Click above image for more details and ticket info.

By Sean Corbett, Brian Goslow, Kevin Hyzak, Kyle Tucker, & Steph Moore

College students, recent grads, and fun-lovin’ folks of all ages, mark your calendars for September 23rd because that’s when Pulse Magazine and DCU Credit Union (that’s right, credit unions can be cool ~ they can help you with money!) are throwing one of the biggest (literally ~ we’re talking about over 30,000 square feet!) parties Worcester has even seen…and it’s going to be one blowout you do not want to miss.

For those of you new to the concept of PulseFest, here’s a quick rundown of what it is. Ever get tired of hearing people complain that for a city that has so many colleges and universities and so many college students, Worcester just isn’t a college town? Well, Pulse Magazine got tired of it, especially since it’s so NOT true! I mean, look at all the clubs, and services, and museums, and stores, and restaurants, and bands, and artists that are all around us. So what better way to prove our point than to get all that great stuff into one place, turn it into a huge party just in time to welcome college kids back to Worcester, and really showcase the city! Plus, we saw the perfect opportunity to give back to the City, and that’s why a portion of the proceeds are going to the Worcester County Food Bank (and you can choose to pay the $5 admission to the party OR bring a donation of a non-perishable food item). And we’re not the only ones who feel this way ~ DCU Credit Union does, too, and that’s why they signed on to be the Presenting Sponsor of the event! And that’s also why Budweiser, Worcester UniverCity Partnership, Karon Shea Modeling Management, WAAF 107.3 FM, the Shrewsbury Street Area Merchants Assoc., and Boston Bartenders couldn’t wait to come on-board as sponsors, too. Alright, so now that you know the idea behind PulseFest, it’s time to let you know what’s in store for this year. Ready? OK, here goes…

First of all, we’ve got WAAF’s The Hill-Man Morning Show funny guy Kevin Barbare hosting the entire event ~ so you KNOW there’s never going to be a dull moment. Then there’s the musical line-up ~ live performances by Change of System, Jediah, RADIx, White Chocolate, Steamy Bohemians, Trebek, Luke MacNeil, Dusty Cobb (with a special guest!), Chris Reddy, and Teresa Storch. All these artists will be bringing lots of CDs, T-shirts, and other band swag with them, too.

Now how about some interactive stuff? What about a Buckin’ Bronco? A giant inflatable game of Twister (now might be a good time to get some teams together – dorm v. dorm? Guys v. girls?)? A surfboard and racecar simulator? A cyber café? Hot dog and hot wing eating contests (OH, just one rule – no scarfing down dogs or wings and then hopping on the Buckin’ Bronco – that’s just a horror show waiting to happen!)?

Then there are the vendors…lots and lots of vendors…some that are even looking to hire you and throw a little extra money your way to get you through the semester. Maybe you’d like to get a tattoo, or a piercing (yes, right at the party!), or pick up some cool threads, or check out the latest in top-of-the-line car stereos (from inside the very cool cars themselves), or do some shopping for your dorm room.

Like free stuff? Tons of swag is heading your way at PulseFest, too ~ raffles, giveaways, prizes just for showing up, that kind of thing. And if you keep your ticket stub, you can get in to local clubs FREE after PulseFest. That’s right, FREE, as in no charge, no need to hit your friends up for a mini-loan, no need to start looking for spare change in the sofa, admission to a whole bunch of the nightclubs in Downtown Worcester that night?

How about meeting the WAAF Street Team? They’ll be there, too. As will the Hawaiian Tropic Girls (for you guys out there ~ we ladies have all the hot musicians to drool over!) thanks to Karon Shea Model Management, Inc. And speaking of modeling, Karon Shea will be hosting an on-site Model Search, so for all you hotties looking to be discovered, this is the perfect chance to try for modeling representation! On the subject of hotties, how about watching world-class Olympic athletes perform on a giant trampoline? Well, thanks to FlippenOut Productions (www.flippenout.com), you’ll be able to!

