeld or as the native American card dealer in an episode of The Soprano's). OVERHANG shared the stage with Goatee Records' Sarah Kelly, a soulful Sarah Mclaughlin/Sarah Masen style singer-songwriter (that's alot of sound-alike Sarah's) who's music you may have heard on "Grey's Anatomy" this past year. The event was a good opportunity for OVERHANG to meet other like-hearted artists and to share their own musical thing with everyone there.

Since we put a lot of effort into this particular show, we're breathing easier and are more able to look ahead to the cd release. The band is keeping the month of August free so that we can focus on booking gigs for the Fall and planning the release party. We should have the date of the Chicago cd release party finalized soon so keep checking in.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Unfortunately OVERHANG did not make the 2nd Round of the Lollapalooza contest. We're not quite sure what happened. The top 20 that were picked by the judges do seem to have a bit more pop flavor to them. Oh well. We are nevertheless very grateful to all those who voted for us diligently during the month of June. Judging from last Friday night's show in Barrington, IL we are starting from absolute zero. Which is the exact number of people who were present during one of our songs. At a certain point of our sparsely populated late night gig, we looked up after an intense jam session and there was no one in the room, not even the sound guy (who left on account of a pinched nerve in his back). Apparently the regular crowd there just didn't show up, supposedly because there were a couple music festivals going on in the area that same night. It was our first venture into the Chicago suburbs, land of a thousand cover bands. Based on empirical evidence, Barrington is...unique. Its premiere after hours bar is situated in the middle of a field where we sat around waiting as the SUV's, pick-up trucks and Harley Davidson motorcycles pulled up to meet fellow regulars and to take turns complaining about their bosses and co-workers in between swigs of beer. We city-folk definitely were out of place among the Barringtonians. Nate even had a close encounter with a few bears (and I don't mean the brown furry animals that hunt for salmon in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge). We all were a bit dazed driving back into the city at 2 in the morning, wondering if this was an exercise in futility or one of the more memorable experiences of our life as a band so far. I will always remember Bill Tucker's defiant outpouring of positivity that filled the empty room with inspirational energy that night. His performance was deeply moving in that context. It takes a lot of courage to be so full of joy at midnight in an empty room where no one gives a crap about you. Thanks, Bill.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)