Ep 232 Hendrix Effect

"Hendrix Effect" is a Jimi Hendrix dedication band from Northwest Indiana, Chicagoland. Hendrix Effect started in Feb 2023, as a side project for Paul, Roger & Jesse to perform their favorite Jimi Hendrix songs at open mic nights across the Region. Jimi’s catalog is so deep with “blues, rock, and freak-out tunes” as he himself labeled it. While ‘Are You Experienced?’ boasts his essentials, they try to take their listeners through equal selections from all 3 albums as well as the Band of Gypsys and some rarities that true die hard fans will love.

Transcript

Ep 232 Hendrix Effect

Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, it's the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike on a very rainy, cold April.

Yeah, after we've had like two or three 80 degree days. Yeah, can you believe that? It snowed Monday. Well, the sun shined on Monday.

It did. And then it got windy on Monday and then it snowed on Monday. And it snowed, yep.

And then it got dry. Yep. And then by the next morning, it was somewhat warm again.

And today it's like winter again. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

I mean, it's an amazing experience being here in the Chicago area. It is. It is.

And we made it here. Yeah. Are you experienced? Depends on what you're talking about.

I don't know. Paul, are you experienced? Yes. Yes, I am.

And are you effective? I can be effective. Yes. And before anybody starts thinking that we're talking about porn or something, that we should probably explain.

Yes, joining us is Paul Navarro of The Hendrix Effect. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

And he brought an entourage with him. Yeah, he's not the only one in the studio. So how are you doing, Paul? Doing good.

Good. Excellent. Excellent.

So when did you put this whole Hendrix Effect together? Probably about two years ago. This would have been maybe early 2023. OK.

Just kind of put it together as like a side project to go to some jam nights in the area and just play these tunes because they're pretty cool and you don't really hear them all that often. And fast forward like six or seven months later, and we've got three or four shows booked in the area and some smaller clubs, smaller bars. And there's, I don't know, there's a lot of attention.

It's fun. We've got two sets of material. And next thing you know, the following summer, we're doing some festivals and opening up for some bigger bands.

So, yeah, it's it's a it's a real thing. Yeah. I mean, there's a reason why you don't hear that music very often at open jams is because most people don't have the balls to attempt.

But, yeah, that's true. I mean, I still don't, but we do, but we do it anyway. So so I'm assuming you are the Jimi Hendrix of the band.

I play guitar and I sing. But that said, the other guys in the group do sing, too. I think originally they weren't going to, but I kind of pushed it on them just to kind of just give them get them involved a lot more and kind of try to make sure people didn't think it was some kind of one for one, even though we are a three piece.

That's intentional. But like, you know, we don't we're not trying to do Jimi Hendrix theater, right? I make it a point to put on some of the flyers of some of the promo materials that it's a dedication band that's not necessary. I mean, we talk about that's a funny that's a funny way of saying tribute.

And it's fine. And people say it and I think it's fine. And we get lumped in with all of them and it's totally fine.

But just when people dig in and ask, like, it's not theater. Right now, that's not to say there aren't bands out there that do that. And we were talking about it earlier.

There's a bazillion of them. But they they look like them. Like, let's talk about American English.

Like they look like them. They sound like they have multiple wardrobe changes, the instruments, all everything. Now, I mean, that's a thing.

And that's right. That's totally fine. I've seen that band multiple times and it's great.

That's not to say we don't do anything like them. But, you know, we operate as a three piece. You know, we don't wear any wigs or anything like that.

But we play the music first, like to the best of our ability. And that's that's where it starts. And then everything else, I think, kind of wears off on people.

Now, this is this is just for the music. And right. And it's and it's great.

Right. So I'm assuming since you're just a three piece that you're I guess you lean more toward the Jimi Hendrix experience rather than Band of Gypsies. No.

In your song. No, no, we do. You know, we do all we do them all.

And Band of Gypsies are the three piece as well. OK. All right.

So you're kind of stripping down that Band of Gypsies. Well, I mean, when I think of Band of Gypsies, everybody, I think, is going to think about the Woodstock era when you had conga players on the stage and everything else like that. That's right.

Yeah. And for Woodstock, they had some other guys on stage and they were built in weird ways. It was like and he was up there and he's like, yeah, it's the Jimi Hendrix experience, Band of Gypsy, Rainbows, whatever you want to call it.

Yeah, we got tired of that one. So we put this together. We call it Gypsy Sun and Rainbows or something.

And just for short, the Band of Gypsies or something like that. They had Billy Cox on bass, but they went back to Mitch Mitchell on drums. And they brought in some other guys.

And, you know, but yeah, for that kind of stuff, I mean, it's not impossible that down the line there might be an opportunity for some other musicians to join in and make it interesting in a different, weird way. But to pull this stuff off as a three piece is pretty impressive. It's hard.

