HIWATT
Seattle,
Washington
2001
- Present
Members
Theron
Andrews ~ Lead Guitar, Vocals
Sid
Anschel ~ Bass Guitar
Jess
Hamilton ~ Lead Vocals
Tod
Hobart ~ Drums, Vocals
Andy
Volmer* ~ Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
Alumni
Phil
Bergeron ~ Drums, Vocals
Rick
Bowen ~ Drums, Vocals
Trish
Burke ~ Vocals
Sara
Darington ~ Vocals
Jack
English ~ Drums, Vocals
Brian
Feldtman ~ Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Donn
Garrett ~ Drums
Stuart
Gordon ~ Bass
Gerald
"Spot" Harmon ~ Bass, Vocals
Derek
Hovander* ~ Drums, Vocals
Dawn
Lindsey ~ Vocals
Pete
"Mags" Magarelli ~ Drums, Vocals
Terry
"Terrified" McCormack ~ Bass
Scottie
McDevitt ~ Drums
Rick
Peters ~ Drums
Ted
Pickett* ~ Bass, Vocals
David
Pearce* ~ Lead Guitar, Vocals
Bruce
Raabe ~ Drums
Benny
"G" ~ Drums, Vocals
*
Original Member
After 9+ years,
HiWatt
is STILL rockin and rollin in the local clubs and area festivals. Check
them out at: MySpace
Visit Ted Pickett
at his personal MySpace or
at Idol Eyes
Formed
from
the ashes of the band, “The Slackers” (Andy Volmer, Ed Busey, Dave
Pierce
and Derek Hovander, who played their last gig together in August of
2001),
the new band, “HiWatt” started rehearsing in new bassist’s Ted
Pickett’s
basement in the Fall of 2001.
Dave didn’t
like
the direction the song list was going, so he quit the band in November
of 2001. After placing an ad in The Rocket, a now extinct Seattle music
scene rag, Andy found lead guitarist extraordinaire Theron Andrews, who
had recently moved to West Seattle from Madison, Wisconsin. After about
a month of practices with Theron, the “new HiWatt went in and cut
a 4 song demo at Electrokitty Studios in February of 2002 and then
played
their first live show at the Freemont Dock Tavern in March of 2002.
Eventually, Ted
was
replaced by Stu Gordon in May of 2002 and Gerald Harmon (aka “G-Spot”)
quickly replaced Stu in June of 2002. It was around this time that
Trish
Burke had a brief stint in the band as our first attempt of a female
lead
vocalist, but that experiment didn’t last very long (maybe a month or
so).
Benny Goldberg
(aka
“Benny G”) replaced Derek after he left in September of 2002 due to his
wife having a new baby. After a few months, Benny was replaced by Phil
Bergeron (aka “Phil E. Carlos”) in January of 2003.
In March of
2003
we decided to give the female singer thing a try again and that's when
Dawn Lindsey joined us. That line up of Dawn, Andy, Theron, Gerald and
Phil stayed/played together for about 8 months. Dawn eventually left
HiWatt
to pursue her new original project with Doug Sample (“D-n-D”) and Sara
Darrington was brought in as lead vocalist for a few gigs, but it
didn’t
work out everyone had hoped, and by the end of 2004, HiWatt was back to
an all male line up of Andy, Theron, Gerald and Phil. Another 8 months
went by and eventually Phil got a job offer to move to Arizona that was
just too good to pass up, and in November of 2005, Phil left us and
Everett
resident Rick Bowen joined up with HiWatt.
Rick played a
few
gigs, but we turned to Jack English in December of 2005 because he
added
vocal support as well as decent drumming skills. Jack stayed with us
for
about 2 months and then Rick Peters was hired in February of 2006 to
take
Jack's spot. Rick, a better singer and drummer, only lasted about a
month
due to scheduling conflicts (mostly because he lived in Cle Elum) and
Pete
Magarelli (aka “The Petenis”) joined us in the Spring of 2006.
