Take one punk guitarist and a jam band bassist. Let simmer in a basement for two years. Add dashes of ingenuity and inventiveness for flavor. After two years, heave in a metal drummer. Add Cajun seasoning and stir well. Recipe will serve thousands this weekend, as Bad Mamma Jamma headlines the Halloween block party.
As perennial local favorites, Bad Mamma Jamma has been regarded as one of the best live acts around, sending their fans for a ride every time they play.
We try to take you on a roller coaster ride
said bassist and vocalist John Corliss. We'll take you up and take you down.
Feeding off the crowd is how the band gets its energy, said guitarist and vocalist Buck Nemecek. As the band kicks off, the crowd gets into the performance and that just gets the band more riled up, he said. Corliss calls this phenomenon a cyclical energy movement.
True to form, Bad Mamma Jamma gets a good sense of its crowd every time it plays. Crowds that haven't seen the band before may not know what to expect, Nemecek said, and they'll ease into the performance rather than melting their faces off right away. Drummer Brett Lawson said if the crowd is rowdy, they will launch right into the frantic numbers from the get-go.
But the wild performance is not everything. The music is still 90 percent Nemecek said.
The men of Bad Mamma Jamma are already Halloween veterans; they played on the big stage last year as well. Aside from an unbalanced female dressed as a squirrel who found her way on stage and played Lawson's cymbals, playing Halloween was awesome, Nemecek said.
Not everyone on Court Street paid attention to the band, but as he looked out over the crowd at the thousands of people, most of them were swaying to the beat. It was very cool, he said.
You look out and see people in chicken suits doing the worm on the bricks Nemecek said. It's awesome.
This year, the guys of Bad Mamma Jamma have a few surprises up their sleeves for the Halloween show. They say it will be better now that the band knows exactly what to expect. And in true Halloween fashion, the men said they are planning on surprise costume changes, although what those surprises will be remain a mystery.
What is not a mystery is the honor of being painted by legendary, New Orleans-based artist Frenchy, who has painted such notable figures as Willie Nelson and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The first time Frenchy painted the band was at a gig in New Orleans at a request from Corliss' parents. The band never expected to see the artist again. But ' low and behold ' Frenchy was there for the band's next performance and painted the band again when they returned to New Orleans on a later trip.
Frenchy feels the energy of the music and paints accordingly
Corliss said. It was an honor.
One can feel the same energy that Frenchy felt and Athenians have known about for years as Bad Mamma Jamma headlines the stage at the intersection of Court and State Streets this Saturday for the Halloween block party.
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Chris Yonker
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Brett Lawson (top), John Corliss (middle) and Buck Nemecek (bottom), members of Bad Mamma Jamma, will perform Saturday for the Halloween block party on the intersection of Court and State Streets.