Like you said, it's it's really difficult. If you do say so yourself, right? Yeah, I'm trying. No, I know it's trying.

No. Yeah. I mean, when I really want to sit down and think, OK, I've got like five hours to myself and I'm going to do nothing.

Let me sit down and learn how to play one Jimi Hendrix song. No, just the guitar. So what do most people do? They pick the one that sounds the easiest.

And so that's the ones that end up getting played. Yeah, yeah. I saw one of your videos.

You played you played Manic Depression. And that's the one song that bands just can't figure out how to play. I've been in three bands that have played that song.

The first one couldn't figure it out. Then the second one, I said, let's play that song only because I wanted to be an asshole and I wanted to see if anybody else could figure it out. And I did the same thing the third time.

It was just but you get it together. Drummers, drummers just don't seem to realize that that's a waltz. So get out of your rock and roll head and play waltz.

I didn't I didn't know it at the time. But it's a really good test because that was when we first started. It was Manic Depression all on the Watchtower.

And if six was nine. Yep. And I figured if couldn't play those, then either, you know, we didn't have the right people or it just wasn't.

It just wasn't possible. No, we got we got through it. I big, big accolades.

The drummer's name is Jesse Fernandez. He's I mean, he knew of Jimi Hendrix, but he never really like dug in, let alone the first song he had to learn was Manic Depression, which it's it's in three, four. It's somewhat of an, you know, odd meter, if you will.

But he he's he's nailing it. So it's it's fine to get that. Yeah.

You know, you never hear about drummers talking about, you know, when they talk about, you know, who are your biggest influences? Everybody says Neil Peart. Everybody says Alex Van Halen. You know that, you know, nobody ever nobody ever talks about, you know, people that have played with Jimi Hendrix.

But holy crap, they fantastic. Mitch Mitchell and Buddy Miles, two different types of drummers, but very powerful people. I mean, I think that's also the reason why I've gotten these guys singing some songs, too, is that I know that for this particular group, you know, Jimi Hendrix is the guitar player and the lyricist.

That's amazing. And I it's it does overshadow the fact that Mitch Mitchell is a superior drummer. He's amazing.

Some of the people that they'll name off the he's in there right at the top. Right. And even Noel Redding, there's there's nothing to pass on.

Noel Redding did great for what he was doing in that band there. And then Billy Cox, if you if you dig in deeper and it's a fantastic bass player. Oh, yeah.

So for sure. Yeah. So we try to try to we do the guitar stuff, but we also try to highlight the drums and the bass because they are really fantastic when you when you dig into it.

Right, right. I've got a DVD at home and I can't remember which one it is. I'm pretty sure it might be from Monterey Pop Fest.

Maybe not. Maybe it isn't. But I remember thinking to myself, what's that? You should have that one.

I should. But I can't remember which one I have at home. But I remember thinking to myself, man, it's got to be really hard to play drums for him.

And it was I believe was Mitch Mitchell on the drum at the time, especially with your forehead laying on your snare. I mean, I was watching his head is down. I mean, his head is like literally just like a centimeter away from the snare.

And I was expecting to see his head like bobbing up and down every time he hit the snare. But, man, he was just yeah, he had to have been on something. And back then, you know, the monitor situation was kind of hit or miss back then.

Like I feel for those, you know, late 60s, like stage volume and monitor mix, like it not not being able to hear each other or whatever, very minimally. It's very difficult. Now, and it would probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway with the fact that Jimmy had a stack of marshals, you know, dying.

Follow him. I guess that's how it went. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, no kidding. So let's talk about it a little bit. I mean, when you decided that you were going to put these together for a jam session, right? Were you always influenced by by Jimi Hendrix? You said this is just a good idea for the jam session.

Yeah, it actually it wasn't my idea. It was it was the bass player. His name is Roger Mall.

He came up to me and he was he was doing his cabinets. He was stripping mopping and he's going to repaint them. And he was he put on he put something on random on his on his phone and it was Jimi Hendrix.

And he just kind of got this kind of idea in the back of his head. He said, hey, let me let me text Paul. You know, he's a big Hendrix fan.

And I am and I am. I grew up on I grew up and I picked up the guitar because of him. But it like I didn't like play it all the time.

He was just the guy that got me started and I listened to it. I know most of the songs never played any of them with any bands, but I just love the music. So he's like, well, let me let me let me call Paul and see what he would be the guy.

I guess I was wasn't even thinking about it. Yeah. And I go, OK, well, let's try it.

Let's pick some songs. Let's find a drummer and set some songs, see what sticks. And so two and a half years later, we're still we're still rocking and rolling with it.

And he's still not done with those cabinets. Yeah, that would be me. Don't let his wife hear that.

He's like, you have to finish that now. Wow. So so OK.

