Dartmouth, you're going to go insane -- not because of midterms or papers, though. This Friday night, Rightly Guided Thieves' sexy sounds are going to seduce you and drive you over the edge.
Rightly Guided Thieves is the only all-freshman band on campus. Based on the number of devoted fans, one would think that the band had been playing on the Dartmouth scene for years, but in actuality, they have had only one performance. The Winter term performance was at Sigma Nu fraternity and packed the entire house. Rightly Guided Thieves' long-awaited return to the stage is this Friday at 9 p.m., with their debut at Friday Night Rock.
The Friday Night Rock program was created to showcase "original music," and this aim precluded Rightly Guided Thieves from participating last term. Formed only a few months ago, the band has the opportunity to practice only five hours a week, due to the difficulty of dealing with the time constraints imposed by Dartmouth's workload. However, Thief Steve Cesaro (guitarist/saxophonist/pianist), said, "When I'm sitting in Econ, not taking notes -- I'm writing songs." The band now has a repertoire of several hours of music, along with many originals.
Rightly Guided Thieves is thoroughly excited about this particular opportunity, stating, "The crowd is there specifically for the music. They aren't there to play pong." The band also thinks this weekend in particular is a great weekend to be playing at Friday Night Rock. Describing themselves as "family-friendly" and "listenable, but also music for musicians," the band considers themselves quite an appropriate choice of entertainment for the parents that will be on campus this weekend, exclaiming, "Bring your parents! We're going to throw in some classic rock songs."
Despite the location or crowd at their performances, the band says that they take playing very seriously. Rashid Galadanci (guitarist) states, "We'd do this for the rest of our lives if we could." The witty drummer, Ben Selznick, interrupts, saying, "We all want to be rock gods."
The Dartmouth D-plan is the only thing that could put a kink in the band's path to rock god status, but the band is confident and has already determined that in addition to this year together, Rightly Guided Thieves will be on campus their entire sophomore year, including the summer, and all of senior year.
Drawing from nearly 30 years of combined experience, Billy Accomando, Steve Cesaro, Rashid Galadanci, and Ben Selznick are creating what they call, "a funk/reggae style of really, really good music with a four part harmony, because we all sing." Each of the men have a background in jazz, be it either in high school jazz bands or the Barbary Coast.
However, both Accomando and Cesaro have had no formal training on the instruments that they are currently playing for Rightly Guided Thieves. When the mysterious Accomando quietly remarks that he has only been playing the bass guitar for only two years, the entire band jumps up and stares in disbelief. "I thought you had at least played for seven years," says the amazed Selznick.
Even the privilege of seeing but a sneak peak preview of this weekend's show is a mind-blowing experience. The band crams into a tiny practice room to rehearse, but amidst the tangles of wires, piles of amps, and the scattering of pedals, the band was exuding powerful, captivating rhythms with sick guitar rifts, wild drum jams, and lyrics that get stuck in everyone's head. Denyell Fuller-Mosley '06 reverberated this idea, proclaiming that Rightly Guided Thieves "is the nicest band that I've heard on campus."
Leigh Thomas '07 also says of the band, "Yeah, and they're all really hot, too."
The band started out as a cover band, which contributed to the adopting of Rightly Guided Thieves as their name. Galadanci relates that, "Over New Year's Eve, I saw a bottle of 'Three Thieves' wine, and thought to myself what a great band name that would be." But the band was composed of four members. They all agreed to the name, after months of searching, when Accomando commented, "We're stealing songs by covering them, but we're rightly guided because we make them better."
