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Bill Berends & the Berends Brothers Band
[ mastermindband.com || billberends.com
|| berendsbrosband pages ]
Bill Berends (guitar & vocal), Rich Berends (drums), & Tim Spillane (bass)* | |
Begun in February 2007 after the last live Mastermind
performance [due to loss of bassist] the brothers Berends return to their roots of blues & old school psychedelic blues rock jamming to cleanse the spirit and essentially "forget the music, forget the message, and just play..." Recruiting various local bassists and selecting a repertoire of personal favorites, the band hit the stage for the first time in March 2007 to a very warm & positive response. They saw it was good & all were pleased.
Does this mean the end of Mastermind many have asked? NO! ... but currently without a bassist combined with the difficulties of the record industry at large, Mastermind has been in suspended animation for a while. There was a new Mastermind album released 2010 and new recording is underway, but this isn't new in our history as Mastermind... there have been large gaps of activity over the years. Sooner or later the beast will raise its head again, wait and see!
Bill & Rich both live to play, so getting out and playing for the sheer exuberant joy of the experience, making a few bucks, and simply keeping active is more than enough for the moment. It's a breath of fresh air compared to the survival struggle of an original act. If you enjoy Mastermind it is the same guys playing their asses off and having a good time with it. At this point in time, it simply feels good. UPDATE 2023: In 2017 Bill Berends relocated to Brazil and carries on with the music of Mastermind with local Brazilian musicians at festivals and prog-rock events. In a similar move to the above Berends Brothers Band, Bill's Brazilian unit will also be performing under the name of WINTERLAND (named for the famous 60's-70's SF music venue) doing basically the same thing as The Berends Brothers. He even considered calling it "The Brazilian Brothers Band" because the mission is essentially the same. "forget the music, forget the message, and just play..."
Berends Bros Band - NYC Summer 2010 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjnwZGrt5co)
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Berends Brothers Band on youtube. Listen: billberends.com/music.html Shows || repertoire || web pages * The bass players: Tim Spillane John Benussi Stephen Burke Jerry Monk Ed Wilson Gabriel Costa (Brazil) Guest performers: David Berends - vocal Joe Kramer - guitar Magic Tim - harmonica John Bushnell - guitar Jeannie Brookes - vocal Garland Lamb - vocal Tracy McShane - vocal
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