So when you first said his cabinets, I was thinking like he was stripping and refinishing like a base cabinet, like a speaker cabinet. I mean, like his kitchen cabinet. Yeah.

Do for a refresh. Yeah. You better get up on your ass and do that now because it's going to be, you know, all over the Internet now.

So whenever it does get published, I'll let him know in advance. I could just make sure she's not listening. Yeah.

But in his defense, I know that that's a pain in the ass. I've done it twice. It sucks.

Yeah, it's something I don't want to do. So good luck to you. That got his mind off it for about two and a half years ongoing.

Yeah, that's good. So so are you I mean, are you trying to mimic the the guitar tone at all or are you using your own stuff and putting your own swipe on it? No, that's a good point. There is.

So that's good. That's a really good, good tech question for what the rig was going to be like. So for the for the variety of songs that we do, it's it's kind of like there are some songs that have clean tones and you got some studio effects that you want to touch.

And when he played live, he really just had the Marshall stacks and a couple pedals. Yep. And that's and he and he's masterful work of the volume control on his guitar.

But for some of the songs that we do that that he's never performed live, we need a little bit more, at least for the guitar part. We need a little bit more variety in the tone. So I use a two channel amp.

So there's a distortion tone and then there's a clean tone. And then I got a couple pedals just embellish on that. That's about it.

That's that's about as much as I'll deviate, I guess, the two channel amp, because it's it's really hard to pull off some of the clean stuff if I've got to roll back volumes. And it just it just doesn't sound as good. And the technology exists to be there.

And I know there's some purists out there like, well, you need to use the, you know, the super, super plexi. And those are three thousand, four thousand dollars amps that I'm not going to drop or let somebody spill something on. And so, yeah.

How many guitars have you burned up? On purpose? On stage. No, zero. Speaking of guitars, I do use a Stratocaster and I use I use the neck pickup probably 90% of the time.

Of course. So which is that works really has worked really well throughout the doing all of this. So, of course, I mean, that's where you start.

But that's all that's really needed. And that's the guitar that you see him play most of the time. And so he's used the Flying V. He's got an SG, which have humbuckers in them.

And he usually plays Red House with those or some of the blues tunes. But we get by just fine Stratocaster. It's fine.

Yeah. You know, people who people who are just getting into Hendrix or the first time they listen to him, they hear all of the studio effects and the things that they have in his recordings. And then they take it a step further and they get concert videos.

And they're like, well, this song doesn't sound the same. Well, yeah, that's because he doesn't have a phase around this song. That's because he doesn't have a delay on this song when he's doing it live.

He's got the fuzz face. You know, he's got his wah pedal. Right.

That's all I've ever seen at his feet when he's performing live. In later years, the Octavia. Yeah, that did come in.

And the Univibe was a really big thing. But yeah, and I and I have those things. Yeah, totally.

Totally. Excellent. And we do.

That's a good point that you bring that up is that we do tend to lean on the live versions of the songs than the studio versions, just because there's there's always we could do the studio version. But if you're if you're doing it that way, I think there's an expectation that, you know, A, then B, then C, then D happens. And, you know, these pitches and these notes and these little screeches happen here and there and you don't hear them, you're missing it or something like that.

But when you tend to lean on the live versions, you're kind of taking people for a ride through the song and maybe where it's been over time. And I think that just breathes some new life into the live versions that we play. So some part might be a little bit longer than others, or we might jam in the middle here or just take a little twist to the left or right every now and again.

And I think that keeps it interesting. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, you you mentioned all along the Watchtower, it's like, yeah, who wants to have the tape delay and all that other stuff there to play the solos and everything like that? I mean, I don't know about you, but that's all a distraction for me.

If I start tap dancing on pedals, I just completely freak out. What the heck I'm doing? That's interesting you bring that up, because that is that is one that I do. Do you really? Right.

Like you just like, OK, if we're going to do some song, let's just make some of them as like best as possible. And that's one that will get at least I try to get right on it. This is a load of guitar work.

It is. Like it's the same riff over and over. But when you get to the three different solo sections, it's just right.

Thing after thing after thing. Yeah. But like for Hey Joe, for example, which, you know, this is the easiest song in the set.

We take the the live at BBC version where there's a completely different intro and this guitar goes out of tune and then they cut the song short and they go into Sunshine of Your Love and they get kicked off of the BBC. Like we do that first. Right.

OK, gotcha. No, that's interesting. So you mentioned you have a two channel amp.

What's the amplifier at the moment? I'm using a Marshall DSL. OK, yeah, just Marshall's tone just gets right to it. You know, those DSLs, as well as other other amplifiers like by Fender and Bogner and stuff like that.

There's a lot of those things are gaining some popularity here recently, I think, because number one, they weigh half the amount as an all tube amp and they sound pretty decent, you know. So it's why not, you know, and they get the job done. They do.

Yes. Yeah. Excellent.