So add food and drink (but remember the rules, 21+ for alcohol!) on top of all that, and you can see why PulseFest is going to be the hottest ticket in the city. And now that you know just SOME of the great entertainment we have planned for the party, make sure to read the interviews with the stars of PulseFest 2006!

OH! And one last thing ~ we KNOW you’re going to want to check the October issue of Pulse to see if our photographers snapped a picture of YOU partying it up at PulseFest, so put on your best club gear (check out our Style section on page 74) and be sure to smile for the camera!!!


Our Presenting Sponsor, DCU Credit Union

Meet Mr. Tim Garner. He’s the Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Planning for the Digital Federal Credit Union ~ yep, that’s longhand for DCU, as in the DCU Center, as in the site for this year’s PulseFest. And don’t let the professional title or button-down shirt fool you. A driving force behind DCU Credit becoming the Presenting Sponsor for PulseFest 2006, Tim’s pretty young at heart and pretty hip to Worcester County’s college scene. And he was cool enough to sit down with Pulse to talk about DCU’s role in this year’s event and about how the credit union fits into that college scene.

PULSE: How did DCU come to be PulseFest’s presenting sponsor, helping welcome both new and returning college students to Worcester?

TIM: We had been searching for a way to make a connection with them when Sandy Dunn, General Manager of the DCU Center, made us aware of PulseFest. The more we learned about it, the more we wanted to be a part of it and see it succeed.

PULSE: DCU definitely seems to have a special place in its heart for students ~ how can it help them out?
 
TIM: Too often college students are taken advantage of by credit card and finance companies, landing them deep in debt by the time they graduate. That bothers us. As a not-for-profit financial institution, we wanted to offer college students financial education and services they can use to avoid that trap and ultimately become financially successful, smart consumers. 

PULSE: How important was it to you that PulseFest is including cultural and commercial vendors alongside the entertainment?

TIM: Worcester has so much to offer everyone, but it’s often hard to find time to discover what’s out there. Having everything in one place is a real time-saver. Plus, the more things there are to see and do at an event, the more reasons people have to go.

PULSE: We hear that DCU is pretty proud that one of its own employees ~ Matt Dionne ~ is performing as lead singer of the band Trebek?

TIM: Absolutely. Matt is a talented, creative guy ~ before and after 5 p.m.

PULSE: Anything you’d like to add?
 
TIM GARNER: We really encourage people to go to our web site – dcu.org – and click on “StreetWise.” This is the entry to our free-unbiased consumer education program. The most popular part is the Auto Buying Guide. People typically save $2,000 or more when they buy a car by reading this before they shop.

Kevin Barbare, MC

Pulse: So you’re the MC for PulseFest, and you’ve been in radio for a while, including being part of WAAF’s “The Hill Man Morning Show.” What other kinds of things has your impressive speaking voice gotten you in life?

KB: Oh, well I’ve done some TV commercials here and there, and some industrial training videos and stuff. People always call me when they don’t get who they want. Like, if they can’t get Patrick Stewart or someone like that, they call me and I just do the voice and I reap like 8% of what they would have gotten. And I’ve gotten a couple little parts in movies here and there.
 
Pulse: Favorite impersonation?

KB: Well, there’s about 150 that I do. I don’t know if I have any that are more requested than others, but there’s a lot of voices that everyone is doing nowadays. Back when I started, it was hard to find people who were doing them. I mean, I was doing Christopher Walken on our show years ago. And now, it seems like everybody does a Christopher Walken impression. It’s really whoever is in the news that week, or anybody that we can twist into something funny that is barely mentioned in the news, is pretty much fair game. If I can’t do them well enough, I try not to do them at all. Or at least do them in a way that people are going to laugh.

Pulse: Celebrity that gives you the most fodder for your comedy?

KB: Well, for a while there, all the news anchors were really good. Because they were all retiring at kind of the same time. We had a lot of Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppel and then all of them left. Lately we’ve been leaning toward, ah, the President, obviously. And Geraldo Rivera just randomly reporting on things in Iraq and we do a lot of original voices. We do a lot of songs, and we try to do the song so that it sounds like the people who really do the song. But nobody’s been overpowering the news lately. We do a lot of Tom Cruise, though.
 
