I attended Big Nick & the Gila Monsters at Janey’s Coffee Co. & Bodega, where they performed a blues style of music. Big Nick & the Gila Monsters aren’t a very big band or group that is known worldwide, but they are based out of Phoenix, Arizona and are all very talented individuals. They performed several songs, but never let the audience know what they were playing which was unusual to me because usually they let us know what song they’re playing so we could find out more about it. Although they did not list any titles, as a unit the group performed very well. The group includes Big Nick Riviera who had the blues tone of voice and occasionally accompanied the band with his harmonica, Mike “El Rey” Lewis who played the guitar, Rocky Heyer
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The drums had a steady beat throughout the song and the electric guitar had a wide range. As the instruments played together, all of a sudden, the vocals came in and you could feel the decrease in tempo happening as he sang. This is what I interpreted to be ritardando, where there is a gradual decrease in tempo. This occurred as Big Nick sang and when he finished with his short vocal piece, everything picked up again and was more up tempo. Towards the end of the song, there was a harmonica solo and the drummer started to bang on his drums really fast, signaling the end of the …show more content…
After hearing some of the music, I felt a connection to what was popular back in 1930s because during those days is when the jazz and blues type of music was really about. My favorite musician would have had to been Ricky Lockhart because I’ve heard many drummers before from different songs, but after hearing what he could do I was shocked because I have never heard anything like that. Maybe that type of drum playing is typical in the blues field, but I had never heard of it and was surprised to hear the drums being played like that. Although the music was interesting and enjoyable, I’d unfortunately would not particularly want to go to another performance by this group just because there weren’t many interactions with the crowd and it’s just not my personal taste in music. But, I will give credits to everyone in Big Nick & the Gila Monsters because they put on a heck of a show and you could definitely tell people in the crowd enjoyed their music and performance they
The drums had a steady beat throughout the song and the electric guitar had a wide range. As the instruments played together, all of a sudden, the vocals came in and you could feel the decrease in tempo happening as he sang. This is what I interpreted to be ritardando, where there is a gradual decrease in tempo. This occurred as Big Nick sang and when he finished with his short vocal piece, everything picked up again and was more up tempo. Towards the end of the song, there was a harmonica solo and the drummer started to bang on his drums really fast, signaling the end of the …show more content…
After hearing some of the music, I felt a connection to what was popular back in 1930s because during those days is when the jazz and blues type of music was really about. My favorite musician would have had to been Ricky Lockhart because I’ve heard many drummers before from different songs, but after hearing what he could do I was shocked because I have never heard anything like that. Maybe that type of drum playing is typical in the blues field, but I had never heard of it and was surprised to hear the drums being played like that. Although the music was interesting and enjoyable, I’d unfortunately would not particularly want to go to another performance by this group just because there weren’t many interactions with the crowd and it’s just not my personal taste in music. But, I will give credits to everyone in Big Nick & the Gila Monsters because they put on a heck of a show and you could definitely tell people in the crowd enjoyed their music and performance they