Excellent. So what kind of places you guys playing? You brought us this poster here. I wish we had our video up, but it's going to I'll take I'll take a I'll take a picture of it and put it on our Facebook page.

Yeah. Yeah. We got this poster.

This is something that's actually coming up for you guys, is it or no? Yes, that's right. In a couple of weeks. Yeah.

So you guys. Oh, yeah. Friday April is coming up.

It's coming up this Friday, April 25th, this Friday, April 25th. Wow. At the at the Hobart Theater.

The Hobart Art Theater. Yeah. Am I saying that? I thought it was Hobart.

Everybody. Well, you know what? It is Hobart. It's Hobart.

It is Hobart. It's not Hobart. It's not Hobart.

No, it's Hobart. Yeah. Yeah.

Our Cadillac Groove fan, Jess, would would correct me and tell you that it is supposed to be Hobart. It is Hobart. Yeah.

We did we did a show last year there and we opened up for a band called All My Brothers, which was All My Brothers Band. Oh, yeah. And that was kind of our first tone of water on that stage.

And I've seen, you know, hundreds of shows there. So to play local at a local theater is really it's really cool. And then all our family and friends will come out.

And and then so they brought us back, you know, for opening up for this jump band. And that's going to be a big show, too. And so we're excited, even if it's just a little bit of time to get up there and and show us show off what we do.

It's it's it's going to be great. And that and that show that that will sell out. So if you if you're thinking about it, you're like, oh, Van Halen, that's pretty cool.

No, these guys are phenomenal. And it's a big show, like, you know, like they're the kind of band that they're dressed like them and they have the pyrotechnic. I don't know about pyrotechnics, but they have the they have the light show and and the jumping and everything.

And and the big guitar solos. And I've seen them play before and they're absolutely amazing. So, yes, that is I'm going and I'm playing and I get to see these guys at the same time, too.

So this is this is going to be a really nice show. Sounds like a good time. Yeah, it does.

Yeah. So there's that. And then, you know, a couple of club, you know, bar and club shows.

And then when we get back through the summer, there's some festivals. There's one in Hobart called the Lakefront Festival that we'll be playing at. We'll be out in La Porte, which is, you know, going out to the east at a place called Waterford Inn.

Yeah, we do. We do some Michigan shows. We'll be at I don't think this is on this particular list here, but at Watermark Brewing up in up in Michigan.

Oh, yeah. Familiar with that place. It's a good, great brewery there.

Yeah, yeah. We played there kind of late in the summer last year, and I think we did pretty well. So they're bringing us back in August.

And then the big one for us is there's this festival in Valparaiso, Indiana, at the pavilion there called the Wolf Stock. Oh, wow. You guys have the Wolf Stock.

Well, it used to. We don't talk. Let's not talk.

Let's not talk about. We don't talk. OK, I'm sorry to hear.

Well, anyways, it's a big festival for dog lovers and not just dogs. You can bring any animal there, but largely because it's called the Wolf Stock, a lot of the dog folk bring their dogs out. And there's like, you know, there's vendors and stuff on the side and then have a big concert and we'll be we'll be headlining Wolf Stock.

And the bands that play are kind of nice touching in on that era of the Santana. And OK, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, stuff like that. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

Hey, everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. If you've been joining our weekly program, we have great news for you.

Just tune in to Road to Rock Radio on Mondays at 7 p.m. Central Time and you can hear a rebroadcast of one of our past episodes. Then again, on Thursdays at 7 p.m., you can hear our most current episode brought to you by the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66. So go to Road to Rock dot org, scroll down and click on radio station.

That'll bring you to the Road to Rock Radio, a station committed entirely to the great music from Illinois, from Chicago blues born on Maxwell Street to today's rock and roll and everything in between. Twenty four, seven, all music with its roots in Illinois. So are you playing? I mean, are you playing full nights? Are you playing like, you know, the standard one hour sets or three one hour sets, you know, 20 minute breaks? Is there enough music, you have enough material to play all by yourself? Are you opening for people? How's that? Yeah, we have enough material to play to play by ourselves.

We're we're usually doing the the clubs that will do to to our little bit our 15 sets with a little bit of a break. So we've been doing those. And then when the opportunity is right, we will split the bill.

We'll split the bill with another band that usually is for opening up for these these other acts. But we we play two really solid sets. So yeah, the band of gypsy songs like Machine Gun.

Yeah. And you can play those for 20 minutes. Those are those are good 10 minute songs.

So like, we spread them out, but we sprinkle it in. And yeah, I mean, next thing you know, we're like, man, we have over an hour here already. And we're like, you know, 10 songs or something like that.

