Bells Will Be Ringing...The Vendettas' Christmas Show!

Take a break from shopping and join us for warm drinks and Rock and Roll Christmas songs on December 20th at Eastender's Coffee House 40 E. Main St in Riverhead, showtime about 8:30.

Sadly, rumor has it that Eastender's may be closing sometime in January. You can blame the economy, or a town board with no vision that can't get out of it's own way, or the greed of a landlord who owns most of the stores on Main Street and whose goal seems to keep those stores empty. Whatever the reason, it is a sad situation. Lindsey and Dianne were the first people to ever hire us, on faith alone. We have played Eastender's more than any other venue. For those reasons we have always considered the coffee shop our home. If in fact they do close thier doors we will miss them, and Riverhead will miss them. Ther is no other gathering place like it around anywhere.

On a happier note: Lenny and Jay will be performing at the Elvis Tribute Show, along with the Hornets, The Purple Gang, The Lone Sharks, The Blaggards and probably a mess of other people. That will be on January 24th at Matty T's. We are excited to be a part of it. More information to come.
Thanks to Dianne Woodcheke for the photo.

Our Next Show
Saturday, November 22nd
The Artful Dodger, Westhampton Beach NY

Blame it on the economy, or political angst or just the fact that we may be impossible to get along with, but for whichever reason, Joe has decided to take his leave of us. Joe played with The Vendettas for over a year. He is a good guy, a good drummer and we wish him all the best. I think he left because we always stood in front of him when we got our picture taken. I could see how, over time, that might get on one's nerves.

We have continued on, following in the footsteps of some of our heros:The Stray Cats, Reverend Horton Heat, The Paladins, and all the other rock and roll trios. I left out Johnny Burnett because there were technically a quartet. Lenny is back at his old post as our drummer, but he will break out a guitar now and then.



We had a great show at Eastender's Coffee House in Riverhead. We had a special guest sit in with us. My old bandmate from the Hackensack Men, "Teenage" John Englehardt. We haven't played together since... well my wedding in September, but before that it was years. Really.

We are putting together our third semi-annual Christmas Rock and Roll Show. Eastender's in Riverhead will be hosting the show this year. Look forward to all your Christmassy rock and roll favorites. When I say "all" I of course mean some. Plus we'll do secular crap that you love.

Vendettas say "No" to topical analgisics

We Have New Dates!

On October 11th we return to the place where we started, East Ender's Coffee House on Main Street in Riverhead. Come for the great coffee and desserts and great Rockabilly.

Our friends at the Artful Dodger in Westhampton Beach have decided to continue with music into the Fall. You can support live music in our area by going to check out the bands there. Mostly though, you should come to see us. Our next shows there will be October 18th, and November 22.

I like to call the piece you see above "The Essence of Lenny". Photo by Dianne Woodcheke

Blues Fest- Jerry The Dish- Vendettas Get Rooked!

Where do I begin, it has been a while.

Vendettas at the Artful Dodger-photo by Diane Woodcheke

Our Next Show: Aug 31 The Artful Dodger, Westhampton Beach

Firstly and most importantly those of you who come to see us on a regular basis will no doubt have notice the absence of "Teen Dream" Jerry "The Dish" Silverstein. Jerry has taken a well deserved sabbatical to do what he does best, scrimshaw. Jerry will be continuing to work in his songwriters workshop and look for him to make the occasional surprise appearance with the band. Once a Vendetta...

We made our second appearance at the Riverhead Blues Festival, we had a great time and would like to thank everyone who came to see us and who helped us get booked. It is great to be a part of it.

Now then, last year we got wind of some complaints that "some of the bands" were not playing blues at the blues festival. While it is true that our music is sort of the bridge between Blues, Country, and Rock and Roll, we played a bunch of blues too to show respect for the theme of the festival. So imagine my surprise when as we were loading in, the band on the main stage was playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes". No t that it is not a great song, not that the band playing g it didn't do a great job playing it (it was Jim Moran, I think) but is it Blues? Not frigging remotely. We got flack about playing Bo Diddly at a blues festival (not from anyone affiliated organization) and somehow the Genesis guy gets in there and that is OK?

