My live band Bonne Nuit played the Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides 5K walk in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday May 15, 2010. Bonne Nuit is my latest rock band that I’ve put together with myself, Matt Rushton and my three oldest sons Erik, Austin and Skyler Rushton. We’ve been landing a lot of gigs lately and I”m telling you that having a family band is a great marketing ploy. I do have to say that my sons can really play and we’re getting a lot of compliments on how good we sound. (more…)
The live band I have with my three oldest sons, Bonne Nuit, played a charity gig this past weekend. I’ve written in a previous post about how playing a gig at a charity function is an excellent way to get free exposure for your live band. Not only are you supporting a great cause but your band will get to play for people that normally wouldn’t come to your shows.
So Bonne Nuit played at the H2O For Mexico Benefit Concert on Saturday May 8th, 2010. We were one of nine bands slated to play and we got a time slot right in the middle of the festival lineup. We would be playing outside so we kept a close eye on the weather forecast all week. Fortunately the weather turned out to be beautiful and we were really excited to get to play outside. (more…)
Hey everyone that lives in Utah. Me and my sons will be playing with our band Bonne Nuit in Provo on Saturday May 8, 2010. We are part of the Utah Valley University charity concert called H2O For Mexico. There will be 9 bands playing from 12:00-9:00 PM. We are slated to play from 4:00-5:00 PM.
For details on this event including the address, check out the event page on Facebook: Bonne Nuit @ H2O For Mexico Benefit Concert.
We hope to see you all there! 🙂
I’ve been playing in live bands for years now and have seen their popularity swell and recede at various times over the years. I remember when I was going to High School in the 80’s that we rarely had a big dance without a live band. Live band’s were the best and it was always a special occasion when we had one. I ask my kids if they ever have live bands play dances at their school and they don’t.
When I started playing in clubs there were dozens of them for our band to play at. Over the years and especially recently I’ve seen a lot of clubs switching over to using DJ’s. It seems like a lot of gigs that bands used to get are now going to DJ’s. I personally haven’t played a High School Prom in years because all the schools are using DJ’s in my area. (more…)
I played a gig with my sons in our live band Bonne Nuit this past Saturday night at the Cybergate Cafe in Provo, Utah. Even though we’ve played some live online concerts, it was our first live show in front of a live audience. We rehearsed a lot to get ready for the show by doing standard practices with a couple good dress rehearsals in our practice space. The pressure of putting on a live show really helps to focus band practices and we really improved a lot getting ready to do this show.
We know we’re having a real rehearsal when the neighbors across the street call the Police to come give us a listen. They’re the only neighbors that do this and I believe it’s because they want the Police to have an easy call coming to listen to our band and talk to us about it. Luckily, the Police always seem to like our band and simply tell us to carry on playing. While we were practicing for the Cybergate Cafe gig, our nice neighbors called the Police to come have a listen when we were practicing at 5:30 PM. The Police apologized profusely for bothering us and told us to carry on, that we sounded great and to shut it down at 10:00 PM. So we knew we had a hit show prepared! (more…)
I had an interesting gig with my good friend Tom Nedreberg in the live band Highway 6 on Saturday April 10, 2010. We played for the UEA (Utah Education Association) Political Action Committee Capitol Club Event. It was the first time I’ve ever played a show that had a political purpose. It was also the first time I’ve ever followed a speech by the Governor of Utah.
Highway 6 was the entertainment for the evening and we were asked to play 6 songs on acoustic guitars. The members of Highway 6 that played were myself and Tom Nedreberg on acoustic guitars and Disa Nedreberg making her debut singing lead vocals. We practiced and were ready for the gig with a tight set of songs. (more…)
My band, “Bonne Nuit”, will be playing a live online concert on March 3, 2010 from 7:30 pm-9:00 pm Mountain Time. The band members are Matt Rushton, Erik Rushton, Austin Rushton and Skyler Rushton. Bonne Nuit plays a few cover songs and some original music too. It’s all guitar based rock-n-roll with the instrumentation being two guitars, bass and drums. We’re very excited to be playing an online concert as it’s a real thrill to explore new ways of playing live in a band and reaching an audience.
The show will be broadcast using a Shoutcast server. It’s very easy to connect and enjoy the show. The name of the Shoutcast station will be Bonne Nuit Live and that’s what you will want to search for when you go to Shoutcast.com. (more…)
I got the opportunity to play in Highway 6 this weekend at the Vertical Diner in Salt Lake City, Utah. Highway 6 is an all-original band that is fronted by the Father/Daughter duo of Tom and Heidi Nedreberg. They have just released a new CD called “Love Songs To The Desert” on which I had the opportunity to play a lot of the guitar. So when they got a gig at the Vertical Diner they asked me to join them.
The Vertical Diner is a small vegetarian restaurant in Salt Lake City with a small stage tucked into a very prominent corner. The Diner can seat around 100 people and it’s a medium sized room. The standard entertainment is all acoustic instruments but I just couldn’t duplicate my parts properly on an acoustic guitar. I am an electric guitarist so I brought my trusty Fender American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster and my Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier to the gig. These are the same two pieces of equipment I used on the the CD. (more…)
I would certainly be remiss in my duties if I didn’t give a post to review the Superbowl halftime performance of one of the most legendary live bands of all time, The Who. First of all let me tell you that I am a huge Who fan and I have been since the very first time I heard them. The Who are actually one of the biggest influences on my playing and songwriting. Still, I’ll try to be objective about their Superbowl halftime performance. (more…)
In my review of the 2010 Grammy Awards I talked about an excellent live performance by Jeff Beck and Imelda May. Here is the video of Jeff Beck and Imelda May performing the Les Paul/Mary Ford classic “How High The Moon” at the 2010 Grammy Awards. I really think it’s cool that Jeff picked up a Les Paul guitar to play this tribute since he is such a genius on the Fender Stratocaster. Jeff also does a great job copping some classic Les Paul licks during the song. Imelda May simply has a beautiful voice and she nails the vocal on this song.
I do believe that Les Paul deserved about four times as much time for a tribute than he got on the Grammy’s. I don’t think the recording industry would be what it is today without Les Paul’s amazing innovations in recording technology as well as guitar craft. I hope you enjoy watching this performance as much as I did. (more…)
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