Do you find the people that are coming out to see you are expecting you to do things like that? I hope so. Yeah, I guess I guess what I'm getting at is do you see the same faces in the crowd all the time? Are they going there because they're pretty much expecting what they're going to get with your band? Are you bringing in new people? Are you turning, you know, young people on to Hendrix music with what you're doing? The experienced folk, if that's how we want to if you want to refer to them as experienced folk. No, they're definitely there to see some of their favorite songs.

And you can usually they'll call out some deeper cuts. And I think and they feel like they think we don't know. Like they're testing you.

Like you'll say something castles made of sand. Oh, you got it. Here.

Yeah, right. Yeah, right. And we pull it off.

Speaking of youngsters. Yes. When we first I was a couple of times last year, we had a couple of shows that we we brought in a couple youngsters that, you know, they're just like kind of like myself.

They're up and coming. They know a few songs and we brought them up to sit in on a few songs there. So when we do play all ages shows and some of these places here on this list are all ages, we'll we'll contact them or they reach out to us by, hey, why don't you come and sit in? And like you are the next generation of all this.

I don't give you this opportunity or I don't try to, you know, encourage you to come and do this. Like, what am I going to be doing when I'm when I can't move my hands anymore? Right. I it better be good.

That's all I'll say. Like, you know, I can't when I stop playing the music better be good. It better get your better get your experience in now.

Yeah. No pun intended. Yeah.

So I'm I'm always encouraging if there's any youngsters that wanted to sit in and come so that that leads into also last year. I was asked to host a monthly jam night at a place called Verona Pizza out in Mount Brazos. It's a very popular jam night in the regions on Thursday nights.

It's an all ages place. And so one Thursday a month, we have this, quote unquote, Hendrix Jam. And I mean, we don't play it.

We don't only play Hendrix songs, but the band will come up and we'll play maybe 45 minutes and sprinkle in a couple other fun things. And we get a lot of youngsters. We get a lot of youngsters coming in to play.

And they'll come in. We'll teach them the songs on the fly. And and then and they're jamming.

They're on their way. So. So, yeah, those youngsters come to the jam night and then they play.

And if like, you know, they're doing well, we'll invite them to a show like, hey, you want to come to a show and sit down? And like they've never been on a stage before. They never they don't know what a monitor is like. This is great experience for them.

And I'm happy to help encourage it. If they're fans, I'd love to get them up there. So.

So where do you go from, you know, you're playing all this Hendrix music in the whole bit, where do you go when you you said, man, we've been doing this forever now, I'm getting kind of tired of this, but man, we got to keep playing Jimi Hendrix music. You know, where do you go from there? Because unfortunately, he's not writing any new music. He isn't.

You know, he isn't. I didn't know that. Yeah.

His family thinks that he is apparently they keep sending out these remastered versions in the whole bit. I mean, you know, have you ever have you ever thought about doing things like that? You know, Jimmy played guitar with the Isley Brothers. Maybe we can throw in an Isley Brothers song or something like that.

We do some we do some pretty deep cut B-sides. They're not Isley Brothers things or what Jimmy and the Flames, but we'll, you know, we'll do a Rock Me Baby, which is like a B.B. King song that he played at Monterey with Holland Wolfe. I would say you mean you mean learn all his songs once we get done learning all his songs? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's exactly what we're saying. It does take a long time. I don't I don't know if I know any bands other than maybe Randy Hanson, if you're familiar with Randy Hanson, he's he's he was a Jimi Hendrix tribute guy who's been playing throughout the 70s and 80s and 90s.

I think he still plays a little bit now, but he was he was fantastic, probably the best ever to do it, to redo it. And I think maybe he knew all the songs. Well, for us, I think if it ever got to that point, I think the the next thing to tap into, hopefully, if we're if we're big enough or whatever, is is the production value.

Maybe maybe we can start including some more visuals with the music, you know, because having screens behind the stage is something a little bit getting becoming a little bit more common because the technology is getting a little bit cheaper and the LEDs, you can put them on even during the day and you can see maybe maybe the production value could be increased where we have a little bit more extreme of a light show, something that would go along with the music. So it's not just us up there playing a song with still blue light, right? It's there when you've got lights that go with the music and you've got video that goes along with the music and and stuff like that. I think increasing the production value would probably be the next step for those for that and for that kind of stuff.

Sounds like maybe you guys have been thinking about that a little bit. I that's just the whole concert, create the whole concert experience. Yeah, and I'm and I'm I'm happy that the progression as we start right at the bottom where it's Smokey Bar in some corner and like because the music's if we can't get that like all that other production stuff.

To me, it's it's theater and I don't want it to be theater until we can get there to the point where, yeah, this is a cool show, right? So that's that's what I think about. What about what about doing nights like, you know, tonight we're going to perform the entire Woodstock set. That's good.

That's a great question. There's a there's a festival on this list here called the Freedom Fest. And this is if you're not the Lazy Lightning Band, they're a Grateful Dead band.

You know, I think I have heard of that. I don't I've never seen them. Yeah.