Vendettas rock Megan Dascoli's wedding. photo by some dude

Lastly and to me, regrettably we will no longer be playing the Manorville venue. In the words of Spinal Tap's David St Hubbins, "we shant work together again". It is really too bad, I thought that we had found a home, the crowd was really receptive and it was exciting to play for a group who knew the music. Unfortunately there was a problem with the management, money not payed, terms of agreements left vague. It is one of the few places in the area that feature live music every week, so I guess they can make the rules. Musicians beware.

Our show this weekend features original recipe drummer Charles Woodcheke. Like I said, once a Vendetta... This is Charles during his pirate phase.

The Vendettas at The Blues Fest - New Shows Just Added

The Vendettas will make their second appearance at The Riverhead Blues Festival, Saturday at 2:30 in Club 91.

Thanks to "The Core" who came down to our new room, The Artful Dodger, which is in the back of Magic's Pub on Main St. in Westhampton Beach. Things went so well there we have been asked back. Our next show will be Saturday July 26th at 10:00. Look for special guest and former full time member Charles Woodcheke on Drums, filling in for Joe. Charles will be back with us at the Dodger Sunday August 31st. You can see Charles at his regular gig with his excellent band Highway 49.

The Maples is another new venue for us. Frank Lattore of The King Bee's sat in with us for our first show, he is always a pleasure to play with. He added great blues harp and slide guitar to our Rockabilly sound. It was great to meet an new and very receptive crowd, we had a great time. The Vendettas will be back (and hopefully joined by Frank) at The Maples Saturday July 19th after our second appearance at The Riverhead Blues Festival. We are booked at The Maples over the next several months.

We will be at the Longwood Public Library on August 1st. It may seem strange but actually it is the third library we have played. Come and see if we can vibrate the books off the shelves.

Jaybone

Vendettas Expand Thier Range With Independance Day Tour!

Choices Benefit at St. Joe's

Coming off of two great although at least one really challenging show. Our appearance at the the
"Choices" benefit was marred only by lack of the appearance of either of the promised light or sound technicians. Luckily for us the security office was sympathetic and there happened to be a sound engineer in the audience who, rose to the occasion and popped into the control booth.
It was for a great cause and the audience could not have been more appreciative or patient. It was great to play in the beautiful theater at St. Joseph's College.

We also did a private show for The North Fork Community Theater, with the cast and crew of their recent production of Gypsy. They were great to work with and we had a good time

playing for them.

Vendettas in the arbor for NFCT

Coming up: We just added a show at Magic's Pub on Main St. in Westhampton Beach. In what seems like an impossibly small place for a band hides a separate bar in the back of the building. The spot is very cool and we hope we will be joined by some of the friends we made during our stint at Westhampton Bowl.

Frank Lattorre a Big Hit at East Enders!

Jaybone and Chin after their trip to Rockabilly Barbers

Thanks to everyone who came down to see the show at Eastenders Coffee House, I have to say it was one of our best shows yet. As an added bonus we had Frank Lattorre from The King Bees sitting in with us, filling in for Jerry the Dish. He treated the audience (and the band ) to his great harmonica playing. Next we'll get him to sing a few songs.

Frank plays with his band at Patty's Luncheonette in Eastport every Friday night. Please check them out.

The Vendettas have just finished mixing our new seven song demo. We will be posting some of the songs on this website soon. You will be able to hear the Vendettas no matter where you are. Which is scary.

We will be returning to the coffee house on Friday June 13th (also scary) at 8:00.

As always, if there is a venue you think we should play, including your own living room, let us know here at the blog!

Vendettas in the Studio, Brian Setzer, Next Show

This Saturday We will be back where we started at East Enders Coffee House on Main St. in Riverhead, NY. Showtime will be 8:00 PM. We will also have a special guest for the evening, the most talented harmonica player I have ever had the good fortune to play with: Frank Latorre of the King Bees. He wll be sitting in for Jerry the Dish who has an out of state court appearance. Please join us on the 19th for an evening of rockabilly and rock and roll as it can only be played when fueled espresso and cake. http://eastenderscoffeehouse.com/

The Vendettas are now working on a new recording. We have recorded the basic tracks, the old school way live, with no tricky stuff. We will be adding the finishing touches and mixing in the next few weeks. We found a great studio http://www.suffolkrecordingstudios.com/ and had excellent experience with Allen and Dan there. They understood what we were going for and helped us get the authentic vibe we were looking for.