Pulse: What is you favorite celebrity encounter?

KB: Well it’s always great to meet somebody I do an impression of, and they really like it. Or it’s great to meet somebody who’s a friend of someone I impersonate. I think my best celebrity encounter would be Chuck Norris. He was probably the nicest person who has ever been to the station, celebrity-wise. Very accommodating, very down to earth. I’m not necessarily a big Chuck Norris fan, it’s just that he’s somebody, everybody knows who he is and he was just really nice. When I first got in radio, it was cool to meet everybody. Meeting Aerosmith was cool, meeting Bon Jovi was cool, meeting anyone who was famous who came to the station. I loved it.

Pulse: You’re a musician, too. What kind of music do you perform aside from the parody songs?

KB: I’m in a band called the Deadites. It’s kind of a popular band in our area anyway. We kind of do a lot of electronic industrial pop, with a lot of stuff going on on-stage, like a performance thing. Kind of a cross between NIN, Blue Man Group and Depeche Mode. It’s kind of like going to a big costume party.
Pulse: So with your band playing that kind of music, and you working for a hard rock station…what’s in your CD player right now?

KB: It’s really a mix of everything. I’m all over the place. This British band, the Muse, just had a new CD come out. And a couple songs that everyone hears like a million times, like Gnarles Barkley. I’m a big fan of Radiohead, I have some older Radiohead in the car. And I like a lot of electronic music, because that’s what our band is. I haven’t been really listening to our show, or our station. I kind of just stick to CDs. People ask me what I think of other morning shows and I try not to even listen to them, because subconsciously I might do something funny on our show that I don’t realize somebody else did, and I don’t want to ever be accused of that. So I try not to even listen to them, and if they come up with something funnier than me, then more power to them.
 

Pulse: Do you have groupies because of the band or the morning show?

KB: You know what, we kind of do. I built a MySpace page, like everyone. And I didn’t request anyone as my friend. I was kind of surprised. Within a couple weeks, we had a couple thousand people on there. People are writing saying, “We love the show” and blah blah blah. You know, we have a few DVDs out and we did a small TV show, and I think it stopped for a while. When I step out places, various people ask you for autographs. It’s kinda cool. It’s nice because when you’re on the radio, you don’t realize that people are listening, so it’s nice to get people saying, “Oh, I like what you did this morning, etc” or they mention stuff specifically from like three years ago. But nobody’s like stalking me.
  

Pulse: The energy from a live audience – rank it against other work you do.

KB: Well, it’s a lot different. You can say or do whatever you want on the radio and all I have to worry about are the people in the room. It’s a different environment because I kind of do everything the morning of or off the top of my head. It’s going to be a lot different. I expect a full, recorded laugh track to keep me going. Actually I might bring a little tape recorder, and I’ll play the laugh track.

Pulse: PFest draws a huge college crowd, because it’s on a Saturday night and tickets are cheap…
KB: So I should bring a funnel. And maybe go streaking?
 
Pulse: What were you like back in school?

KB: I was the class clown. Never the class president, always the vice president. Never really had anybody who hated me. I was the artsy, funny guy. Very 80s. I have some very bad blackmail pictures out there. I was Duran Duran, all those awful hairstyles. Actually I kind of still am, just a little shorter.
 
Pulse: Any advice for the college kids out there, any words of wisdom?

KB: If you have something that you love to do, do that. Don’t do what they say you should do. And it’s better to start it when you’re young instead of when you’re older and you’ve already started something you thought you’d like and you don’t. Follow your talents. I mean, I was in medical school and I’m here now. I was going to be a cosmetic surgeon. I was on a bus going to a concert I won tickets to, and I was doing impressions on the bus. The next day, the morning show called me in, and that was like 20 years ago.

Pulse: Any tattoos, piercings, or strange Kevin Barbare habits we should know about?