OK, so they're putting together a festival and they want to do a night at the Fillmore is the theme. Oh, wow. So a night at the Fillmore.

So there's only in the Fillmore song. So if you're familiar, like, obviously, they're so they do Allman Brothers songs, too. So they're doing Allman Brothers set, like a special Allman Brothers.

Right, right. And a Grateful Dead set because they they were pretty much the house band at the Fillmore East. And then you got your band of gypsies.

Yeah. And you know, that's the DVD that I have at home. Oh, yeah.

That's the that's the one now that you're saying that. Yeah, absolutely. And so, yeah.

So so for us, like we do band of gypsies songs, but to take a step back and go, oh, you know, we we have to focus on what happened at the Fillmore. OK, so we already play these three or four. OK, there's a few more here that are pretty cool that almost nobody knows or that aren't very popular for whatever reason.

Right. We're going to dig those up and we're going to we'll perform those as part of this night at the Fillmore thing. And I think in the future, that festival will have different themes over time.

Maybe they'll do Monterey or they'll do Woodstock. I mean, there's there's a lot of Woodstock things. Right.

But not a lot of people will go. This is Monterey or Otis Redding play. Right.

The Mamas and the Papas played and the Who played. You know, like, oh, yeah, I forgot it. Of course, Jimi Hendrix played.

Yeah. Right, right, right. And if I'm not mistaken, that I believe that night, didn't he didn't they even open up with a Beatles song? Who? Jimi Hendrix.

I think they opened up with Sergeant Peppers. You know, that's that's that's that's good. Good.

They did it. But I feel he'll humor you. Yeah, yeah.

No, it's not. They the video that I have, I could be wrong with the video that I have. I'm pretty sure they opened up with Sergeant Peppers.

Three guys playing Sergeant Peppers like way too fast. But yes, we do. We do it.

We really do it just like that. And you do it and you do it fast. Yeah, it's loud.

But it's it's pretty correct. So I'll give you the story behind it. But what you're the Monterey, he opened with Killing Floor, which is a Howlin' Wolf.

Yeah, yeah. And that one is probably twice to three times as fast what the regular one is. Yeah, I've heard that.

But it's awesome. And we do that too. No, but anyway, Sergeant Pepper is a great story because that was only like a few days after Sergeant Pepper, the album was released.

Right. And he knew that Paul McCartney would be sitting in the crowd and he was coming to the show. So either the they learned it that quick.

Yeah. You know, the the story is that he taught it to the band like backstage right before. So so yeah, to like to hear that album and that weird song for being that time frame and going, all right, we're going to learn this.

And he did a really good job of it for what we know. We're not having an entire horn section, right? He played the meat. He played the meat of the song.

And he was like looking at Paul McCartney in that video. He's like, right, you know, cover your ears. So and he was even chewing gum during it.

He was chewing gum in the middle of it. He did that a lot. Yeah.

And on time, he like the gum was falling out of his mouth and he was literally in time where he like swatted it away and kept singing. It was great. But yeah, we'll and we'll some of the shows we play when it's like a shorter set.

We kind of make it a point to like almost half the songs are covers. Yeah. Because he did a lot.

Oh, he did. He actually did. Yeah.

Well, what was that movie that came out? There was a movie that came out not too long ago where what's his name? Andre Benjamin from Outcast. Yeah. Played him.

And the family would not authorize anything that he wrote, anything that he had a copyright on. So all of the music in that movie was like Beatles music. Bob Dylan music and stuff like that.

There was actually no Jimi Hendrix music in the in the entire movie. Yeah, it was. It was kind of too bad.

Highlights all this. I mean, if you could pull a movie off with all the covers that he did, there you go. Yeah, that explains that he did.

He did a lot. So sometimes some of our shorter shows, like about half of it will be covers. Right.

Like Hey Joe is a cover. Right, right. Oh, yeah.

Absolutely. Yep. Yep.

Yeah, that's a cover. And then he did a. Like, is that all you guys do? Like, nah, man, half the songs were covers. That's why we learned the original version because we can't play the Jimi Hendrix version.

No, no, but no, I totally get that. No, he did do a lot of that. And there was, what was it? And he played a lot with Little Richard.

So there was a lot of Little Richard music in that movie as well, which is, which is crazy. Yeah, he played with Little Richard for like six years, which is, which is a crazy thing. Nobody realizes that.

Yeah. And the rumor is, the rumor is that Little Richard fired him because he was always late. But then it was Jimmy's brother that came out and said, yeah, no, that's not true.

Because the real reason was he used to drink a lot and hit on all the women. I think he was starting to get a little more attention than Richard. Yeah, that's probably what it was.

That's not how that band dynamic goes. Yeah, yeah. So what are your, we're going to test your knowledge, Jimmy, you know, there's, there's like 6.6 things that you can go back and you can look into his career to say, OK, these are the things that made Jimi Hendrix, right? One of them, of course, would be the Isle of Wight concert, right? That would be one.

