If you’re going to form a tribute band, you’d better have your sound, your look and the feel of music all together in sync if you want to pull it off. It didn’t take me long, after watching one of their performance videos, to see that Hollywood Nights – The Bob Seger Experience have it all together.
This South Jersey-based band will show off their stuff this Friday night (1/13) at The Keswick Theater. I had the chance to chat with the band’s lead singer, Rick Murphy.
(conversation edited for space and clarity)
Andre:
Hey, Rick Murphy, it’s so nice to meet you, man! I went to your website to listen to your band and you guys are freakin’ great! I just love the way you capture the spirit of Bob Seger and his music, which I guess is what your band is all about, right?
Rick Murphy:
Yes, man, I appreciate you saying that. And that’s the goal. I mean, he’s such a great songwriter and lyricist and we have to keep his music alive.
Andre:
Let’s talk about the beginnings of your band. Was it always going to be a Bob Seger tribute band, or did you evolve into that?
Rick:
It was just my vision to put together a group of people where everybody believed in something, you know what I mean? That was it. It wasn’t necessarily going to be Bob Seger out of the gate. It was just that we’ve been struggling all our lives to do something with music, we all believe in one vision, even if we all just get together, put the hard work in and play. Then I said, “well let’s do some Bob Seger because that’s in my wheelhouse with my voice” and everybody was just kind of like not expecting that but, graciously, everybody was like “wow, this sounds pretty cool.” And once we started doing the rehearsing, we all knew that we were onto something good as musicians and people with Bob’s music. So it was a nice thing that was coming together for all of us, you know?
Andre:
Man, the combination of your vocals and your backing band – wow! – your voice is spot on and your band is tight!
Rick:
Yeah, I’ll tell you, Andre, it’s just a cool group of people who really care about playing it verbatim, you know, doing everything exactly by the album, because if you’re not gonna do it by the album then I don’t know if you really can call yourself a tribute band, you know what I mean? You need to be right – dead on with the albums.
Andre:
Is there a particular era of Seger’s music on which you concentrate? Do you play the early stuff from the Bob Seger System – “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” – and all that?
Rick:
We cover some from back then. We do hit “Ramblin’ Gamblin’..” We don’t venture a lot into the 80s too much, a little bit. We do have some songs in the show that will be from the 80s, but we’re kind of right in that ballpark of ’76-’77, you know when Bob was doing Live Bullet and you know, that whole live feeling of Bob Seger is sort of what we capture live..like on Live Bullet and Nine Tonight.
Andre:
I’m glad you mentioned the Nine Tonight album because when that first came out, I was so psyched that he did a cover of “Trying To Live My Life Without You”, which is a really obscure track, but he pulled that off.
Rick:
That’s an awesome song with the horn section. I think at that moment I realized what a big horn section can do on stage because, you know, it’s like a powerhouse.
Andre:
Well, that’s another cool thing about your band! There’s not somebody on the keyboards back there playing the horn parts, you got live people doing all of those Alto Reed parts. It’s great!
Rick:
Yeah, man, we weren’t gonna skimp on it, you know? We have a full time piano player and a full time organ player. So to do this stuff right, you’ve got to have the organ and the piano at the same time, you can’t have somebody just trying to pull it off.
Andre:
You’re absolutely right. Rick, it can be attempted, but it will never sound the same, so that’s why those individual parts are so very, very important. You have nine band members in all, right?
Rick:
Nine members on stage.
Andre:
And how long have you all been together?
Rick:
This is our 13th year, Andre.
Andre:
Wow, that’s fantastic. And how cool is it to land that Keswick gig this Friday night?
Rick:
Well, you know, being in a band and getting the chance to play the Keswick, that’s an honor man. I mean, you want to go in there the first time and hit a home run and make a great relationship and get invited back, and I think we’re on our way to doing that. But I thank you guys for helping out. That’ll definitely get us over that wall and we really appreciate that.
Andre:
Well, I’m wishing you the best of luck! Thanks for your time, man. The only downside of this for me is that I’m not gonna be able to go, unfortunately, but I hope to see you somewhere down the line.
Rick:
Yeah, brother. I hope you can come out and see the show and thank you again for the time. I really appreciate it.
Hollywood Nights – The Bob Seger Experience appears at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, PA this Friday night, 1/13/23, for an all ages show. Showtime is 8:00pm, doors open at 7:00pm. Tickets are $32.50 – $49.00 ($37.50-$55.00 day of show) and be purchased here.
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