Hoje vou continuar a escrever sobre a turnê do Dirty Blind com o Jefferson Starship. No post passado escrevi sobre alguns dos nossos primeiros shows que fizeram parte da nossa turnê mas que nao contaram com Jefferson Starship como o ato principal. Começarei escrevendo sobre o show em Malvern na Pensilvania que foi o nosso primeiro show de abertura para o Jefferson Starship.
By: Matthew Halpin, Presidential Scholar, Tenor Saxophonist, Composer and Bandleader. See Ireland Gets the Presidential Treatment for more on the Matt Halpin Group Tour of Ireland.
The past two weeks have been extremely busy for all of us, and hugely successful too. The four Dublin performances were all packed and very well received. The workshop and the two performances in Sligo also had really good numbers, especially for a Sunday and Monday night. The Headford workshop was tied in with a summer school that’s was going on at the time so there were about 30 students between the ages of 8 and 18, many of which came to the performance that night with parents and siblings. So, again the room was filled to capacity! The workshop at the Berklee International Network partner Newpark Music Centre in Dublin was attended by several of the degree students and a number of younger students who had heard about it either on the internet or from their teachers.
Pianist Christian Li, drummer Roberto Giaquinto, saxophonist/leader Matt Halpin, bassist Jared Henderson and guitarist Mike Bono on tour in Ireland.
Also, we made it up to Belfast to record in the BBC radio studios live and to do some interviews. These recordings have been broadcast several times on BBC Northern Ireland as well as on BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3. These stations are available throughout England and Ireland.
Louis Middleton ’10 performs and records with Zander Bleck. In this post he answers some questions about what life after Berklee really is like.
Playing with a major label recording artist is a big deal, can you tell me more about how you landed that gig?
It’s interesting how things work out. Originally I was leaving Berklee to go into the “real world” and experience the industry outside of a school environment. I came across a post on Berklee’s Job Network auditioning musicians for a major label artist whose influences were U2, Duran Duran, Queen, and Lady Gaga. That combination of artists and bands seemed interesting and I’ve never been one to turn down an audition, regardless of what it was asking of me. I figured it was worth a shot.
June 13 – Middle East Upstairs – Boston, MA
The first night of the tour was a perfect way to start off. Coming back to Boston after 3 years was definitely different, but it was great to be in a familiar city. It is so hard to promote your show in a city where you don’t live anymore, which makes it all the more rewarding when people come out to support. I booked most of these shows myself and I hadn’t been fully aware of the local bills I was joining, like this particular night at the Middle East. I played with my guitarist, Adam Tressler, duo style, in between a couple of Reggae/Dub/Dance groups. Needless to say our set wasn’t as “fitting’ as it could’ve been for the evening, but we were in Boston with a Berklee band on the bill, 6th Degree, so the appreciative crowd enjoyed our set regardless. For a Monday night when the Bruins were playing, we had a fabulous turnout and a very excited crowd. Berklee staff members Marjorie O’Malley and Peter Gordon even surprised me at the show so it was a great way to end the night!
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