Some of Los Angeles’ finest musicians took over the stages of National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), from Jan. 23 – Jan. 27. The few and the proud were enlisted with many other musicians from the United States. Tobi Hero & The All Stars and U2 tribute band, L.A.vation, kicked off media day. Ben Babylon Band, Heavy Mellow and of Verona performed on the first day of NAMM.
As each member continued solos throughout Ben Babylon Band’s set, the lead singer introduced each of his band mates to the crowd. “Dorky” was inspired by a dog whom loved to eat donuts and the lead singer stated how random it was. After he mentioned the dog loved donuts, an audience member responded by yelling all dogs love donuts. He looked up and smiled, as more convention-goers continued to populate the patio stage area.
“Cage”, “You Won’t Lose”, “We Have No Souls”, a cover of Cage the Elephant’s “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked”, “Contradiction”, “Jack’s Hit” and “Different Meanings” were also part of Ben Babylon Band’s set.
Benjamin Woods and Luis Villegas are the Flamenco guitarists and Mike Bennett is the percussionist of Heavy Mellow. Arleen Hurtado and Hannah Lily were the Flamenco dancers.
Heavy Mellow performed an all instrumental set and Woods introduced each song between songs. He also cited their double album is currently available on iTunes, before their cover of Iron Maiden’s “Wasted Years”. He said they would also be performing across the street, on the second day of NAMM. Hurtado and Lily alternated Flamenco dancing duties, during their set. They continued to draw more spectators, after each song of their set.
Covers of Iron Maiden’s “Aces High”, Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark”, Dokken’s “Mr. Scary”, Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”, Ozzy Osbourne’s “Over The Mountain”, Mötley Crüe’s “Too Young To Fall In Love”, Judas Priest’s “Electric Eye” and Ozzy Osbourne’s “Bark at the Moon” were also part of Heavy Mellow’s set.
Mandi Perkins is the vocalist, Dillon Pace is the keyboardist and guitarist and Jeff Sojka is the drummer and percussionist of of Verona.
After “Dark In My Imagination”, Perkins mentioned “The White Apple” was the name of of Verona’s recent release. She spoke of how it was steadily climbing the college radio charts. She revealed the song was inspired by a long trip.
“Castles”, “Centipede” and “They Will Fall Like Roses” were also part of of Verona’s set.
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