Music Drives Us donates thousands in amps to Band Gig

Music Drives Us recently donated about $6,000 worth of amplifiers and equipment to Band Gig Music, after hosting the Ultimate Shredders contest in Boston in February.

The donation was a series of coincidences – what story isn’t? – that led to Band Gig owner Nick Vecchio being able to share some serious equipment with his students.

“It was two amps and pedals for the setups, it was incredible,” he said. “Those amps, I could never get them to go to the volume they could go to. It would probably be that scene in Back to the Future where Marty is playing that amp and it just blows him through the wall! That’s what would happen in my office if I turned those up, it’s insane. But it’s really cool to show my students.”

Vecchio, a veteran of the Daddy’s Junky Music stores of the 90s and 2000s, started his school almost 20 years ago – nearly the same time Music Drives Us has been around – and has been teaching the local youth ever since. He said he started collaborating with the charity for his students’ concerts years ago.

“My music school, Band Gig Music, has been donating to Music Drives us since 2009, every year, three times a year,” he said. “We have concerts three times a year and they’re fundraisers every time we do it, and so after I cover my expenses, yada yada, the proceeds go to them.”

And so, Vecchio said earlier this year, Music Drives Us Program Coordinator Jacyn Tremblay reached out about the shredder’s event.

“She reached out to me and was like, ‘Jeez we noticed we get a lot of bucks from you’ – she was new to the program and didn’t really know me and we introduced each other – and they came to me and asked to hang a poster advertising the Ultimate Shredder Contest that they had back in February, and of course I was more than happy to do that and I handed out flyers to my clients and reached out to a handful of people I thought might be interested.”

The Ultimate Shredder’s Contest – https://tinyurl.com/4uyk7csx -- was a contest for guitar players with a $10,000 grand prize. Similar to the Karate Kid-esque 80s film ‘Crossroads’ – starring Ralph Macchio shredding against Stevie Vai – contestants would show what they got to celebrity judges. Those judges included Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen (Alice Cooper); Siobhan Cronin (STARSET / classical crossover violinist); Benny Goodman (AKA The Neurotic Guitarist); and Barry Goodreau (formerly of the multi-platinum band, Boston).

Music Drives Us Founder Ernie Boch said the event was aimed at uplifting guitar as an art form and celebrating those around town who could really pull off the skills.

“The Ultimate Shredder isn’t just a contest of live guitarists – it’s a celebration of how music lifts us all, at every age,” he said in a press release. Every chord is a step toward transforming a life, from young kids picking up their first guitar to seasoned shredders. Let’s raise the roof – pick up that guitar and let it rip.”

Vecchio said he thought it was a great idea and helped promote the charity he’s been supporting for almost 20 years.

Little did he know, he would have some serious connections to the contest, despite not aspiring to that kind of playing himself.

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“A few weeks go by and I see on Facebook who were the finalists, and it turns out of the 12 finalists, three of them were affiliated with me,” he said. “One of them was my first-ever guitar student, and I taught him for a few years and then because he was interested in that kind of music, I passed him off to another teacher who was more adequate to that kind of music – I’m not really a shredder. That’s Tyler Morris and he’s in a Van Halen tribute band, and two of the other people were both teachers of mine at one time. So it was pretty neat that out of the 12 picked, three of them had run-ins with me and music school at some point.”

Vecchio said he wanted to go, but he had other obligations, ironically, with Music Drives Us. He said he was prepping his students for a big show to raise money for the other organization.

“I was too busy prepping people for that concert, and so I told them, ‘I won’t be able to make it but good luck,’ blah blah blah,” he said. “And so a few days after the concert Jaycn reached out and asked if we could use some amps. I was like, ‘Sure!’ I mean, I’m a little music school, a small business, and I’ll take equipment whenever I can get it, because things break down and I can use anything whenever I can get it. So I was happy to. And then I saw the list of equipment, and I was blown away.”

The donated equipment includes two EVH 50-watt amps and cabs, two Boss Super Overdrive pedals, two Boss Noise Suppressor peals, two Dunlap ‘Cry Baby’ wah pedals, one Boss digital delay pedal, one MXR Analog Delay pedal, two chromatic tuners, two Truetone 1 Spot Pros, and two power strips.

Vecchio said his students are having a ball with the gear.