may we wrap the month of may for the Hooligans?

Been a busy month for Those Handsome Hooligans but a sign of more busier times ahead as well! adding new songs, playing gigs and keeping our gear in fine form=whew!

first our first ever show at British Arms in Barrie went swimmingly. the night ended with very loud chants of ONE MORE SONG! a sure sign that the crowd enjoyed us. one of the many mind blowing things of that night were the 2 tables of ppl that stayed from start to finish. never b4 had we seen such hardcore devotion in Hooligan fans! whoa, mind blown!

our second gig of the month was a season ender party for the dart league in Innisfil. now these fine folk know how to party! once we did our soundcheck song, they never sat down the entire evening. another first for the Hooligans! our 2nd set of tunes was over 90 minutes strait. our finger tips could feel the burn and we barely made it thru the 3rd and last set. can’t wait to play there again as rumours are running rampant that we will return to the Innisfil area for NYE.

this past month we got our gear finally set up for the season. more on that in a post to come. for now, here’s some hooligan pics!

stage at lions club innisfil. yes the floor is slanted like that!

our eb3 takes a break at british arms. it was due for a setup after this show.

the creatures came out at british arms!

so did James from the Decibel Kings! sweet!

that’s a wrap April!

another month has flown by!

struggling with a flu bug for the later half of the month has made things more challenging but nonetheless, forward ho!

today we were sadden by the news that Molly’s Chamber, the cover act we left 7 weeks ago has now officially gone on hiatus. we thought it would be easy for them to find a replacement bassist as the material and the other players were quite solid. still unknown what exactly has transpired but its still sad news nonetheless. here’s to hoping they all land on their feet!

the dj nights at the Schomberg pub every Saturday have been a treat. the regulars and the casual atmosphere make for a great time out each and every time! its also been great to pick up on what’s new and happening in the music scene and to gauge what ppl want to hear. been havin’ a ball no matter who shows up!

also this past month, we’ve been jamming with a few guys we’ve known almost since day 1 on the bass. we have been lucky enuff to finally find a singer/guitarist that fits. so far its been a helluva lot of fun playing what we all like to play and hear in a no pressure/casual/just4kicks atmosphere. finally a group that wants to do a few Clash songs!

after Skipapalooza (pic=new sticks&bag this month!), the members of Rosalita asked us to become the permanent percussionist for the band. an offer in which we quickly/gladly accepted! its been a great way to keep our feet wet on the kit and also to learn/develop musically. the forecast calls for good times ahead & 2nite is our first official jam since the party. there’s lots of new material & a new bassist on the horizon as well!

Those Handsome Hooligans have been picking up speed for a rather hectic summer. expect more posts on that in the days ahead. expecting a tee shirt run in the near future. crazy! check out our posters while u sanitize!

lastly, we’ve been pickin’ at the ol’ geetar of late. been thinkin’ aboot an open mic nite in the near future. we’ll see. ah, so many songs, so little time… the fire that fuels us. new shoes this past month too! feels so good!

time 2 hooliganize!

things have been pumpin’ along swimmingly for Those Handsome Hooligans. 2 weeks ago, we rocked the house at Skipapalooza and this past week, we wrapped up a sweet set in Barrie for a 911 charity fundraiser. also, we’ve managed to score 13 gigs between April 14th and Sept. 8th which is quite the feat for a band made up of day jobbers with fams. we are nearing 50 songs on the setlist and a run of tees are on the horizon. we were already pretty tight with the weekly practices but now that we have so many shows, the tip of the rock iceberg remains to be seen. goin’ to be a lot of rockin’ out these next few months. lets hope the body can handle it and we’ll see how high it can soar!

here’s a few posters for our upcoming shows in Barrie this Spring/Summer. hope to see you there!

skipapaloozover!

well its been a few days since our annual event, skipapalooza
at orleans in newmarket and how can we sum it up other than AWESOME!

we brought out the ol’ disco ball for added visual deeelite. so far in the few pics we’ve seen, the ball looks amazing!

drumming for rosalita & sounding not loud proved to be quite the struggle despite our best of intentions. sorry to any1 we annoyed! live&learn. onwards&upwards. our longest set ever in the books!

those handsome hooligans showed no rust from the 4 month baby break and played pretty much from 1030-215 excluding 2×5 minute breaks. we were all anxious to play indeed!

more pics as they come in. thx to all who came out, the bands and a special thanks to orleans! hands down the best venue in newmarket!

