How to go
WHAT: LIVE! From Cincinnati
WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday, June 27
WHERE: Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, 1743 Hamilton-Cleves Rd., Hamilton
ADMISSION: $8 adults, $1.50 children
INFO: (513) 868-8336; www.pyramidhill.org
HAMILTON — After performing many years with the oldies band Richie and the Students, Hamilton drummer Randy Mistler decided it was time to move on.
“I just got to the point where I wanted to do something different,” he said. “So I put out an ad on Craig’s List looking for musicians to do a ’50s and ’60s revue.
He was amazed at the quality of musicians who responded, including a singer who had been on the Disney World Productions staff and a guitarist who once was a member of the Marshall Tucker band among them. The resume of others included stints with Delbert McClinton, Bob Hope, Trisha Yearwood, Lionel Hampton, the Bee Gees, Chaka Kahn and more.
“They’re not the kind of people that go around bragging about it, either,” he said. “You’ve got to pry it out of them to get them talking about it.
“By the time we got to our first rehearsal, the band started telling me they loved doing ’50s and ’60s music, but that there was no market for it,” Mistler said. “They changed my perspective. I wasn’t about to object considering the group of musicians I found myself in.”
So the band dubbed itself LIVE! From Cincinnati and decided to expand the repertoire on up through the 1980s and be a variety show band and dance band.
“A lot of show bands don’t want people to dance, but we like that,” Mistler said. “We want everybody to have a good time, whether they just want to listen or if they want to dance, that’s fine with us.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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