Sometimes, a night of blow-your-hair-back rock ’n’ roll is just what the doctor ordered.
Enter Get The Led Out.
The band will make its way back to the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College stage on Sept. 19, bringing with it the music of rock gods Led Zeppelin.
If you go
WHAT: Get The Led Out: A Celebration of the “Mighty ZEP.”
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19.
WHERE: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.
TICKETS: $30-$60.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit durangoconcerts.com and www.gtlorocks.com.
Just don’t expect a performance by musicians pretending to actually be Led Zeppelin – these guys are musicians in their own right and play the music of the band as musicians would, not as impersonators, said Paul Hammond, who plays electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin and theremin for GTLO. He’s also one of the band’s co-founders.
“Sometimes, we get grouped in with other quote, unquote tribute bands, which is a thing, and I can’t take anything away from bands like that, because I just love music, and I like Zeppelin or the Beatles or anything performed live, period,” he said. “You know, as long as they do it well – I love when kids have their tribute bands that they’ll do, like, full of rock stuff, and they’ll do Chicago or Yes, and they’re really, really good. I love that because it’s keeping the great music alive.”
GTLO started 22 years ago, Hammond said. He and lead singer/harmonica player Paul Sinclair were doing a local show in a corner bar, where they would play Zeppelin and Aerosmith songs every first Sunday of the month. Other local musicians from the Philadelphia area heard about it and went to see a performance. They wanted to enlist Sinclair in a Zeppelin tribute band – the kind with the wigs and the costumes and acting like Zeppelin. Sinclair wasn’t interested, Hammond said.
“He didn’t want to do that, because we had a good life doing local gigs, and we’re in the recording business, music business in Philly,” he said. “He said the only way he would do it is if we did it like the record, with all the different parts and overdubs, and if they brought me in to play all the extra parts. So I begrudgingly said I’d try it. We did it, and people loved it. It took off fairly quickly because the fans really liked the fact that we weren’t a dress up look like Zeppelin tribute band. We really played the music like it was on the records. And so that’s how it came about ... it was basically Paul Sinclair’s desire to make a band that does the Zeppelin songs just like the record.”
The musical chops the musicians bring to the band is no joke: Hammond has been in the music business since the late 1980s, he said, doing just about everything from working in music stores, playing shows and giving guitar lessons. He’s also a tech, fixing guitars and amps and building guitar amps.
And music has always been an important part of his life, he said.
“If you think about it, and I’m going to date myself, when I was 8 years old, I started playing guitar. My father taught me how to play first, so I was semi self-taught. In 1973, so that’s when Zeppelin was still a band, and all the bands that I had started to learn how the play were not that far removed from that day,” he said. “You had Hendricks, you had Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, the Who and then Rush and all these great bands. So I came up playing that stuff. But I was based in classic rock and blues, as well as learning how to play jazz, chord theory, classical. I took music theory classes in high school and in college. So I have such a background in music that when it came to Zeppelin, was like, OK, yeah, I’ve been doing this forever, so it’s not like it’s a stretch. So that resonates with the fans, too. Everybody’s really good at what they do, and it’s not like we’re up there just phoning it in to make some dough.”
The band – which includes Hammond, Sinclair, Tommy Zamp on electric and acoustic guitars, vocals; Seth Chrisman on bass guitar, vocals; Derek Smith on drums, percussion; and Eddie Kurek on keyboards, electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, percussion – has a jam-packed schedule through the end of the year, and couple that with how long the guys have been playing together, and you’d think things would get stale – Zeppelin doesn’t have an infinite amount of songs, after all, but GTLO has found a way to keep performances fresh, not only for those on stage, but those in the audience as well, Hammond said.
“Our singer Paul keeps a database of all the shows that we do and the set lists that we do. So every time we return to a venue, it’s a completely different set list,” he said. “I’m always playing different stuff, it’s not the same old thing over and over. So you got to be on point. You got to be on your toes to do all that. And not only that, every gig is different. Every venue is different. So it’s always new and exciting.”
It’s that energy and excitement Get The Led Out is bringing to town next week after performing at Red Rocks. The guys have been here before – and are even hoping to get in some golf time at Hillcrest, Hammond said.
“It’s gonna be a great show, we’re psyched. We love Durango,” he said. “The fans and the audience and the people that come to Durango have the best energy and the greatest vibe, and they make us feel so good that it’s the perfect show. We couldn’t ask for anything better to follow up Red Rocks. And we’re very, very happy to be coming back and performing for everybody there, and all the people are so nice, I can’t say enough about the venue, the staff, everybody there.”
katie@durangoherald.com
