I got my first taste of playing in front of a “real” crowd while sitting in on a Metallica tune with Black Angus (a local heavy rock band) at a Halloween party in 2000. What a rush!!! Also that year, I began to come out to see the Dragons (then known as Zach Nenon and the Classroom Dragons). I was hooked. It became part of my weekend routine. In October of 2001, as a birthday present (and a taste of things to come), the band let me sit in on a few songs. Some of my high school friends happened to be there, and that sparked another attempt at forming a band. Almost immediately after, my friends offered me the lead guitar spot in a newer version of Black Angus. We played a few gigs at the Vault, in Baltimore. Although a great experience and generally fun time, Black Angus went on hiatus in early 2003 as gigs seemed harder and harder to come by, and band members began taking on more personal responsibility.
In the spring of 2003, the Dragons found themselves in need of a guitarist. I auditioned. I was supposed to audition between 8 and 13 songs and if things went well, I was to be transitioned in. Well apparently Murphy had something to say about that. It went from auditioning in the basement to “do you think you can learn enough for next week’s gig?”. I filled in that gig and the next and at the end of the second show I was “offered” the guitar position in the Classroom Dragons – actually what happened was I was announced as the newest member of the Dragons. The Dragons exposed me to Blues, Motown/Soul, some Funk and Zappa. I learned a lot about improvising, “reading” other musicians, tone, how to actually use all those pedals you accumulate… Coming from my 80′s background, the biggest things I learned were that you didn’t need to play like Yngwie to play a good solo and that there are more chords available than just root/5th (the infamous power chord). That said though, there were definitely a few songs that lent themselves to some shredding!
In late-Summer/Fall of 2009, I filled-in the lead/second guitar position in The Garage AllStars band.As of 2010, I’m currently with the Classroom Dragons and Scrap Metal.
Influences
After hearing my first Kiss album back in the early 80′s and seeing the album pics (thanks to my cousin Tom), I was hooked. Then came Motley Crue (the 80′s answer to Kiss), and then Metallica… (my obsession with learning Metallica songs earned me the nickname “Kirk” among close high school friends). I spent hours upon hours learning tunes, playing the guitar, much to the dismay of my parents (mainly due to that loud noise coming from the upstairs).
A few of my influences/heroes are: Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Joe Satriani , Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Van Halen (and/or pretty much any shred-head from that 80′s era. , Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and more recently, Frank Zappa.
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