Pre-Nerds—
Original member,
Jim “Spaz” Garcia, Ed “Felix
the Guy” Casanovas, Jack “Biff”
Yocum and Peter “Stretch” Oltmanns
started out as an original band known as AKA.
Explored some recording projects, played a few
gigs, but went nowhere.
Steve Tarkanish, then owner of a rehearsal studio,
suggests to Jim they form a band called The
Nerds, loosely based on an old skit from Saturday
Night Live-not the Nerd movies. The Nerds, he
felt should dress and act like nerds, play lots
of R&B, and Funk music. And there in the
days of top 40 bands playing New-Wave, Madonna
and Michael Jackson, was born………(fanfare…..cat
noise…..gunshot…)
The Nerds Were Born—
The Nerds…….playing
a blend of Soul, Classic Rock, and TV themes.
Their stage show and banter was largely influenced
by Monty Python and David Letterman’s
love of the absurd and Howard Stern’s
disregard for tact. More often than not, pointless
arguments onstage about trivial matters became
a regular part of the act. One of the Nerds
most requested bits, came in the way of a sing
along inspired by a hot dog cart operator. At
lunch one day, Spaz overhear the vendor’s
boom-box playing Neil Diamond’s ”Sweet
Caroline. When the chorus came around the guy
chimed in “Sweeeet Caroline… pah
pah pah”. Finding this childishly amusing,
Spaz decided to add this to the Nerds set, along
with getting the audience to sing the infectious
“…pah pah pah…”. It
became a regular part of the act, and there
isn’t a night that goes by when some reluctant
participant isn’t coerced into singing
along. “It’s all in good fun, and
people love the attention. I hear even Neil
Diamond has added it to his live show.”
Before long they had developed a strong fan
base of people not looking for the same old
thing.
August 15th 1985- Nerds
first gig at the Lighthouse in Lake Hopatcong.
Everything went wrong. It was a smash!
Still working
day jobs, The Nerds spend their first 2 years
developing a repertoire and fan base at places
like The Fireside, in Denville NJ and later
Hurricane Alley in Morristown, NJ. Lots of
great times, too many diners after the gig.
Regular characters start to creep into the
picture as the Nerds become local favorites.
By
Their Third Year—
The Nerds begin
to infiltrate the coveted Jersey shore market,
playing places like The Playpen and Birchhill
in Old Bridge and the Headliner in Neptune.
Next stop Seaside Heights where Sundays at
Baby-O’s became a study in the ridiculous,
playing mostly to bartenders. Nevertheless,
greatness was just around the corner….The
Osprey and Joe Pops finally put the Nerds
on the map, and the lines start going around
that corner. The Nerds had suddenly become
a Jersey Shore band, although they were still
living in Hudson County.
With all the
press and attention they were getting, they
decide to try something different and do a
big show at the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel,
NJ (then known as the Garden state Arts Center)
A triple bill with The Greaseband, The Party
Dolls, and The Nerds, sells over 6 thousand
tickets. Spaz still remembers what a rush
it was running onto the stage to the sound
of thousands of roaring fans. About that time,
they all move out of Hudson County and spread
themselves all over the state. Things were
getting better.
CARNEGIE
HALL—
Next year
they kicked it up another notch doing a solo
performance at the world famous CARNEGIE HALL
in New York. It was a Nerds seventh anniversary
show in a hall that had never hosted a cover
band. But they sold it out, over 2500 seats,
only to make about a hundred of those seats
vacant when Spaz leapt off the stage and formed
a conga line up and down the aisles (much
to the protest of house security and the union
guys). To promote the show, the Nerds appeared
on Good Morning America, and even had Howard
Stern do a live commercial on his show. “Now
everybody knows us…!”
Stuttering John
liked them so much, he joined them on a few
shows, playing and singing. A few years later
The Nerds would play his wedding. They had
played a few weddings a year since the beginning,
always in Nerd attire, much to the joy of
the hardcore fans getting married and much
to the disgust of their parents. But in the
end, there was always love for the guys in
the bad shorts.
Poultry
in Motion—
In 1994,
the Nerds put out their first CD of original
and live cover material. “Poultry in
Motion” took about 4 months to complete
and Spaz hated the entire process. Fans loved
it and the Nerds toyed with idea of pursuing
the original music market, but later agreed
that performing live in front of people had
honorable merits of its own, and ‘hey,
the money wasn’t bad’.