KB: I’m a movie addict, I know a lot of useless trivia. No, never got tattoos. Not that I’m against them, I just never had the guts to go out put something on my body I’d still want to see when I’m 75. No unusual piercings either. So nobody’s going to be ripping anything out of me when I bomb at Pulse Fest!
 
Pulse: Do they ever let you drive the WAAF Rock Bus?

KB: I have never actually driven the Rock Bus, no. They usually hire people who drive way too fast or dangerous. I don’t even know if I can see over the steering wheel in that thing.
 
 
Pulse: You’re the host of and one of the main forces behind Rock-n-Shock…Can we give our readers a little preview of what’s in store for this year’s R-n-S extravaganza?

KB: It’s a 3-day horror convention/rock festival, and it’ll be in October. It’s kind of like Woodstock for horror fans. That’s my secondary focus outside of the station. We’ve got a lot of big horror stars coming to town this year. Like, George A. Romero who is like 7 feet tall and he’s really nice to his fans, one of the stars of Hostel, the cast of the original The Hills Have Eyes and the remake, and the cast of The Devil’s Rejects.

Pulse: One final question ~ If anyone over 21 wants to buy you a drink at PFest – what’s your drink of choice?

KB: Oooh, I’d say Jack and Coke, no lime.


In order of PULSEfest appearance:

White Chocolate
Big-band funkadelic sound and showmanship are back in a big way thanks to White Chocolate. This locally-grown group combines a diverse group of musical (and theatrical) talent to bring back the funkadelic experience with authority. They took a timeout from their busy funk tour for an exclusive roundtable Q&A to give Pulse readers a preview of what’s to come for PulseFest:

K: How did White Chocolate come together?

Ice B: One beer at a time. We’ve been friends/bandmates for over 10 years. Sooner or later we found a combination of players/personalities that worked well together and sounded great and was well recieved by Worcester clubs, so we continue to stick together.

Smack: I think we all met in rehab, no?

K: You guys are playing PulseFest this year. what can we expect to see at the show?

Smack: Donkeys jumping through hoops of fire! Dunno yet, but we’ll come up with something good, that’s for sure. Usually we start throwing bizarre ideas around after we finish the first 30 pack of Coors Light at rehearsals…

Quiknutz: Max’s new line of Spandex Socks.

Ice B: Maybe some special outfits are in order for this event.

K: What’s one fact about the band that no-one knows…yet?

Max Maroon: Each one of us holds a rank of at least 2nd dan black belt in Aikido…and Quiknutz has mastered the art of Levitation.

Smack: Our band room smells like processed burritos.

K: If you could see any band in the world perform live, whICH would it be?

Spoonie: I think most of us would need a time machine to truly grant this wish. It might be Funkadelic on the Mothership tour. It might be The Meters on the Queen Mary. It might be Led Zeppelin at Earl’s Court or Prince at First Avenue or The Beatles at The Cavern Club or Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock.

K: Who are your musical inspirations?

Spoonie: Without a doubt, our biggest inspiration is all the fans who come to all our shows and help get the party started. We call them the Chocolateers and they are the true funk soldiers whose energy fuels us and allows us to tear the roof off the sucker!

Smack: Everything NOT Country & Western. Yeah, that’s right – I said it.

K: What do you think of the movie PCU?

Spoonie: There’s a band that resembles us that plays at the party in that movie. If you think that party looks fun, try coming to one of our shows!

Quiknutz: I was in that movie as the guy on the floor.

For more info on White Chocolate, visit their band website band website, www.beerisgoodfood.com.

TREBEK
Mike Kelly, bassist, Trebek

PULSE: How did you come up with the name of your band, and what does it mean?

MIKE: TREBEK is a name that we thought was funny actually, because of a Saturday Night Live skit where Will Farrell plays Alex Trebek. It means that we are a bunch of jackasses that could not come up with anything better. We actually performed our first show at Bill’s Bar under the name of “Crotch Mullet.”

PULSE: Can you tell a difference in the age and let’s say “gender division” of a crowd just from their response and their energy?

