Secret Santa, Secret Songs

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HughShows Secret Santapalooza
Kollar Club
Saturday, December 19

Pittsburgh music blog, HughShows, led by Hugh Twyman pulled off his 2nd annual Secret Santapalooza at Kollar Club in the South Side. Each band played at least one cover song of another Pittsburgh artist of their choice and was a secret to everyone. The night was a treat for any music fan but especially those familiar with the Pittsburgh music scene. Hearing your favorite band put their own twist on another song you admire is something really cool to see and is pretty special for the musician to hear also.

Ghost Guts layed out a killer version of Dream Phone’s “Mind Reader,” putting a punk spin to it. The Red Western brought a surprise of their own, inviting Derek White on stage for a cover of his 2008 song “Mean Tambourine,” from Derek White and the Monophobics. Satin Gum pulled out the deep track “Loki” from Teddy Duchamp’s Army, a punk band that disbanded in 2003. Paul Luc and Clinton Clegg duo covered each other and threw in a dance worthy version of Rusted Root’s “Ecstacy,” while Chrome Moses payed tribute to The Commonheart with their song “Cannonball.”

Chet Vincent and the Big Bend covered four songs, even changing the lyrics a bit for the holiday season. They covered André Costello and the Cool Minors, Meeting of Important People, The Slow Reel and Molly Alphabet.

“We played André’s song “Virgil (Easy Go).” It was really fun to learn. I really dig André’s songs, he always has cool arrangements with great guitar parts. It’s a cool thing, this Santa event, because it lets us learn what other bands are doing and that’s a good exercise. I think we pulled off Andre’s song pretty well given the relatively short amount of time we had to learn it. At the last minute we changed the lyrics to be Christmas lyrics for fun, otherwise we didn’t change anything. Hopefully he appreciated that decision,” said Vincent.

André’s version of the closing stanza of the song is “Easy come, easy go. The people they don’t know, the meaning of that statement” but Chet cleverly changed the lyrics to “Presents come, presents go, the children they don’t know, the meaning of Christmas.”

A few sets later Wreck Loose also played an André Costello and the Cool Minors song, choosing “Soul Pinto,” a B side to their 7″ release Way of The Future. 

“Their version knocked me out. They expanded on the instrumental portion of it and even stayed true to the asymmetry of the song’s outro. They even added this little reprise for the main rif of the song after the song would have faded out in the studio version. After their set Matt [Fiorillo, bass] came up to me and said “I’m not going to forget that little trick at the end. We’re going to do that next time we play it,” said Costello.

André Costello and the Cool Minors repaid the favor and covered Chet Vincent and The Big Bend’s song “Limousine,” from their 2014 release Unconventional Dog.

We chose “Limousine,” because that song is badass and has become a staple of Chet’s set of the past couple years. We actually played it last year as well. We did a little more of a Velvet Underground sort of take on the arrangement and styling. We all like that version and have played it at rehearsals over the course of the last year,” tells Costello.

Costello was pretty grateful of Vincent’s take on his song “Virgil (Easy Go)” too saying, “Chet’s version blew me away. I did not expect them to play a song of ours. Last year, they covered Grand Piano which I hold to such high regard, I didn’t expect anyone to play our songs. Honestly, hearing anyone play a song that I’ve written is such an honor, it’s outrageous. I mean we’re all creative folks in our own little isolated but burgeoning music scene and to think anyone would take the time to play our song? Wow.”

Click HERE to read more about HughShows Secret Santapalooza

Javerblöö

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Chet Vincent & the Big Bend

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Ghost Guts

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Wreck Loose

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The Red Western

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Satin Gum

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Clinton Clegg & Paul Luc Duo

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