1995 saw the
Nerds become one of the first people on the
internet, featuring band photos and schedule
on something called a web site that longtime
fan and friend John Casullo had designed for
them. “He said it would be the latest
thing, and we were like, ‘OK, whatever,
run with it’. He did and now the world’s
a smaller place.”
Rough
Times —
After ten years,
looking back, The Nerds thought they had faced
it all and won. All the crazy stories, characters,
road crews, agents, and strange little clubs
had forged quite a brotherhood. But 1995 brought
it’s most difficult time when Felix,
having lived with years of health issues became
very sick and had to take some time off. Mike
“Mongo” Spiro came in as a substitute
on keyboards and held that position for a
few months while Felix recovered somewhat.
Felix came back in May and performed for what
would be his last 2 months. When he could
not do it any longer, he stepped aside in
August of that year and died 2 weeks later,
days before the tenth anniversary of the band.
A brother, band mate, and friend had been
lost. To this day, his twisted sense of humor
keeps the band laughing onstage and off.
Mongo
& The C-Section—
In September
1995, Mongo became a full time member and
things went on for the band, a little rough
at first, but getting back into stride after
awhile. Besides a thriving club business,
the Nerds started getting more and more offers
to perform at corporate and private functions.
They flew everywhere from LA to Whistler Canada,
to the Bahamas, performing for some of the
biggest companies around. Later adding the
C-Section Horns as a sideline to the act,
the band threw in a little bit of swing and
funk to jazz up the act. They still join in
occasionally to this day. They also added
Dr Ricky on percussion for a little more Latin
flavor on some shows and on still others Rich
the Cowboy Guy on fiddle and banjo. Anything
to keep the fans guessing.
The
New Era—
July 4th
of 2000 had the Nerds performing at the South
Street Seaport to a crowd of over 12,000 people.
“We had cops up on the FDR Drive pacing
back and forth with rifles; it was like a
scene from Attica”
With the onslaught of
cover bands playing alternative-grunge song
lists, the Nerds stuck to their guns playing
a little of everything that they liked (R&B,
blues, funk, dance, classic rock, hair band,
punk, new wave, pop and Englebert Humperdinck),
and in the fall of 2000, they were asked to
host MTV’s Ultimate Cover Band Contest
as the house band. They performed throughout
the show as 6 other bands competed in an elimination
contest. Spaz recalls “After that we
were getting emails from all over the country,
as well as Australia, Germany, and even prison.
That a little unnerving but cool nonetheless.”
Besides MTV, the Nerds
have also performed on “The View”
about 4 times, Carson Daly, and several other
TV shows long since gone. Their posters have
been on several episodes of “Law and
Order” as well as a new show “Love
Monkey”. They have played many celebrity
hosted events for A&E, 'The Ed Show',
'Book of Daniel'. They have shared a stage
with Sheryl Crow, Hootie and the Blowfish,
Earth Wind and Fire, Train, The Go-Gos, Maroon
5, Southside Johnny, and more. They have performed
for countless political figures, have been
joined onstage by numerous sports figures
including members of the NY Giants, NY Yankees,
NJ Nets, NASCAR champions, and yes even the
occasional rockstar like Jon Bonjovi, members
of Twisted Sister, Dickie Betts of the Allman
Brothers, Billy Joel’s band and Letterman’s
Late Night band. Sooner or later are bound
to have a reality show of their own, “Nerds
Need Love Too…”. And speaking
of that, they are all married and all have
2 sons each, except for Stretch who has 3.
In fact, as a side project, Spaz has formed
a sort of ‘School of Rock’ teaching
a group of kids, including his son Evan on
keyboards, how to be a band. They call themselves
“The Punks”, and Spaz took them
under his wing when they were all about 10
years old. You’re never too young.
Twenty
Years Of Nerds—
Twenty years of the Nerds has seen over 60
people come through on the road crew and promotional
crew, which has always been the best. “It
lets us do what we like to do best without
having to do what we like to do least”
They have built an act, a brotherhood, a team,
and a business model that would put many others
to shame. 20 years and still going strong
like the Energizer bunny, or more like the
deadly bunny guarding the cave from Monty
Python’s Holy Grail…
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