MIKE: We have found that the overall response from a crowd has been very good and positive, no matter what the age. Obviously when there are ladies in the crowd you will get the high-pitched screaming ~ my personal favorite; it fills a void, and you get the dudes yelling and winking at you.

PULSE: What kind of music did you grow up on? What kind of music do you listen to now?

MIKE: I grew up on oldies, classic rock and Beethoven and Mozart. My father is a drummer so I used to go to some of his outdoor gigs at Mount Wachusett and stuff. My brother is also a drummer and he was part of the hardcore scene around here in the early ‘90s, which I got into as well. These days I listen to mostly Punk, Reggae, Rock, Pop, Irish, and some instrumental ~ anything that I can learn from and take from.

PULSE: Have all the neat tech gadgets that have flooded the market over the past 5 or 10 years affected your song writing/composing/recording/playing process?

MIKE: Since I installed Digital Performer recording software on my laptop, I am able to compose a lot of music a lot more frequently and have it sound good without the help of an outside source.

PULSE: After you’ve played a show (good or bad), do you talk about it right away or give it some time?

MIKE: For a good performance we will usually hang out after the gig and shower each other with praise. We have learned that bringing a bad performance up within the next couple of days is the best for us. No more beating around the bush for Trebek these days.

PULSE: Your band hits it big and you make your first million. What’s the first thing you buy?

MIKE: I personally would like to pay off my bills and buy a home. Nothing too fancy, but something nice and livable probably around my hometown. Also, I would love to do something nice for both my mother and father. Dad has always wanted a ‘32 Ford Roadster. I think Mom has always wanted a ‘64 Mustang. Oh, and I would get a Harley!

(Watch for Trebek’s long-awaited CD this fall.)

RADIX
Quite Nyce, aka The PowerMove Man, is one-half of RADIx and let us probe a little into their hip-hop world

PULSE: How did you come up with the name of your band, and what does it mean?

QUITE NYCE: I was in a class called Women in American Society, which highlighted some of the greatest women, and women who changed history. My professor mentioned a word, RADIx. I immediately questioned the meaning. She said that it meant of the root or origin. When I heard that I knew that was the name for us – RADIx, of the root, bringing hip-hop back to the core elements.

PULSE: Any pre-show rituals or “lucky” items you wear/take on stage with you?

QUITE NYCE: Just relax. I like to enjoy people that perform before us to see how the crowd is responding to certain things and to see where we can maximize our set.

PULSE: Can you tell a difference in the age of a crowd just from their response and their energy?

QUITE NYCE: We cut across all age barriers. There is no choice with a RADIx show but to have energy.

PULSE: There are lots of stereotypes about musicians. Are any of them true about you?

QUITE NYCE: I don’t feed into stereotypes. I just focus on making Abstrak Recordings and RADIx one of the biggest independent machines in the world.

PULSE: What kind of music did you grow up on? What kind of music do you listen to now?

QUITE NYCE: I grew up on a lot of soul. And I still listen to soul. There is nothing like listening to a soul record and just relaxing. They don’t make music like that anymore. I’m an old soul, what more can I say.
PULSE: If you could see any band in the world perform live, who would it be?

QUITE NYCE: I would want RADIx to be co-headlining with J5 and Rahzel with DJ JS1.

PULSE: Your band hits it big and you make your first million. What’s the first thing you buy?

QUITE NYCE: I would definitely buy my mom and my sister something in real estate, so they always would have money if anything happened to me and I couldn’t make any more hit records.

PULSE: You’re in front of an audience all the time. But are you outgoing and confident in real life, or much shyer than the person we see on stage?

QUITE NYCE: I’m not shy at all. I see what I want and I go get it.

Watch for the new video by Quite Nice and SEEK, aka RADix, from their CD “The Staple,” on MTV on Demand and YouTube.com.

