Every once in a while, you just need to rock out. It’s a cathartic experience that experts say adds decades to your life, and there’s somewhere right downtown where you can do exactly that: NEC Concord.
The little college campus on North Main Street hosts live music once a week as part of the Listening Room Series.
This past Thursday, we hit up the ProJam Open Jam Session, which is basically exactly what it sounds like: an open jam session.
The idea is simple: Show up and rock out. That’s it.
Whether you play guitar, bass, piano, drums, harpsichord, harmonica or bassoon – or anything in between – you’re welcome to come out to the jam session and show off your skills.
It’s a very free-form event, which is in keeping with a true jam session. There is no signup required, and it doesn’t cost anything to play or to watch/listen. It’s really as simple as showing up and jumping into a song.
You don’t even have to have your own instrument or amplification setup to play – all that stuff is already there for you, courtesy of Brad Page, Mike Haught and Tim Cohen, who collectively make up the de facto house band of these jam sessions.
Page was contacted by someone at NEC about a year ago to start a little jam session at the Concord campus, and he’s been to all of the jams since. Haught and Cohen started off as walk-ins and have now become regulars – but there’s no exclusivity here. These rockers are cool enough that they’ll invite anyone who wants to play to lead the group in a song or two. These guys have a thick binder full of songs they do, but when I was there, they kept asking me what I wanted to play – I was so nervous that I just stuck to songs I saw in the book.
I showed up with my own guitar (which I picked up for a very reasonable price at Strings and Things) and a minimalist version of my pedalboard, not knowing what kind of setup would be available on site. I was pleasantly surprised to see some legit guitars hanging on a stand behind Page – no $50 Toys “R” Us specials.
A nice little tube amp was also provided, which saved me from lugging my 40-something pounder from home – on a rainy night, no less.
As a musician, I was impressed with the gear that was provided. I almost wish I left my own axe at home so I could jam on Page’s fancy black-and-white guitar, but there’s still nothing like playing your own guitar that you’ve broken in yourself.
The playing experience itself was awesome. These guys are legit. The lead guitarist/singer may be named Brad Page, but it’s easy to mistake him for Jimmy Page when you hear him play. The guy can shred.
The rhythym section was also top-notch. Given that we played a few songs I’d never played before, it was huge that Haught and Cohen on bass and drums, respectively, held the line like champs, allowing me to stay in time and never get lost. (Disclosure: I’m not very good, and these guys are, but I was still able to keep up and they made me feel very confident and comfortable.)
When it was all said and done, we had rocked “Who Do You Love?,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Born to be Wild” and a few others – it was too fun to keep track.
Anyone who likes to play or listen to music should try this. The next one will be June 23 – get there at 7 p.m.