Playing the Star-Spangled Banner, you know, at Woodstock is one of them. What are the three points to you? What do you think made his career? And what are the what are the three things that happened for you to say, you know, I really like this guy and I idolize him. I want to play his music.

That that that Monterey Pop Festival set was about 45 minutes. Even listening back to it now, it was just like on fire. Like, yeah, just what a what a performance.

And fortunately, back then they they did film it. So when I when I first got it and listened to it, it was on VHS tape. So I was able to see all of it.

And of course, it ended with him smashing and lighting a guitar on fire, which you know, kind of people think that's the only time he ever did it. He did that before that several times. There's no footage of any of them.

You ever filmed it because people film those kinds of things back then. But this one they did. So that one was that was pretty iconic, I would say.

Obviously, yes, the Woodstock with the the Woodstock with with the Star-Spangled Banner. Um, let's see. I I really do like the the Band of Gypsies stuff.

That was also like I want to say, like my second CD that I got. I got all these deep live things. Yeah, that was given to me.

And so hearing Machine Gun on that one, you know, like I thought I was the only one that like listened to it with headphones, you know, late at night under my bed. I'm going to listen to it again. Another 12, another 12 minutes.

Right, right, right. But like you said, I get out there and people are asking, you play, do you guys play Machine Gun? Do you play Machine Gun? Like, I thought I was the only one that knew about this song. You know, yeah.

OK, yeah, let's let's go. Let's do this. Let's see one other one.

Hmm. This this one was also in a different video. It was like a documentary type video.

Him playing Hear My Train of Common on the 12 string. Oh, yeah, yeah. There's very, very rare footage of him playing acoustic guitars, but they got that one.

And that's a really, really cool rendition. I just watched that the other day, as a matter of fact. Did you really? Yeah, it just it popped up in my news feed for some reason.

Yeah, it's pretty, pretty impressive the way you did that. Yes, we do Hear My Train of Common, but we do like the electric version, which you see on many of his live sets kind of later in the career, like from the Band of Gypsies on. Yeah.

But that 12 string version is a little bit. It's like if he had to play it solo by himself, that's how it goes. And it's so it's so a little bit different and very cool than the live version, which are both equally good.

Of course. But I think that 12 string versions. I still don't even try to mess with that.

But maybe maybe one day. Yeah, yeah. No, I totally get that.

Well, so I'll tell you what. How can people first of all, I should ask you're you're from Indiana. Do you play in the Chicagoland area at all? Crestwood.

OK. We've done Pilsen at the place called Honky Tonk or the Tonk. OK.

That's in Pilsen. We did the Gallery Cabaret. I think that's in Bucktown.

Yeah, yeah. So we've kind of sprinkled ourselves into the city just to kind of let us be known there. But obviously, we are trying to get into some of the other clubs here and in the city to play.

What was the other question? Where we're branching. OK, so, you know, Michigan, we have a few things out there in Michigan. Obviously, the northwest Indiana area, we've played it pretty much everywhere that will take us.

And like I said, we're trying to get into Chicago. I think if we can do pretty well with getting on some festivals in the region here, which we are, that's going to help us kind of get our foot a little bit more in the door in the Chicagoland and in Michigan. Right.

Kind of the goal. I mean, we like playing clubs because our friends come and everyone can be really close. But I think the I think the goal, at least in the near term, is is to, you know, to play some of these theater stages, either with a double bill or on our own and do summer festivals like that's those are the most fun.

For me, it's it's the reach. Right. Is is how can I reach? How can all this reach the most people? Some people like playing in small places for their friends and their friends are looking right at them right in the face.

And that's fine. I like those two. But for me, it's it's the reach.

How can I get what we're doing out to the most people? Maybe some youngster out there like myself when I was a 12 year old, whoever watching some band and some festival somewhere is like, I kind of want to do that. Looks fun. It's cool.

What song was that? What were they playing? Right. So that's what I'm trying. At least for me, I'm trying to get it back.

Right. Right. Excellent.

Which which we should. Yes. Instead of them just doing stuff on their computer.

Yeah. Creating stuff on their song. Yeah.

What do you play? Nacer. Yeah. And that's what I was talking about those youngsters earlier.

Like we had that jam night. If I if I see anyone, you know, trying to reach out with a guitar or whatever, he come. Yeah.

The door is open. Come and play with us. I don't it doesn't matter your skill level.

We'll get you going. You know, it's almost like musicians are going to become extinct. Yeah, you're exactly right.

They've taken music out of the schools. Yeah. So it's not there.

You know, I mean, of course, you got your school of rocks and all that places now. But still. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, the first place I learned anything about a musical instrument was literally in school. Yeah.