THE Steamy Bohemians

The audience at PulseFest is darn lucky. Pulse Magazine was lucky enough to snag the steamiest duo around before their elevation to rock-star status (scheduled for sometime next month). Niki and Lainey have already gathered enough material for a VH1 Behind the Music mini-series ~ epic drinking binges, excessive partying, lewd behavior, manic rages, and all-girl spin-the-bottle games (of course with some hyperbole, for the sake of ratings). Mastering that kind of behavior is really the final piece of becoming rock goddesses when you’re already blessed with sultry good looks, good voices, and musical talent (yes, Niki can play the triangle) like the ladies are. Dress the whole package up in some hip threads (that are, dare I say, steamy) and you’ve got the Steamy Bohemians.

Did I mention that on top of everything they’re funny, too? These gals can entertain the p*ss outta ya. Oh! And did I mention they’re classy?! I didn’t? Good. ‘Cause they’re not. They’re a little dirty. OK, maybe a lot. Nothing’s off limits during their show. Remember the time you and your college buddies circled around your computer to watch the clip of that elephant sitting on that guy’s head? They’re that kind of funny, not “I Love Raymond” funny. They make Benny Hill look like Mr. Rogers. When they perform, it’s always a good time that would only slightly offend your parents.

So come enjoy having hip pin-ups serenade you with some mellifluous ditties about cousin-lovin’ stalking, and other family-friendly topics. And if you promise to be good (or bad…very bad), the lovely ladies might even bring a belly-dancer with them.

You’re going to fall in lust with the Steamies. Don’t even try to fight it. So just for you, they have their first CD coming out (all of their most popular songs super-produced and done up all professional-like and stuff) pretty soon. September 9th they’ll be opening for Doug Stanhope at Ralph’s and they’re also there every third Thursday of the month hosting Jerkus Circus, a stiff shot of the Steamy Bohemians’ flavor with stand-up, music, and burlesque sprinkled on top.

Come see the ladies at PulseFest. Let them touch you (MUSICALLY, I mean!). And feel free to buy them each a drink (they perform as one, drink as two) if you’re 21+. If things go well, you might just turn up on that Behind the Music” special.

Jediah the Man on Jediah the Band

PULSE: Since the band bears your name, do you feel an extra sense of responsibility?

JEDIAH: I feel a great sense of responsibility. But, Jediah is a band and every member of Jediah shares the same desire to succeed.

PULSE: Can you tell a difference in the age of a crowd just from their response and their energy?

JEDIAH: Jediah’s music appeals to a broad range of age groups. We see lots of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. There’s always someone from every age group that’s willing to get out on the dance floor.

PULSE: There are lots of stereotypes about musicians. Are any of them true about you? What’s the false stereotype that angers you the most?

JEDIAH: It’s true that playing out all of the time can be a regular party. Everyone around you is either celebrating, relaxing or forgetting. It’s hard not to participate when your regular fans become your friends. [What’s false is] People sometimes equate stage confidence with life confidence when in fact, life is a much bigger and scarier stage than the one we perform on.

PULSE: Your band hits it big and you make your first million. What’s the first thing you buy?

JEDIAH: A bachelor pad for me and my single friends.

PULSE: Any pre-show rituals or “lucky” items you wear/ take on stage with you?

JEDIAH: A few drinks settle the jitters. I still get jittery even after doing hundreds of shows. No lucky items. I go over the songs in my head as I am traveling to a show.

PULSE: What kind of music did you grow up on? What kind of music do you listen to now?

JEDIAH: I grew up on jazz and rock. I enjoy everything from jazz to pop rock. Some of my current favorite artists are U2, Coldplay, and Dave Matthews.

PULSE: Have all the neat tech gadgets that have flooded the market over the past 5 or 10 years affected your song writing/composing/recording/playing process?

JEDIAH: No, I’m a purist. I keep almost everything in my head. Guitar, paper and pen are my tools.

Jediah was voted “Best Rock Act” at the 2006 Worcester Music Awards sponsored by The Pulse; their new studio CD, “Flight,” drops this month.

Change of System
Meet Pete… Guitarist for Change of System

PULSE: How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean?

PETE: One of [drummer] Eric Power’s friends came up with it one night as we were practicing. He said that we are not playing what everyone else is playing – it’s like we are almost changing the system. We thought for a moment and bang, Change of System was born.

