Premiere

Back in high school, you know, around 1998 or so, I played the guitar in a rock band with a bunch of close friends. We named ourselves Premiere, after a long gone vhs rental shop in Framingham Center (long story). We practiced every week, and played a good mix of rock/blues covers and original music we had written. We played all the high school music events, and eventually got to the point where we had weekly gigs at local bars around town. It was a lot of fun.

Right before we all went off to college, the band saved up some money and recorded an album at a studio in Rhode Island. We sold a few hundred copies, and the rest of them are sitting in Keith Gentry’s basement collecting dust.

A few weeks ago I listened to it, from start to finish, for the first time in a couple years. And it’s really funny. The album’s a strange mix of alternative rock and bad pop, with a hint of an 80’s influence. And it’s definitely not representative of the types of music any of the band members listened to at the time. But we wrote it, loved playing it, and I’d say we’re all proud of it.

So I decided that I might as well post the mp3 files. If you only listen to a few, ‘Of Me & You’ is a very ridiculous pop ballad featuring a violin solo, I like ‘Heartbeat’ a lot, and ‘Starlight’ is a nice acoustic track featuring Mikey P on vocals. Here they are:

1. Superhero
2. I Said
3. Eyes Closed
4. Don’t Give In
5. Emotional Crimes
6. Bad One
7. Fidelity
8. Of Me & You
9. Heartbeat
10. Starlight
11. Feelin’ Love

For anyone who’s interested (Mike Eriksen?), you can download the entire album here.

The band was Carrie Walsh on vocals, Neil Saber on guitar, Mike Perreault on bass, Keith Gentry on drums, and myself on guitar. I’ve also got a live recording that I might post at some point in the future.

Just for kicks, here’s the setlist from one of our last shows, played at the Topside Lounge:

Set 1
1.  Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love
2.  Rock and Roll
3.  Eyes Closed
4.  Twice As Hard
5.  The Sweater Song
6.  Emotional Crimes
7.  Free Fallin
8.  Thrill Is Gone
9.  Bad One
10.  Sweet Home Alabama

Set 2
1.  Play That Funky Music
2.  What I Got
3.  Superhero
4.  You Shook Me
5.  Fuck Her Gently
6.  Heartbeat
7.  One Way Out
8.  Good Times Bad Times
9.  Of Me And You
10. Fortunate Son
11.  Sweet Child of Mine

Set 3
1.  Hush
2.  Texas Flood
3.  Ghost
4.  Mustang Sally
5.  Starlight
6.  I Said
7.  Red House
8.  What You Need To Know (New Song #2)
9.  What It Takes
10.  Feelin Love

Reunion? Anyone? Carrie, it’s probably up to you.