FULL CIRCLE IN THE MEZZ BAND
One of Jeff and Rick’s drummers was a single hard drinking long hair. Another was a husband and father of two with short gray hair and nineteen years on the bright.
Both of them were me.
A band is ultimately a relationship between people. The music that it creates stands apart from the individuals and takes on a life of it’s own the instant it leaves the realm of an idea and is given voice through the instruments.
So after creating something together and setting it free the people in the relationship are alone with each other again. It always circles back to that.
This is where things get tricky. Human beings are flawed.
They love, hate, respect, resent… and relationships are put to the test.
No relationship worth anything is immune. So in early 1994 THE MEZZ BAND became MEZZ. Jeff and Rick didn’t even speak to each other for many years.
Of all the bands I’ve been in and out of, the one that’s spanned the greatest amount of time and stood the test is my friendship and musical relationship with those two guys.
They needed to work things out…and they eventually did.
In between I played in MEZZ with Jeff and three other great bass players.
There were the Pete Downing years with the awesome “Resonating” and “MEZZ Live ‘96” records. A summer trip in 1998 with the late, great, Rolo Ruck. A tour and the “Do The Mezz” record in 1999 with my friend and fellow metal head Billy Omalley. And a brief reunion of sorts with both Pete and Billy when Jeff and Eva flew to the States in 2003 for my wedding.
A few things I learned on my journey from long hair to gray hair in MEZZ:
If you see potential, don’t hesitate to give someone a chance.
I met Jeff and Rick for the first time on my lunch break from Newton Highlands Auto Parts in the fall of 1992. They were total strangers who I was told were looking for a drummer to tour in Europe. I opened the door to a small carriage house on Gray Cliff Rd, up the hill from Newton Center. I introduced myself and played tunes I’d never heard with them for about 45 minutes until I had to leave and go back to work.
At the time I had absolutely no business playing “blues rock” or any sort of music that required even a remote grasp of the concept of dynamics. I’d only played in hard rock and hair metal bands. They liked what they heard, saw that I had the potential to learn and asked me to join. Their friend Kenny Harris loaded up a cassette with Chicago shuffles for me to study. I took my sneakers and socks off and played barefoot to try and get a better feel for finesse. I opened my mind to the challenge of not bashing the hell out of the drums all the time. When a tiny club called Toad first opened in Cambridge, MA. we played there a lot. My new skills came in quite handy there and in similar smaller places overseas. The chance those guys gave me changed my life as a player and as a person.
Say yes to scary things.
At 26, with the exception of a Disney trip with Church, one visit to California in 1986 and few East Coast weekend road trips with DIVER DOWN, I’d lived pretty much my whole life in Waltham.
The idea of picking up and leaving to go overseas for months at a time in a rock band might have seemed a bit crazy to some. Not me. I couldn’t wait.
Don’t hesitate. Jump in!
America is fuckin’ awesome…… and other places are, too!
Driving into Dresden in early 1993, only a couple of years after the wall had come down, I saw and experienced a place waking up from behind the Iron Curtain with quite a hangover. On this and subsequent trips to the former “East Germany” I had awesome times and met amazing people. Hearing from them about their past solidified my love and appreciation for The United States. Seeing their hopefulness for the future reminded me that most people around the world are pretty much the same.
I met a girl on that first gig in Dresden and we hit it off. She spoke almost no English. It didn’t matter. When we left together she was having a tough time in the snow so I drove her “east car” (basically a primitive Soviet era go cart) through the storm and back to her apartment.
Which brings me to the next thing, and a few other things I learned…….
Fame is not a prerequisite for experiencing the rock and roll dream.
But being a single guy in a rockin’ band with your own hotel room, unlimited booze, and lots of pretty women around helps.
Nothing makes you improve as a musician more than playing live.
Get out there and fall on your face in front of everyone. It works!
Food and drink culture in Europe is something everyone should experience.
Fresh everything. No rush. The way it should be.
Music school is cool, but it’s not necessary.
See: Jeff Mezzrow / Rick Kolow.
The party is awesome but some of us need to leave it behind.
I did this on December 30th,1996.
Family and friends are everything.
On September 11th, 2001 Jeff picked up the phone and called Rick.
This began a long process of mending fences and eventually talk of a reunion.
I secured a date. It had been almost 20 years since we’d played together.
We individually began revisiting all of the tunes from the Jeff/Rick/Stephen era of THE MEZZ BAND. Including all the songs off of the only record we’d done together… “She’s To Die For”. Recorded by Jim Seigel. Mixed by Bob St. John, and produced by our long time label champion and friend, Thomas Bauer at The Outpost in Stoughton, MA. in 1993.
We did one rehearsal before the gig.
Here’s what I wrote online at the time in 2012……….
“Long ago, when I was a full time drunken skirt chaser, I played in a group called MEZZ. We will be having a 20 year reunion gig on Friday, June 29th…… at which I’ll be enjoying spring water and the company of my beautiful wife, Julie. Musically however the band will still be in drunken carouser mode.”
There are a few videos from that show on youtube.
The tunes came back with remarkable ease and it was obvious that the vibe had never gone away. It was amazing to be sitting on the drums between Jeff and Rick. Something happens when they play together. A sort of telepathy.
And when the three of us launched into those “She’s To Die For” songs and the older catalog of MEZZ BAND covers it just sounded and felt like home.
We did one show per year in The States until finally at the end of 2014 and again just a few weeks ago at the end of 2015 we did two short tours in Germany and Switzerland. We played to lots of folks who’d seen us in 1993 and to people who’d never even seen Rick and I in the band. It was amazing and we had so much fun on the road together. If you were there we thank you!
Jeff Mezzrow and Rick Kolow are more than just guys I played in a band with.
They are my heroes. “My good old bricks”. My brothers. Family.
Stephen Hart.
“She’s To Die For” tunes on bandcamp…