PULSE: Any pre-show rituals or “lucky” items you wear/ take on stage with you?

PETE: [Our vocalist] Justin usually stretches beforehand, Jay is checking his tuning on his guitar along with me and Tim, [drummer] and Eric makes sure he has his chains on his pants – don’t ask.

PULSE: Can you tell a difference in the age of a crowd just from their response and their energy?

PETE: Absolutely not. No matter the age, we always have energy at our shows.

PULSE: How important are the technical aspects of a show like lights and sound?
PETE: If you don’t have the right mixing of the sound or the right lighting for certain songs it completely takes away from what you are trying to accomplish.

PULSE: Have all the neat tech gadgets that have flooded the market over the past ten/five years affected your song writing/composing/recording/playing process?

PETE: Eric would say three words for this question – “Analog, tried and true.” They have not affected us in any way.

PULSE: What kind of music did you grow up on? What kind of music do you listen to now?

PETE: We grew up on everything. Me personally ‘80s hard rock, Justin too, but I grew up on like Guns ‘N’ Roses, Poison – stuff like that.
PULSE: You’re in front of an audience all the time. Are you outgoing and confident in real life, or much shyer than the person we see on stage?

PETE: We are always willing to talk to whoever wants to talk to us. We are all confident and outgoing.

PULSE: Your band hits it big and you make your first million. What’s the first thing you buy?

PETE: We would buy a nightclub for all ages shows. We used to have a club like that here on James Street [The Espresso Bar]. It didn’t matter who was playing, there were always kids there having a good time hanging with friends. We need to bring that back to the community.

Change of System was voted “Best Hardcore Act” at the 2006 Worcester Music Awards sponsored by the Pulse and recently performed ~ no, make that kicked ass ~ at Locobazooka; After a huge release party and appearance on FOX TV, they released their new CD “Resurrection” last month.

DJ Tony
TNT Entertainment

PULSE: What made you want to be a DJ?

DJ TONY: My love of music and giving people the opportunity to live a life with a little more fulfillment through music.

PULSE: How did you train to be a DJ?

DJ TONY: A few people helped along the way, but most of it was developed by just getting out there and doing it. Practice and Repetition!

PULSE: What’s the wildest place you’ve DJed?

DJ TONY: Aruba on the beach. The customer paid for the whole trip just because they wanted me to DJ their event.

PULSE: What’s the most requested song these days?

DJ TONY: Years ago I used to play a lot of international and house music, today most people want to hear hip-hop.

PULSE: Is the music you play as a DJ the same as you listen to when you’re home or driving around?

DJ TONY: Sometimes, but most of the time I like to switch it up to various jazz music.

PULSE: How do you keep up with what’s going on in the world musically?

DJ TONY: Friends from overseas and LA, for some reason music always hits big everywhere else before it hits the east coast. I remember years ago when I went to Italy and purchased over a thousand dollars in music that was big there at the time. That music did not become popular here ‘til one year later.

PULSE: What performers or styles of music have you discovered in trying to widen the sounds you’ve got available when you work your magic?

DJ TONY: From a very young age I fell in love with international music. Sometimes it seems that people from other cultures just know how to live life a little fuller. Some of this music includes Greek, Arabic, Latin, and Italian, just to name a few. Playing this music brings people of different cultures together and opens people’s minds. When people are dancing they cannot deny the rhythm and find themselves dancing to music they do not understand.

PULSE: How’s DJing help the love life?

DJ TONY: My life love was very fruitful back in the day. Today I’m a one-woman man.

PULSE: What’s the strangest request you’ve ever gotten while DJing?

DJ TONY: That is something I cannot speak about. And it definitely has nothing to do with music.

