My boys covering Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at the talent show

[Armchair Bronco]

Well, my two boys have been practicing since March, and on Friday they finally got their "Two Minutes of Fame". They covered Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at their elementary school's annual talent show. The boys only got 1:50 or so to do their thang (keep in mind this song is normally over 4 minutes long).

Casey and I have been playing for a little less than 2 years, and his brother Julian only started playing bass back in March.

Everything went great! My only regret is that we didn't crank up the Orange Tiny Terror and the Roland bass cube even higher!



(I also have some other YouTube videos of Casey doing some Meat Puppets covers. Check those out, too. And if you have the bandwidth, there are high quality versions of these videos on the YouTube site, just click the YouTube icon, then look for "High Quality")

[Armchair Bronco]

And yes: I recognize that neither one of my boys is playing a Telecaster...and this *is* the Telecaster forum. But I suspect there's a Telecaster in Casey's future.

His favorite band right now is The Meat Puppets, and he and I have been working on one of their classic songs together: "Lake of Fire". Here's a Telecaster-driven version of that song by The Meat Puppets that's got my boys inspired:

[garytelecastor]

Those kids are great!!!! You have every reason to be very proud.
They play well and the boy (Casey?) singing actually stays in key. Very Cool!!!!
I would rather listen to them than the Jonas Bros anyday.

In complete honesty, that was too Cool. I love it at the end when Casey is feeding back and then starts jumping up and down.
Reminds one of the reason for playing music.
Thanx.

[Armchair Bronco]

Thanks a lot! The boys had a great time. Yep, they're just up on stage having fun and playing, not posing. They don't even know what it means to "pose".

I promised the boys that if they could learn 6-8 new songs, I'd let them do some busking at the Seattle Center this summer armed with some battery-powered Roland model amps. Who knows..they might make enough $$ for a down payment on a new guitar or bass!

[stephwills]

Originally Posted by garytelecastor

I would rather listen to them than the Jonas Bros anyday.

lol, +1. Very cool, indeed. How old are these boys, Bronco?

[markophonic]

That was awesome! Those kids have no fear.

I was waiting for him to shove the guitar through the orange at the end!!

[furrfurrfurr]

that;s great. love the Hendrix-like feedback bit at the end.

[dagger4]

Thanks for posting this.
Great kids.

[Armchair Bronco]

Thanks for all the positive feedback, guys! I think I had *almost* as much fun as my boys did.

Originally Posted by stephwills

lol, +1. Very cool, indeed. How old are these boys, Bronco?

The guitarist kid is 9, and his bassist big brother is 10. They're in 3rd and 5th grade, respectively.

Originally Posted by furrfurrfurr

that's great. love the Hendrix-like feedback bit at the end.

Yeah, the feedback at the end was something we practiced, but we always had the amp on the floor, so he had to get down on his knees for the feedback. A couple of hours before the performance, I spotted a perfectly-sized end table in the school's office area and I quickly pilfered it for the performance.

I really wish that I had turned up both amps a little (or a lot!) more. When I did the sound check earlier in the day, the multi-purpose room was empty. But by 8:00 pm, it was filled with 300 or more kids and parents. The Tiny Terror & 1x12 cab held its own, but the Cube 30 bass amp was struggling. I'm already keeping my eyes open for something with a little more power like an Ampeg BA-112 50 watt bass amp (which is still real transportable @ 39 pounds).

[stephwills]

For a 9 and 10 year old, that's impressive +10. Very nice!

[epimetheus81]

That's fantastic!! I'm off to sulk at being completely out sung by a 9y/o. Very talented boys you have there. Kudos

[Fenderon]

That was great, you must be the coolest dad in Seattle, and the proudest.

[jmecale72]

You have some talented kids there! That was great. I even liked the annoucer...ARE YOU READY TO ROCK!!!!!! Awesome!!

[guitbusy]

awesome!!!

[adamjs69]

That was freakin great! Thanks for posting.

[Twanginator]

I thought they were awesome!

I'll bet they're both at the top of the "Cool Dudes" list at school.

[getbent]

that was swingin' man! Good Job by those boys and their pop for the encouragement!