Young and old

Heck of a weekend, musically speaking.
*Last Saturday, some youth musicians from the Upper Bucks Alliance for Creative Expression entertained at a Salford Valley Winery event benefiting epilepsy awareness. It turns out they have a concert saluting "classic progressive rock" at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at Pennridge High School, 1228 N. Fifth St. in Perkasie. Tickets are $17.50 at the door, $15 in advance, $12 for seniors and $10 for students.
A fun time was had by all. It had been three years since the winery had held an event, and I think Brenda and Ed Staehle could use some encouragement to not wait another three years to open up the barn for tastings. So click on the link to their site right now. I'll wait.
*The Lansdale Community Concerts series has always been a maddening thing for me. It's a subscription series that's forever sold out. You can't get tickets to individual concerts; you have to purchase a season subscription. And in order to get a subscription, you have to be put on a waiting list.
Also, judging by the sea of white hair in the audience at North Penn High School for these things, it looks like it's a requirement that you have to be old to attend. Or maybe it's the wait to get off the waiting list that ages you?
So through my connections, I got a pair of unused LCC tickets to see Chespeake, Va.'s Hunt Family Saturday night. Wickedly talented stepdancers, songwriters and musicians, with a mom, dad and seven kids, ages 13-21.
Younger audiences would have loved this concert. They played songs by Mumford & Sons and Jason Mraz, for goodness sake! However, for some reason, LCC seems unfairly hellbent on keeping these events exclusive to the silver-haired set.
As my girlfriend pointed out in the concert program, the organization's biggest patron is Elm Terrace Gardens. Of the other 13 major contributors, five of them are retirement communities.
When Sandy Hunt, the mother of the brood, mentioned that you could follow The Hunt Family on Facebook, she asked if anybody in the audience used Facebook. A big laugh went up from the predominantly senior audience. Yeah, you can take that as a "no," Sandy.
*Dirty Jerzees? Sounds like the name of a strip club!
Crazy Train? Sounds like the name of an Ozzy Osbourne tribute band! And there actually is an Ozzy tribute band by that name.
However, this venue is the new sports bar that's in the same building as Clubhouse Too in Upper Gwynedd, and this Crazy Train is a nice 'n' tight classic rock cover band. Check out my video.

Outerwear bias at North Penn?

This photo, taken in The Reporter newsroom by Amanda Piccirilli, shows how suspicious I probably looked March 3.

I can laugh about it now, but I ran into an instance of TSA-like profiling at, of all places, North Penn High School.
The school district had invited the media to cover the high school's Family & Consumer Sciences fashion show March 3. I put in a courtesy RSVP phone call to Carol Fink at the ESC well in advance to let her know that I was going to cover it. As far as I'm concerned, the school district knows that I'm going to be there at that date and time.
Photographer Geoff Patton and I arrived at about the same time to sign in at the security desk, per procedure. We each asked if we needed an official visitor sticker to proceed to the auditorium, but for whatever reason, we were told to skip that procedure and go about our business. I thought that was a nice gesture because it shows that they know who we are, that we're there on professional business and to give positive media coverage for the school, and they wanted to make our jobs easier.
That all Reporter staff writers carry Flip video cameras should be news to no one. We've been shooting and posting video online for more than a year now. And the fashion show is an event that's just begging for video coverage to compliment the coverage in print.
It was more than 40 minutes into the fashion show, when a teacher asks why I don't have a visitor sticker -- never mind that I've been in the building for a good while and given authorization to be there -- and she insisted on escorting me back to the security desk, interrupting the performance of my job. As far as I could tell, I was not being disruptive, breaking any rule or doing anything inappropriate.
There were people taking pictures (and probably video too) all over the auditorium. The teacher didn't interrupt Geoff, who also did not have a sticker. Why was I singled out? It finally dawned on me when I returned to the newsroom afterward, and staff writer Dan Sokil quipped that I looked suspicious wearing a trenchcoat carrying a Flip camera.
The 1999 tragedy at Columbine still has people that freaked out about trenchcoats? Seriously? Honestly, does it make me look like a terrorist or a pedophile? What's the hangup here? I don't get it.
For the record, in the 11 years that I've been at The Reporter, my relationship with North Penn High School had been perfect ... until I was made to feel like a criminal for doing my job.
Anybody want my coat for free? Apparently I need something that makes me look less like a derelict in the eyes of the fashion police.
By the way, here's the video. I like the way it turned out.

Hooterville

The Hooters in a recent performance.

One of the intriguing concert dates of the new year at Sellersville Theater will be Jan. 23. There will be solo performances by members of The Hooters, namely Eric Bazilian and John Lilley.
Among Bazilian's career activities have been writing the Grammy-nominated "One of Us" by Joan Osbourne, "Kiss the Rain" by Billie Myers and "Private Emotion" by Ricky Martin (haven't heard those last two in ages!), and playing guitar on Clay Aiken's debut album.
Lilley, meanwhile, has recently discovered within him "a sleepin' cowboy who has a lot to say and won't shut up." The result is the album "Lucky Kinda Guy."
And I would imagine there will be some old-school Hooters tunes in the mix somewhere ;)
Anybody remember when The Hooters played at North Penn? They were playing in about every high school in the Delaware Valley at that time. I want to say that was 1982 or 1983.
Show time is 8 p.m. on Saturday the 23rd with tickets from $21.50-$33. Call (215) 257-5808 or go to www.st94.com.

More links: www.myspace.com/ericbazilian, www.johnlilley.com.

Send me your music today

A review of North Wales band Find Vienna's "In Your Favorite Colors" appears in "Go" Thanksgiving Day. Because of tight deadlines this week, I was unable to work in remarks from a conversation I had with their bass player, Paul. Good thing I have a blog, right?
These guys really have it together in that major record labels are taking notice. It is surprising considering that they've all graduated from North Penn High School within the past five years.
They're live at the Lansdale Center for the Performing Arts at 7 p.m. Nov. 25. There's also an acoustic show at 7 p.m. Dec. 20 at Puck in Doylestown.
They've played a Radio 104.5 Up and Coming show in West Chester and they're WSTW-FM Hometown Heroes.
Sample their tunes at www.myspace.com/findvienna or www.facebook/findvienna.
I'd like to keep this local music thing going on Talk about the Passion. So if you have a CD, send it to me at:
Brian Bingaman
The Reporter
307 Derstine Ave.
Lansdale, PA 19446