Mad Dog Rodeo

Interview with Mad Dog Rodeo

February 20, 2016

Describe your band, telling a little about it.

Mad Dog Rodeo is a group of professional musicians with experiences in a wide array of musical styles. We call ourselves a Country Rock band, because we focus on modern country music, but with a heavy lean towards guitar-oriented rock.  We add in some southern rock, classic rock and many surprises to keep our fans interested.  

Beware of the Dog!

What are your names? / Who plays what?

Dante Spinosi – Lead Vocals

Mike Lemire – Guitars and Vocals

Chuck Rohm – Guitars and Vocals

Rick Smitsky – Bass and Vocals

Keith Hawkins - Drums

Have members played with any other bands?

Each of us have been playing our whole lives, so there are too many to mention.  But a few of the more recent bands include:  

Whiskey Grin - Mike Lemire and original drummer Russ Hoffmaster were founding members.  They were very successful in the area and released an original CD in 2009.  

Southern Detour - Chuck Rohm was a founding member.  They were popular in the W PA and E OH club scene during his tenure.  In addition, Mike and Rick met during a short stint in Southern Detour.  

Moonshine - Rick Smitsky was a founding member.  It was also Dante Spinosi’s first band.  

Jennifer Saenz - Keith Hawkins has played in bands including singer/songwriter Jennifer Saenz.

Do you write your own music or perform covers?  Has it always been this way?  We are mostly a cover band, but have recently been developing original music that we have started to play out.

What year did the band form?  Our first performance was at the Washington County Fair in late 2013.

Where is bands home?  Most of us reside in the western suburbs of Pittsburgh and we consider our home base to be the bars in Beaver County.  We play anywhere there is a stage, some electricity and beer!

How often do you rehearse?  We usually rehearse once a week mostly working on new songs to keep the set list fresh, but also work on our original ideas.

What gear do you guys use?  Mike and Chuck are big fans of Gibson guitars with Marshall and Egnater amplification for a good old-fashioned rock sound.  Rick uses Gallien Krueger products with Lakland and Schecter 5 String basses.  Keith uses Gretsch drums and is a self-proclaimed cymbal junkie, preferring Meinl cymbals.

Do you utilize a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that?  Most of our gigs are booked by members of the band, but recently we have used the services of Mike Meinert and Chris Murphy (Fuzion Entertainment).  They have been opening the doors to some better clubs and events for us.

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that?  We are just having fun and seeing where this takes us.  So no plans on a label but you never know.

What are your songs about?  Just like people, songs have varying moods depending on the day, the environment, or events. One of our songs may be a good old country “party at the bonfire” type of song while another could be a more serious look at life, love, and loss. We mix it up.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics?

For the originals that we have started, Mike Lemire is the main musical and lyrical writer.  However, each of us have thrown ideas out there, not only for our individual parts but also for song ideas.  Dante has written a lot of lyrics as well and he is starting to work more with Mike putting his ideas to music.  

Do you start with the music or the lyrics?

It’s probably 50/50. Sometimes a lyric comes to mind first and sometimes a guitar riff seems to appear from nowhere and begs to have a song written around it.

Do you compose in a certain enviroment?  Mike does most of his writing while driving. It seems to be the quietest and most isolated time of the day for him. The voice memo function of an iPhone has become a great writing tool. It sure beats coming up with a great lyric only to forget by the end of the day!

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs?  Each of us have played in front of some large crowds prior to Mad Dog Rodeo.  In this band, we are very fortunate to have a great following of friends and fans that attend our shows, so we have not had very many gigs with less than desirable crowds.  As for our best crowds, we had close to 400 people at the Grand Opening of one of our favorite bars, Whiskey Rhythm.  I believe it is still their record crowd.  We also consistently draw large numbers at our other favorite bar, Kendrew’s Lounge. But one of the biggest and best responses we received was at Altar Bar when we opened for Big Smo.  The crowd was probably around 500 people and they were very supportive of us.  We got a lot of new fans that night.

What ages are most of your concert attendants?  Since we mostly play in clubs, our audience is usually of drinking age, but after that we have people of all ages at our shows.  From 21 to 91!

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary?  We have a core group of songs that are popular but we always add in new songs to try to keep the sets fresh.  We do this by keeping an eye on what’s new on country radio and also pulling from a large list of songs that each of us have had success with in the past.

