HUGE THANKS: Rocco's Pub in Jasper, GA!

Hello friends!

BlairOutLoud BAND recently had a killer show at a location called Rocco’s Pub in Jasper, GA. The band was connecting well on stage and the audience was so supportive and fun!

I would like to take a quick moment to THANK Dan Rocco and the staff at Rocco’s Pub for being so gracious and supportive!

We began the year performing there as a TRIO, still under the name LK3. Leonard Koggins Trio had a fantastic run for many years, but it was beginning to be obvious that as we were taking on bigger events, and as we also had plans to add Amanda Blair into the line-up for those bigger events, the group voted to change the whole title of the project to BlairOutLoud BAND.

Rocco’s Pub staff were the first to notice the change, and started asking questions about our transition. We could only paint them a picture of our true plans, but when the time was right, we were able to deliver what we promised, our full BAND and full song selection to reach every person in the audience, to prove what we are made of. That formula worked, and Rocco’s was the first place to really understand those goals, and it provided a platform allowing us to grow into the band that we are trying to be.

So yesterday I posted some video on my FB Page. The clips below are from our recent performance at Rocco’s, on September 18th, 2021. The second set especially was on fire. We were able to run our own light show (Rocco’s is still a restaurant, so we mainly used the house lighting for the first set as people were eating as getting settled in, and we were allowed to kick it up a notch for the second set). Some of you aren’t on my FB pages so I didn’t want you to miss some of these energetic performances. I’ve decided to re-share these here on the blog. Enjoy!

• BTW, if you’d like to Follow the FB Page CLICK HERE!

• Also BTW.. In the coming months, my media pages are all going to be changed around, the YouTube channel will be re-purposed and the FB platforms will be cleaned up and refreshed. Thanks all!

First up: “The Middle”

Amanda Blair brings this song full circle with the synth part that you hear on the record (during 2nd and 3rd verses). The song is genuinely really fun to play live.. It has a great guitar solo and lots of positive energy. We’ve often thought that it goes by too fast, so that’s why we extend it here, and eventually we sing another 2 choruses at the end.

Next up: “You Oughta Know”

When we first started our discussions about bringing Amanda Blair into the “LK3” line-up, my long-term vision was eventually to add some of the female 90’s alternative material into the mix. Amanda and I had been in another project that was focused on 90’s alternative female lead singer material. The project was actually called “You Oughta Know” and we played the “title” track in that band. See my HISTORY page for a little more detail about that time period. We are slowly reaching that vision now… in addition to everything the TRIO can perform, the BAND is adding great songs like this one and Amanda Blair is killing it!

Next: A Joan Jett cover of “Crimson and Clover”

The original Crimson and Clover was dreamy and classic but not necessarily anything I would consider doing in BlairOutLoud, however, Amanda Blair brought this idea to the table of doing the “Joan Jett” cover of the song. So.. it’s a “BlairOutLoud cover of a cover” if you will… Once again, Amanda rockin’ those vocals!

Last but not least: “Everybody Wants You”

So this is a song that I have played in many other cover bands.. and I admit, within the last minute when the band stops and tries to get the audience to chant “Every-body-wants-you!”, I took that from the last project I was in, where my lead singer at the time would have a little fun with the crowd.

What shocked me at this show, is that our crowd here actually gets it right the first time… AND THIS NEVER HAPPENS! So the band stopped the song anyway.. because we always stop! But this was a very rare occurrence where we probably could have continued on “in time” with the music because this crowd was so great. Kudos Rocco’s patrons!

One more thing.. the kicks… Yeah.. I don’t know.. HAHAHA This band is starting to do kicks and jumps in this song to make each other laugh. It started long ago with a kick here or there, and now it’s grown into this ridiculous thing that we do just for fun. LOL

One last thought.. The camera on these videos is tucked back behind the PA, so occasionally the vocals are low in the mix and my guitar is louder. I apologize for this. This is about the only place I can set my camera so that it doesn’t get trampled on the dance floor with the party people.

Also.. the tambourine that Amanda is jamming’ on.. it sometimes clips the audio on the crappy camera microphone so that overall sound is compromised on the video. As much as I do care about the sound of my videos, in these instances, I don’t have a way to monitor this so I let it go. Most importantly here, I’m working to capture the fun and energy of the performance so I hope that translates the best. Thanks all

- Tom Blair