The Acoustic Line-Up

While their “plugged” counterparts are rockin’ the Main Arena, our acoustic performers will be featured in Showcase Corner, entertaining the crowd with unplugged sets of covers and original material. The line-up includes Dusty Cobb and Justin Perry of DC5 (on MySpace at myspace.com/thedc5 ), Chris Reddy (www.chrisreddy.com), who gives James Brown a run for his money as the hardest working man in showbiz, playing a bar or venue between here and, well, actually between here and the rest of New England practically every night of the week (though he saves Thurs. nights for Irish Times right here in Worcester), Luke MacNeil (befriend him on MySpace at myspace.com/lukemacneil), whose haunting and powerful voice and composition are winning him a passionate following in area coffeehouses and clubs (read a review of Luke’s new CD in this issue’s Up and Comers on page 28), and Teresa Storch (www.sonicbids.com/teresastorch, WWW.TERESASTORCH.COM), whose show-stopping vocals have won her comparisons to Suzanne Vega and Natalie Merchant.

We talked to our unplugged artists to find out a little more about what makes them tick.

Dusty Cobb

You’ve got a really great stage persona and rapport with the audience. Is that something that changes depending on the crowd?
If you’re singing your heart out and interacting with your bandmates, then the crowd will be in it with you for the ride. I aim to bring the crowd ~ whether it’s 10 people or a thousand people ~ to the exact spot I am in emotionally when I am singing. And the more people in the crowd, I notice the better our game gets.

Gotta ask ~ Dusty Cobb isn’t your ‘birth name,’ so where did it come from?
The name Dusty Cobb came to me in a dream. It has a few meanings, one of which is a little too personal or [really] a little too f*ckin’ odd to be mentioned here ~ however, I will say that in this dream I was performing outdoors with a band that included members of other area bands and I heard the name Dusty being called out and for some reason I awoke and thought, Dusty Cobb, that’s money.

You sing and play guitar, but are there any instruments your bandmates just won’t let you near?
Actually, if you asked my bandmates, they’d tell you that they try to keep me away from the guitar! Anything that involves my soloing on guitar or playing drums, well, that’s about the time they take a smoke break during rehearsal.

Luke MacNeil

Your music reveals some emotional pain. Do you ever worry that if you get too happy your songwriting inspiration might dry up?
Hah, no of course not. I’d sabotage things far before it could ever get to that point!

Rumor has it that you were a Metallica fan way back when. So come on, you can tell us, beneath this mild-mannered acoustic soul…a guy who turns the hard rock up to 11 and can bang his head with the best of ‘em?
Yeah, as a young teen I was into bands like Metallica and other biggies.. Then I started to get more into death metal. I idolized the older kids that played the angry music. Every once in a while I still toss in my metal CDs…but as far as music making, I try to keep focused. I sold everything I owned and simplified. I got tired of being pissed off all the time.

One final question ~ being a musician…does it get you the ladies??
Well, it got me an interview with you didn’t it? Just kidding, but it did help land me the best one there is.

Teresa Storch

For anyone who is not a musician, can you describe what it’s like to feel the energy from a live audience?
Teresa: Performing in front of an audience is a rush, it becomes an addiction for some of us!

What’s in your CD player right now?
Teresa: Right now in my CD player I have a live recording of a seminar by Abraham-Hicks, a spiritual guide. Music-wise the last thing was my friend Megan Burtt, fabulous singer/songwriter who attends Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Can you remember the exact moment that you realized that music had to play a huge part in your life?
Teresa: I went to school in Colorado right next to Red Rocks Amphitheatre. I spent all my student loans on going to shows and it was front row at a Lyle Lovett show that I pointed at the stage and said “I want to do that!”

Best rock-n-roll crush moment?
My claim to fame is that Dave Matthews kissed ME on the lips after I talked to him after a show.

Chris Reddy

“Playing PulseFest is a great gig for any musician ~ the college crowd in general is the most enthusiastic and honest audience, and their energy is contagious.  I’m looking forward to playing some of my new stuff for them for the first time on the 23rd, too.  The acoustic scene is Worcester County is really heating up and this is an opportunity to win over some new fans!”

INFO
WHAT: PulseFest
WHERE: The DCU Center, downtown Worcester
WHEN: Sept. 23, 6pm – 12:30am
DETAILS: Tickets are $5 each ~ or bring one non-perishable food item to be donated to the Worcester Food Bank