The Chubby Muscles are a band out of Long Island, New York; in the 90’s they were hot, with gigs throughout New York and most of New England playing a cool mix of 80’s and 90’s pop covers. Fun, bar music for the Friday night drankin’ crowd. But over the last couple of years, something changed. The band is relegated to playing a couple times a month in a local joint called Bloodshot’s Tavern, where a delectable bouquet of cigarettes, stale beer and desperation permeates the air and souls of its patronage. Charming place.

I’ve known the guys in the band for a while, a friend of a cousin of a friend type of thing, through the music agency I used to work for. I was talking with the Lead Guitarist recently, and he was bemoaning the fate of the band and whether they wanted to keep performing. I wondered what they looked like these days? With bands, image is everything and while I know they sounded good, hey always had, an aging band can do a lot of things to make themselves look. Like it or not we still live in a society where image is attached to looks. I asked him to send me a photo of the band in action. The marketing flyer was depressing and hilarious all at the same time.

Needless to say, the band needed a makeover. It would appear to any outside observer that they had stopped caring about their appearance both personally and the look of the stage. If they had stopped caring, why should an audience? And bar and club owners certainly won’t hire a band that audiences don’t care about.

OK..I’ll come clean. This band never existed. Although I think I did pass out once in a place in San Francisco called Bloodshot’s or Bloody Mary’s or something like that. Can’t remember. It was the 80’s. But I do know many bands like The Chubby Muscles. And they need image help.

One of the most effective face lifts a band can give itself is lighting. With the money from a few gigs, any band could ignite a bar stage with really cool lighting. For example, a Chauvet DJ Intimidator Spot Duo features two fully and independently controllable moving heads mounted on an easy-to-rig

bar. Slide it onto a tripod, clamp it to truss or set it on the floor. This high performance duo is linkable with up to four other units to create eye-catching synchronized shows. Independent color and gobo wheels create numerous projections and mid-air effects, while DMX control allows for independent control of each head. It’s a fantastic way to spotlight players and add dynamic moving light beams to the show, even if the players don’t move so well themselves anymore.

And for stage effects, there’s nothing cooler than the 4Play CL, it’s a pack-and-go LED moonflower package that comes complete with its own carrying case. Four individually controllable heads in clear casings can be aimed to fill any room with red, green, blue and white beams. The mounting bar features a pass-through to allow the unit to be quickly and easily added to a tripod or speaker stand. There are many affordable light options for the stage even if you just create a basic wash of color highlighting the band. The point is, perception is reality. You can either be perceived as a mud puddle jug band, or a great cover band that cares about its show enough to provide, well, a show.

In the meantime, hit me up here at Chauvet for booking The Chubby Muscles.