The lineup of
Andy,
Theron, Gerald and Pete played together for about 8 months, but Gerald
bailed out in October 2006 to go play with “New Jack City”, a new band
that was being formed specifically aimed at Casino work (G-spot was a
slave
to the almighty dollar). In his place we hired a really great guy,
Terry
McCormack (aka “Terrified”), to play bass.
With the
departure
of Gerald, Pete eventually also decided to leave us in November of 2006
(Pete decided to pursue a lifelong dream and went to school at night to
become a Chef), and Bruce Raabe was hired on to take his place. It was
right around this time that Theron left Seattle to take a new job in
Houston,
TX, and Brian Feldtman came on board to play Lead Guitar and Keyboards.
So, at the end of 2006, the line up was Andy, Brian, Terry and Bruce.
With the
departure
of Theron, the lead vocal/frontman duties lacked what Theron brought to
the table, so we set out to hire a new lead vocalist, and found a
really
great singer and showman. Jess Hamilton was his name. Jess officially
joined
HiWatt in February of 2007. Jess, Andy, Brian, Terry and Bruce played
together
until Bruce left HiWatt in July of 2007 to take care of his ailing
parents
and concentrate on work more. To take his place, we hired Scott
McDevitt.
Scotty was with us for about 4 months, but eventually the commuting
distance
to North end gigs (he lives in Olympia) for Scotty proved to be too
much
for him, and he left us in November of 2007.
Terry
eventually
decided to quit playing live and he left the band about the same time
Scotty
did, or maybe it was a little before Scotty left. We were lucky enough
to find Sid Anschell, one of the best rock bassists in the Pacific
Northwest
to take Terry's spot on Bass. With Scotty's departure, we hired long
time
friend of the band, Donn Garrett (aka “Donnie G”), to hold the drum
chair
down until we could find a new drummer. This took about 2 months and
the
waiting was worth it, as we got a good one in Tod Hobart.
In the mean
time,
Brian's work schedule was really ramping up and he was finding it hard
to play the gigs we had booked due to him being called out of town a
lot,
so as much as he hated it, he had to give notice that he was leaving.
And
then, as if the stars had somehow aligned, Theron moved back from Texas
around this time and took Brian's spot when he left in December of
2007.
So, 2008 dawned with the new lineup of Jess, Andy, Theron, Sid and Tod,
and that line up is the current lineup, coming up on a year
together……and
that folks, is the History of HiWatt!!!!
THE
ORIGINAL
HIWATT LINEUP (FALL OF 2001):
David
Pearce ~ Lead
Guitar, Vocals
Andy
Volmer* ~ Rhythm
Guitar, Vocals
Ted
Pickett (now
with “Idol Eyez”) ~ Bass, Vocals
Derek
Hovander (now
with “The Nowhere Men”) ~ Drums, Vocals
LEAD
GUITARISTS:
Theron
Andrews* ~
Lead Guitar, Vocals
Brian
Feldtman ~
Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
BASS
PLAYERS:
Stuart
Gordon (now
with “Union Jack”) ~ Bass
Gerald
"Spot" Harmon
(now with “Expertease”) ~ Bass, Vocals
Terry
"Terrified"
McCormack ~ Bass
Sid
Anschell* ~
Bass
DRUMMERS:
Benny
"G" (now with
“The Boinkers) ~ Drums, Vocals
Phil
Bergeron ~
Drums, Vocals
Rick Bowen
~ Drums,
Vocals
Jack
English ~ Drums,
Vocals
Rick
Peters ~ Drums
Pete
Magarelli ~
Drums, Vocals
Bruce
Raabe ~ Drums
Scottie
McDevitt
(now with “Stir Crazy”) ~ Drums
Donn
Garrett (now
with “Shelly and the Curves”) ~
Drums, Vocals
Tod
Hobart* ~ Drums
MALE
SINGERS:
Jess
Hamilton* ~
Vocals
FEMALE
SINGERS:
Trish
Burke ~ Vocals
Sara
Darrington
~ Vocals
Dawn
Lindsey (now
with “Whiskey Creek”) ~ Vocals
* =
Current Member
