Lowdown on Freedown
Pal Dino, bless him, has made several references on citizenwausau and on his own blog about a mythical band called Freedown. Variations on the question, “Anyone know anything about a band called Freedown?” Doing so, he’s creating the germ of a mythos, an undercurrent of semi-awareness, a discreet incursion on the community gestalt, a predisposition to accept the concept of Freedown. I’m almost reticent to pull away some gauzy layers of mystery and reveal some facts.
There is indeed a band from Wausau called Freedown … the name itself derived from a slip of the lip as the young foursome were exploring naming options. This is a group of 16-year-olds who attend Wausau East H.S. and will have their first reputable gig (aside from a couple H.S. variety shows) next week (3/21 & 3/22) up north in Woodruff at a place called The Longshot, where they’ll be an opening act for Scott Holt … a guitarist of such talent that Buddy Guy saw fit to employ him as his axe man for a good long time.
Holt is hot, just check out some of the vids Dino has posted on his weight-loss blog or Google him or seek him out on YouTube or whatever you do to find this stuff. He’s a guitar slinger of the first degree. Seeing him in a small club will be a treat indeed.
But back to Freedown. A bunch of young guys who play rock, with influences from Led Zeppelin, Black Keys, Hendrix. So, no, they’re not a headbanger quartet or hip-hop gangstas … they play music, even write some of their own. Maybe you were in a band as a young person. Maybe you still are. I remember being in my high school band (The Galloping Crud) … I think Freedown is much better. But, if it warms your heart to see another generation pick up the torch once carried by the Kinks or the Who, maybe you’ll trundle off to Woodruff Friday the 21st or Saturday the 22nd and experience again the sheer exuberance and realness of youth playing rock just for the fun of it.
I’ll be there, and I’ll be wearing the t-shirt.
Dino Corvino said:
You could post the poster here on your site.
March 11th, 2008 at 2:24 pm #
My Journey Back to Health • Tom Neal wrote about Freedown said:
[…] check out Tom Neal, looks like he wrote about […]
March 11th, 2008 at 3:28 pm #
zeenawombat said:
I’ll be there, too and I, too will be wearing the t-shirt.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:59 am #
janeal said:
Well, I’m glad that Tom has finally taken the time to shed some light on all those mysterious Freedown references that Dino has been making. I am looking forward to these shows… some good blues and rock and roll, local boys make good, the northwoods… sounds like a plan.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:08 pm #