Five Area Bands Will Provide The Music For August 6 Tercentennial/Birthday Party

By Shannon Hicks

When Newtown hosts its official 300th birthday party on Saturday, August 6, plenty of music will keep the day-long event hopping.

Amy Mangold has taken care of arranging for four bands with different styles of music to perform during the Tercentennial Birthday Party, which will be on the grounds of Fairfield Hills. All of the bands that are performing are volunteering their time for the event.

Music will start at 1 pm with Harmony on The Sound, a female barbershop-style quartet.

There will be a one-hour break in the music between 2 and 3 pm, when Christopher the Magician will be performing.

The music will resume at 3 with a set by In Harmony, followed by The Bad Boys Blues Band at 5, Eye Contact at 6, and then Gutter Boogie starting at 7 and taking the crowds into the final event of the day, a fireworks show.

In Harmony, formerly Harmony Street, bills itself as “New England’s premier doo-wop vocal group.”

The ensemble includes two guys, three gals and a multi-talented synthesizer/keyboard player: original members Dee “The Blonde in The Middle” Heavrin, Robin Miller, and Scott Poarch; Lenny Seiter, who joined the group a year ago; and newest member Adrienne Lisko. Peter Randazzo brings everything together with modern technology and sounds that have made the group’s musical backdrop better than ever.

The Bad Boys Blues Band honor the masters of blues, playing songs by artists such as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, B.B. King and ZZ Top. The band has played various venues throughout Connecticut and the Mid-Hudson Valley, including the 2005 Connecticut Blues Society Blues Challenge.

Members are John Dubberstein on guitar and vocals, Michael Paes on bass guitar and vocals, Ross Herman on drums, and John Larracuente on guitar.

The local band Eye Contact is Dr Richard Coopersmith on rhythm guitar, Ted Crane on bass, Bob Donaldson on drums and vocals, “Mad” Mike Grillo on piano and vocals, and Dr Lou Sclafani on lead guitar and vocals.

“We’re a group of individuals who have professions well outside the music career,” Dr Coopersmith told The Bee in March. “You’ve got a collection of two chiropractors, one attorney, one person in the food retail business, and the other is a building contractor.

“We just do events for fun. We rock out, basically,” said Dr Coopersmith, who is one of said chiropractors. “We are from the school of rock & roll. You know Jack Black and that movie [The School of Rock]? That’s what we are. We do it for the love. We’re dedicated to creating music that is focused on dancing.”

While the group is usually hired for private parties, residents have had opportunities to see these guys perform at a few public events already this year. Eye Contact played during the 6th Annual Newtown Youth Services Dinner Dance in March and then at “A Passion for Hawley!” a spring event for Hawley School the following month.

Gutter Boogie is a four-piece classic rock band consisting of two guitars, bass, drums and “chilling harmonies,” says member Jay Willie.  Tod Willie, Bob Callahan and Dave Polley are the other members of the band.

Those showing up for Gutter Boogie’s performance on August 6 “can hear anything from disco to blues with this very diverse foursome of musicians,” promises Mr Willie.

In addition to all of the music, the All-Day Birthday Celebration will include a family picnic, games, an antique car show, and a vintage base ball game, tons of refreshments, a dunking booth, and fireworks, all at Fairfield Hills. A bocce tournament will also be taking place that day at The Pleasance, 1 Main Street, beginning at 9 am.