Twitch Rock Eyez Gig at The Cup Complex 07/27/2007

"Next up was Jersey's own TWITCH featuring (as I mentioned earlier) ROCKEYE's own staff writer Joe Manno on percussion, Mark Polon on keyboards, guitarist Rich Mazurkevich, bassist Mike Fash and incredible, young vocalist Gautam Malhotra. Now these guys are a covers band' and as you know, there's really not a whole Hell of a lot you can say about a covers band. They usually either suck ass or are pretty damned good at best but let me tell ya, TWITCH will simply blow you away! Trying to forget the fact that these guys sound as tight as (if not MORE tight than') a lot of bands out there, I think the thing that really grabs you about this band is that they're playing songs a lot of bands wouldn't even dare touch!

Their set included selections from LED ZEPPELIN, BOSTON, THE CULT, DEEP PURPLE, RAINBOW and RUSH' but not just your 'typical' songs. These guys tackled 'Since I've Been Loving You,' 'Finding My Way,' 'Highway Star,' and 'Tom Sawyer' like they were nothing! All challenging songs, from a musicians point of view, and moreover' songs you will very rarely hear another band even attempt. But these guys pulled them off with flying colors. The improvised 'jams' through out the set were just incredible and Malhotra proved he could pull off just about any vocal style you could throw at him. I'd love to see these guys playing around more and if you ever get the opportunity' this is one band you don't want to miss."

Click here for pics by ROCK EYEZ

"My band did share their concern as to why I was going into this gig with the lowest of expectations. There were many reasons.

First of all, this would be our first gig at a bar (The Cup Complex)." Although a nice medium sized, clean place with an adequate stage, they were going to be providing the P.A. equipment and sound man. I have come to understand that our band's 6th and 7th members are the sound man and the equipment. With these 2 new variables, ANYTHING could go wrong.

Second, TWITCH was to open for 5 other bands. Multiple potential problems could arise with regard to logistics of stage equipment and of course the clashing of band member ego's.

Finally, most of our band agreed to assist Norway for their reunion. This meant Mark, Rich, Joe, and I had to learn their originals, know them well enough to do live justice to the recordings, and hopefully get along with a bunch of professional musicians who may or may not care for our musicianship/personalities. Plus it would be my first time singing backup for anyone.

So those are exactly the reasons why I was ready to be disappointed. Fortunately, I couldn't have been happier with the outcome.

The sound man knew what he was doing and didn't jerk us around. The other bands didn't display any ego or impropriety, in fact, everyone was really friendly, easy to work with, and talented musicians to boot.

Accompanying Norway was a great experience as well. It's amazing how many people we had up there and yet how clean the sound was. That is truly a testament to the arrangements. Jim Santos and Joe Slattery got the instrumentalists in TWITCH in line very quickly. While Jim and Norway lead singer Glenn Pierson brought me up to speed on background singing. Since, this was my first time singing backup for anyone, I faced two new challenges. One was having to intermittently blurt out insanely high notes exactly in key, and the other was confining myself to a 1 square foot area of stage without distracting attention from the leads. I think it was a success. A high point for me was when I asked Glenn's son how he felt seeing his dad rock out like that; his reaction was "I'm overwhelmed, I don't even know how to express it."

Another excellent moment was accompanying Ted Poley on 2 songs (Bang Bang by Danger Danger and Anyway You Want It by Journey). It was cool to see how a seasoned pro lead singer gets a lazy audience moving.

Bottom line, I had an overall great experience. Even my relatives visiting from India had a great time!"

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