Our Minnesota cover band plays at all sorts of clubs around the Minneapolis metro area, as well as festivals in greater Minnesota.  Many ingredients make the cake for us for a particular show: stage, lighting, sound, venue ambience, menu.  It’s not solely the band and what they can produce.

 

Bogart’s Entertainment Center was busy making upgrades since we were last there: new lighting was one – the fact that Sugar Buzz went completely with in-ear sound was another.  It made for a spectacular evening.  Bogart’s has a classy vibe- and a massive stage where we have room to move. Dave, the venue sound person, is always generous with the statement “you are my favorite band to mix”.  Throughout the night we had many compliments from those who follow us to many shows that “your sound tonight was really spectacular”.  That’s not an easy feat to accomplish: we’re a complicated band to mix. We pride ourselves on our group versatility, but that means your sound person has to be on their toes and following us closely (apologies to all the sound people for making you work so hard!)

Some details about how we perform:

  • All 6 of us sing and at different times.  Yes, Beth is lead most of the time, but at any time, any one or more of us are harmonizing.
  • We switch spots and instruments frequently.  Part of our special sauce is that we CAN play each other’s spots
    • Mark plays keys and guitar and takes lead vocals on occasion
    • Dale plays bass and takes lead vocals on occasion
    • Brendan is the drummer, but also lead vocals on a couple of songs and harmonies
    • Beth sings lead, but also does harmonies, bass guitar and keys on a few songs
    • Paul is guitar, keys, occasional lead vocals, harmonies and BONGOS! (yeah, Bongos are a recent addition and we’re darn proud of it)
  • We take 21 channels to replicate all the songs as close as we can to studio recordings (we do not use any backing tracks)

In summary, we keep a sound person running like it’s whack-a-mole – and when we get compliments on our sound, that means the intent of SUGAR BUZZ’s sound is hitting our audience and that’s the best news we can hope for!

Shout out to those sound people who get us!  Thank you!

Photos by Through My Lens Photography