I have to brag a bit...my son's band met President Obama!

[Chunky But Funky]

Sorry for the lack of mandolin content...but I have several of them! My son's jam band set up in their driveway to play across the street from where President Obama and Vice President Biden just spoke at our local community college while the motorcade went by. They figured they would get shut down by the local police or secret service. Neither of those things happened. The secret service listened to them play (from across the street at the CCAC campus) for about an hour before the president arrived. The motorcade went past and they kept playing. A short time later a secret service agent came over and complimented them on their sound, gear etc. Then a few more vehicles came with 8 secret service agents...and the President had invited them over to the event after hearing them play! They got to meet him back stage and he gave a shout out to their band from the podium at the end of his speech. He told them he wanted to stop to hear a couple of songs, but the secret service advised against it. Very cool! My son is on bass, btw.

Their website is new (as of today) so it just has links to social media, with videos of their performance and demos of some of their songs.


http://www.comforttechmusic.com (The site was posted today, but has links for media - more to come)

[mandolinlee]

Chunky But Funky -

Hi Doug -

What a great experience for your son's band. They will remember that forever.

I remember playing with my High School Marching Band when President Eisenhower came to our County Seat to speak at Defiance College. That was way back in the 1950's!

Thanks for sharing.

Lee

[JeffD]

So cool.

[SincereCorgi]

That's pretty cool. We had a city councilman come to one of our gigs... not quite as good a story.

[Killian King]

awesomeness.

[Jim Gallaher]

Awesome indeed! Something they'll always have to tell their kids about when their parents "coolness factor" is called into question.

My band had the Governor of Virginia sit-in on harmonica once...

[Markus]

Awesome. Music can make such great stories, glad he has got one already.

Those bad gig stories are all too easy to come by.

[Elliot Luber]

That's great. The band can break up tomorrow and they'll always think of themselves as successful. Hopefully they'll feed off the attention and play even better.

[Denny Gies]

A memory for a lifetime.

[Michael Bridges]

Very cool for your son and bandmates! Also one of the better self-marketing schemes I've seen in a while. Think of the publicity they just got, and the different ways it could benefit them. Good One!

[Petrus]

That is an excellent way to get lots of free publicity for a band, since all the local & national media would be there (though the local media will be likely to give them more attention.) Good strategy.

[Chunky But Funky]

For those of you who say "Pictures or it never happened", this YouTube video was just posted by the White House. It just keeps getting better and better!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsZSM6zE7k8

Doug

[Mike Bunting]

Very nice story for your son and his friends, I'll bet they were excited. Too bad some would lower the tone and equate the experience to a marketing and publicity opportunity.

[sachmo63]

Super cool

[allenhopkins]

Beats my story: my bluegrass band "warmed up the crowd" for George McGovern's 1972 campaign visit to Rochester. As we all recall, he got less than 40% of the vote nationally, but I refuse to take the blame for it...

[emzech]

Cool story, and I liked the song a lot. Them boys got some talent!

[JeffD]

I think it was a very gracious thing President Obama did. Memories for a lifetime.

[Petrus]

That's really a great story.

[Clement Barrera-Ng]

That is really something else!

[roysboy]

I'm an even bigger Obama fan than I was before . I've always thought he was the real deal.... Stories like this just confirm that to me . Thanks for posting .

[Petrus]

I'm an even bigger Obama fan than I was before . I've always thought he was the real deal.... Stories like this just confirm that to me . Thanks for posting .

Watch it.

[rgray]

Very cool.

[Lord of the Badgers]

That is brilliant. Utterly brilliant thank you for sharing. You must be so proud

[brunello97]

Awesome.

So, before the cranks weigh in and cause the thread to get shut down.....I love the guy's pure Levon Helm answer to the POTUS's query: "Rock and Roll."

Mick

[Timbofood]

Ultra cool!
My band just got frowned at when we played for any "fund raiser". Once, I was chastised for getting a second beer without throwing five bucks in, I told the guy they were getting a lot more than that with the band donation. I do not to political freebies anymore.
Glad these guys got some support, extra cool that the White House posted, THAT'S cred!