A few weeks ago I was in Minneapolis for a professional conference and happened to eat dinner at a Jazz club called Rossi's. To my surprise Leon Redbone was appearing there that night. Needless to say I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him. So as my colleagues left for the evening (they had no idea who he was) I headed toward the performance area to take my seat. I made a quick stop in the men's room and while washing my hands I turned my head to see standing there, freaking Brian Setzer!

Now I don't have to explain as a guitar player in a rockabilly band how important this guy is to me. When I was in the 8th grade the Stray Cats played in my middle school gym on Long Island. This was right before they went to England. It was a pretty influential moment in my life, it is one of the reasons I picked up the guitar in the first place.

It can be sort of terrifying when you get to meet your heros, there are many ways they might not live up to your expectations, not the least of which is they may turn out to be jerks. That happened to me once. It was a real disappointment. I knew I had to chance it though and say something (even though I was kind of star struck) so I eked out something along the lines of "I love your work". There were about a million things I wanted to say but I didn't want to seem like a freak. I have to say Brian was very friendly and gracious. He took some time to talk with me and even stayed to see Leon Redbone on my suggestion. We had another brief exchange on the way out. It was a very cool experience.

Last Show of our Valentine's Day Tour!

We had a great turn out for last Friday's show and we want to thank everyone who came down to hear us. There was a big contingent from The Westhampton Free Library:Matt, Jen, Barbara, Leslie, Laureen, and probably some others I'm forgetting. It was also our biggest turn out at the Westhampton Bowl to date, so thank you! As I predicted, the potential for room is great and our audience got larger with each appearance.

In the house was Dave K. of Blush and my former band mate in The Next. Another former band mate "Dangerous Dave" Stadnicki from the Hackensack Men, sat in with us on two tunes, "Marie Marie"from The Blasters, and Wilson Pickett's "634-5789". He sounded great!

We are not scheduled to appear at the Westhampton Bowl again until the summer, but check this website for our public dates. We will be coming to play Rockabilly to your town soon. Hell, we'll play in your freakin' house! Remember that the difference between a party and a really good party is The Vendettas.

Jaybone

Return of "The Dish"!

After "being away" for almost two months Jerry "The Dish" Silverstein will make his triumphant return to the stage at our last schedualed appearance at Westhampton Bowl, this Friday February 15th at 9:00 PM. Our attorneys have advised us to say as little as possible regarding the Dish's whereabouts for the last two months so let's just call it a "vacation" and leave it at that.

Our last show at "the Bowl" as we like to call it was a great success and we would like to thank all who came down including two members of the great band "Collarbone": singer Alex Mckenna and drummer Dave Elliot. If Lorin were there we could have had a full reunion. Also in attendence were staff members of the Westhampton Free Library and some people who were bowling and just wandered in to see what all the noise was about. We thank all who came.

I recently saw a group called the Church Boys at the Vail Levitt Music Hall in Riverhead New York. Chris the bass player in an original memeber of The Vendettas and has joined us on stage several times in the last year. His new band is a lot of fun, playing mostly originals plus some great garage rock classics. Check them out if you can and check out the music hall which will be showcasing bands every third Thursday. We need places like this that are opened to bands and support original music. Try to support it by visiting when you get the opportunity.

Please join us Friday for an evening of rockabilly and rock and roll. We try to make the shows different so we will be adding in some songs we have never played and the bowling alley before.

Happy New Year, From The Vendettas

The start of the new year marks the third anniversary for The Vendettas. Our first show with Lenny, Chin and Jaybone and Jerry "the Dish" in lineup was a Christmas party at a friend's house. We played every song we knew plus some rock and roll Christmas classics. We were nervous, but we had fun. So much so that we kept on going.

Last month we revisited the holiday rock, busted out the Santa hats and turned up the Fender amps. We even got our newest member to don the headgear and add his voice the "harmonies" Elvis's "Santa Claus is Back in Town". Of course we want to thank the people who came down to see our Christmas Extravaganza and the Westhampton Beach Library, and the library for taking a chance on having a Rock and Roll band, which I think was a first for them.

We also want to thank all the folks who have supported us this last year including Lindsey from East Ender's Coffee house, the first place to actually hire us, The Birchwood in Southampton and Westhampton Bowling, who have invited us back for two more dates.

In 2008 we will explore new venues, meet more people who dig rockabilly and rock and roll, and maybe we will all chip in and get a body for Chin's upright bass.

Jaybone