And then I went home and told my parents, I want to learn how to play this instrument, that instrument. And they said, no. Yeah.

And they said, no. So I so I learned I mean, I was dying to be I was I wanted to be, you know, a guitar player so bad. And here I am 30 years later.

And I I'm exactly that. I'm so bad. Now, I'm sure you should come to the jam night.

I'm telling you. The for the parents out there that have that have a child that's maybe asking for drums or asking for a guitar or whatever, like and there's too much noise. Like I like for my parents, they're like, no, you know, they they got me a guitar.

And I am when I asked, can we practice in the basement or in the garage or whatever? And they let us do it. And we made a bunch of noise, you know, but I think like they knew where we were. They knew what we were doing.

Exactly. I don't know if they actually told everyone it was on purpose. You know, to the parents out there thinking about that, you'll know where they are.

You'll know where they are. You know what they're doing. You know, they might be terrible for years.

Yeah. But at least you know that. And they're doing something constructive.

They're doing something with their minds. They're doing something with their creativity. So buy them the hundred dollar guitar.

It's fine. It's fine. And support them.

Yeah, it's fine. Support what they're doing. It's going to help a lot.

And if you give them lessons, again, to you, the person that you take them to do the lessons, they're out there gaming on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you know, I mean, this is the community that you're dipping into. That's right. And so just, yeah, help them out.

Get that youngster an instrument. It's okay. Let them make noise.

Yeah. You know what they are. You know what they're doing.

Good or bad. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

So you guys got a website. How can people find you on the internet? Yes, we got a Facebook page. It's under Hendrix Effect.

Instagram and Hendrix Effect handle. There's a link tree that gives you links to those. The same thing with the YouTube channel.

There's videos there. I try to keep it updated. Try to at least pull one song off every show and keep it updated so you can see what's going on and stuff like that.

But yeah, that's where to find us on the socials. Excellent. All right.

Sounds good. Yeah. Well, it was nice meeting you.

Yeah. Thanks for coming out. I think I'd like to see this show.

This looks very interesting. Yeah, absolutely. Well, what would be like the closest one for you? Oh, probably The Beaver.

Oh, you guys are at The Thirsty Beaver. Yeah, The Beaver. So that'd be our second time back there.

I guess they remodeled some of it and now it's a little bit bigger of a space. Well, they've got an outdoor beer garden that they've put a canopy over. And so you can actually go out there during the wintertime.

But during the summertime, they open that whole canopy up. If they can afford a canopy, they can afford to sponsor this podcast. That's right.

All you guys at The Beaver, we know those guys pretty well. I've played there many times. What I heard is there used to be the stage was in the corner and then they took over the business next door, knocked the wall down and put the stage against the back wall.

So now they got even more room. And I can't remember who, a buddy of mine was playing there a couple of weekends ago. And I'm like, this place looks, it looks great.

Wow. And they're packing people in there and the summer is going to be awesome. And we're playing there in August.

So mark, you know, mark your calendars down there. Just check out on those socials. That Freedom Fest sounds good, too, though.

Yeah, that sounds... Lazy Lightning Band's been doing Grateful Dead stuff for over 10 years and they're awesome at it. And I didn't even know that. Oh, yeah, yeah.

We do those Allman Brothers stuff, too. So you're going to get these three nights at the Fillmore. Like, oh, yeah, that sounds like a really cool show.

Yeah, no kidding. Excellent. Excellent.

There's pretty cool stuff coming up, man. All right. All right.

Get out there and see these guys. That's right. I would like to.

That's for sure. If I ever have a weekend off. Yeah.

Yeah, you don't. All right. Thanks for coming out.

Thank you very much. All right. Well, there you have it.

The Hendrix Effective. Effect. Effect.

Hendrix Effect. That's right. God bless him.

Pretty interesting. I don't have the hours and hours and hours. It takes.

No, it's a lot of work. Oh, yeah. I mean, there are some artists out there that you got to put in the time.

Yeah, no, absolutely. You know, if you really want to send people want to when they listen to something, they want to hear the way they know it. They don't want no changes.

Well, especially Jimi Hendrix. Yeah. You're not going to go out and and cover Jimi Hendrix song and not get at least 90% close.

Right, right. Because people are going to know and they're going to make fun of you. And I think a lot of the stuff he did wasn't planned.

A lot of the noises and sounds that came out of that guitar. I don't think I got. There's a spiderweb.

You have a spiderweb. There's something. Yeah.

I thought you were like doing sign language or something, you know, because I'm trying to do a sign. I'm trying to interpret sign language. OK, very good.

When we get our when we get our YouTube thing going, maybe then people will understand what you're saying with your hands. Could be. So until then, thank you for listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast.

Check us out every Tuesday for another exciting new episode. See you. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin.

Theme song courtesy of MNR Rush. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show. The music is used to promote the guests that are featured.