Do you have a regular place you play live often?

We definitely have a great group of venues that we play on a rotation throughout the year.  In the Beaver County area, our favorite locations are Kendrew’s Lounge and Whiskey Rhythm.  Always a great time and great crowds at these two places.  They definitely feel like our home bases.  One of our newer favorites is Rochester Inn.  We have started to have a loyal group of fans there that grows everytime we hit the stage.  We also travel down to Chester WV routinely and enjoy The White Stallion.  Great group of crazy fans there.  Also in Chester, we have been asked to start a rotation at a new club, Saddle Ridge.  Nice young crowd.  We also swing up to New Castle several times a year and play at the Branding Iron.  We are actually playing there this weekend.  We also hit Headliners at The Meadows in Washington, recently, and they have asked us to start a rotation there.  Very nice room and great people to work with.   One of our favorite venues is Jergel’s and we have been fortunate to play there several times over the past couple months.  We have started a nice working relationship with Drusky Entertainment and have opened up for several national acts for them.  Fill in a few Bike Days, County Fairs and Community Days over the summer and we have a pretty full schedule.

What was your first gig like?

Most of us had played together before, so it wasn’t that stressful.  Our first gig was at the Washington County Fair, and we just had a great time finally getting out of the basement. 

What was your latest gig?

Our last gig was our debut at Headliners at The Meadows.  It was a cold snowy night, but we still had a great crowd.  They asked us back which is good since we need to recoup the money we lost at the casino.  LOL

Have you had to cancel a gig?  We have all played gigs a bit under the weather, but fortunately, we have not needed to cancel any gigs.  Well except for one or two gigs when we first started out when Mike Lemire decided to ski down his basement steps and severely mess up his knee.  That will teach him to stay home on New Year’s and do laundry.

Where do you plan to gig the coming year?

We are trying to expand our territory and participate in some cool events.  We are in talks to hopefully get a slot at Thunder in the Valley in Johnstown, Thunder on the Strip at Geneva-on-the-Lake and the Tussey Mountain Wing Fest in State College.  We are also trying to get booked at the Honi Honi in Deep Creek and maybe somewhere in Put-in-Bay.  Just trying to have some fun and do some travel as a group.  Other than these special events, we are always looking for cool venues that maybe haven’t heard of us yet to expand our following.  Any suggestions?

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale?  We have sold Mad Dog Rodeo tee shirts and window stickers pretty much since the beginning.  Soon, we want to expand into cozies and other items.

Where can people buy your merchandise?  So far only for sale at our shows, but we may try to add something to our website soon.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days?  Every industry is affected by the digital age…some in a positive way, and some not. More and more shoppers are purchasing goods from on-line sites instead of visiting brick-and-mortar stores every day. There are some “record stores” hanging on, especially with the re-found love for vinyl, but downloading is here to stay. It is a good way to get your music heard worldwide, where before only locals would be aware of you. As long as the artist gets the credit and compensation for the music, it is a good thing. 

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today?  All of us in this band are fans of the classic stuff, but since we play a variety of new music from newer artists, we can’t help but be affected by them as well.

What advice would you give other bands or artists?

The biggest thing is to have fun.  Enjoy the people you make music with and don’t take yourself to seriously.  If you are all on the same page and really do it for the enjoyment of making music with friends then it will shine through to your fans.  Don’t let it become a second job.

How do you get psyched for a gig?

We really don’t need much to get us excited to play music and entertain people, but a little Yuengling and Crown Royal never hurts. LOL

How can people reach you, do you have a website and/or social media?

www.maddogrodeo.com.  On this site, we have contact information for anyone that would like to book us or even just write us a note.  We are also on Facebook  www.facebook.com/maddog.rodeo.5

How do you think that this interview could help you in the local music scene and beyond?  Getting our name and message out to people that may not normally cross your path is the biggest thing.  Hopefully they read something that they like and decide to give us a try.  We are confident that if you give us a chance you will be entertained and have a great time at one of our shows.  Then hopefully you will become a lifelong fan.

Do you have something to add?

Thanks for this opportunity to get some information about us out to the masses.  We hope to see some of you at an upcoming Mad Dog Rodeo show.  Stop out and “Get Bitten”!