bossome defined

skipapalooza2 this Saturday will be “bossome!”. here’s a quick definition: Bossome is a Bruce Springsteen related emotion comparable to wonder but less joyous & more fearful or respectful. Bossome is defined in Skip’s Wheel of Emotions as a combination of Rosalita -inspired delight, surprise & fear. One dictionary definition is “an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by Rosalita which is grand, sublime, & extremely powerful”. Another dictionary definition is a “mixed emotion of reverence, respect, dread, & wonder inspired by Bruce Springsteen’s authority, genius, great beauty, sublimity, or might reproduced by Rosalita: “We felt Bossome when contemplating the works of Bruce Springsteen.” “The observers were witness to the Bossome sounds of the Rosalita.”

skipapalooza 2!

its gonna be BIG!

so excited & honoured once to be able to do skipapalooza a 2nd time!

more deats to follow!

wrapping up 2011

we’ve got a moment to blog so here’s a wrap on 2011:

Those Handsome Hooligans did 2 holiday parties in December to rave reviews and we had a blast!  t’was a great way to end the year off and keep us keen for 2012. we even made it to a gig in a full blown blizzard!  white knuckling indeed!

if u don’t follow our twitter feed, we scored some neon strings over the holidaze.  we’ve been dying to use them since we read about them in BassPlayer mag awhile back.  they look sick and hopefully sound and play well enough.  we’ll post something here when they make their way onto the bass.

2011 ended on a shocking note for Molly’s Chamber as we lost our singer.  so tryouts have been ongoing since the week before the holidaze and now we’ve trimmed the Chamber Idol list down to just 3.  we plan on making each of the 3 jam an entire night with us instead of just 30mins to get a better sense of them and then make a final choice.  fun but a lot of work.  i doubt we’ve ever played PJ’s “alive” so much and so often as we did during the tryouts!  here’s to hoping we get the ball rolling again quickly as gigs are already lining up! all 3 of the finalists are top notch so the outlook is fantastic!

we rented a traynor dynabass 200 to rave reviews for our last gig of 2011

the final count for gigs in 2011 was 41.  if u’d have said we’d play that much a year ago, we’d have laughed at ya.  to say we are pleased with how 2011 went we’d be understating the fact.  so many great times!  we truly had a blast this memorable past year!  its doubtful we’ll get to 41 again in our lives but never say never.  the learning curve was quick and steep in 2011 and well worth every note, every km travelled and every moment spent on the bass.  here’s to a rockin’ 2012!  lookin’ fwd to whatever lies ahead!

Holiday Party in Unionville!

just put the wraps to a holiday party at Jakes in Unionville with Those Handsome Hooligans.  despite not jaming in 3 weeks, the band gave a good performance to the small but vocal crowd.  we had a few blips and one tune we could not remember for the life of us but ah well, good thing it was the last song! rumours are we will have another show next weekend.  a super special party if everything pans out. after some epic moments tonight, we can’t wait to play again!

been considering playing more drums again lately.  actually been thinking of jamming with more ppl with ourselves behind the kit instead of the bass. a couple of interesting options came our way this past week but after a good time tonight and a great time with the bass, its hard to put it down for any length of time.  so we drew the conclusion that our drumming days are mostly at an end.  we just wanna play bass!

post soon about our recent vacay!  stay tuned!

recent videos au go go!

eton house stage. watch that railing!

just a quick post to review last weekend’s gig with Molly’s Chamber at the Eton House.  3 sets of rockin good times!  we had a soundperson but he didn’t do much other than run our mics thru the house PA which was a bit different than the norm.  folks said the sound wasn’t horrible and u could hear everything but not up to snuff for a gig with a soundperson.  despite not hearing much of the vocals and lead geetar while onstage(no monitors), we’d give ourselves a B for the overall performance.  getting more comfortable with the material is a high priority and there is lots of room to improve.  speaking of room, we were on a stage with a railing and we kept hitting our headstock on the pole at the end of the railing during the show. yet another reason to not gig with your best bass. poor EB3 took a beating but luckily no scars the next morning!  thx 2 all who came out to witness and the props.  we sure had fun and totally dug the overall vibe of the joint!

both the bands released some video evidence this week.

check out Eton House viz from Mollys Chamber from the homepage.

check out Orleans viz from Those Handsome Hooligans from the new youtube site.

enjoy and will blog soon!  finally a weekend off from gigs and a load of songs to learn from the likes of OLP, Velvet Revolver, Foo, Van Morrision, Hip, big wreck, coldplay, black keys, steve earle, doors & more!  lots of jams til the end of the month.  let the good times roll!

eton house back door

halloween bashed

just a quick review on how the halloween bash went.

costume wise we decided to go with the snake skin pants, teased hair and cut off tee look.  kind of a metalhead look.  many ppl thought we should add the pants to the regular gig rotation.  hmmm…. something to think about! but the costume served its purpose and was quite nice to bash our head around with.

other bands opted for dracula, zombie, jester, doctor, army looks.  many said after the sets they were way too hot.  duly noted for next year!

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