THE RONDOS
The Rondos was another one of my Florida bands. It was also another band spawned by a rash of demos that I did. The Rondos were different, though. It was legit power pop, ala Undertones, Kidda Band, etc. A bit of a departure for me, musically. But, I had reached a point with my songwriting where I realized that it was all about a strong melody. And this shit was catchy as hell. Really strong songs, with a pop hook, played with true punk energy. Such a great mix. We had a great line up, with Dave Scott (from NJ's notorious Adrenalin OD) on drums, me on bass, a great frontman named Aarron Zaktan, and Orlando legend, Ralph Ameduri on guitar. We later added Christian Aramanda on guitar. We played a lot all around Central Florida, but, unfortunately, never released anything, which is a shame, since this was a really good, tight band. All we have are a few random home recordings.
On a sad note, our guitarist, Ralph, was later killed in a botched robbery attempt while he was taking a smoke break behind a club, where he was sitting in on bass with a friend's band. He was a great guy, and we all miss him very much. The people of Orlando rallied, and hold an annual Ralphfest, featuring bands that Ralph was a part of (he played with everyone in town), as well as well known national acts, all to raise money for a charity fund in Ralph's name.
On a sad note, our guitarist, Ralph, was later killed in a botched robbery attempt while he was taking a smoke break behind a club, where he was sitting in on bass with a friend's band. He was a great guy, and we all miss him very much. The people of Orlando rallied, and hold an annual Ralphfest, featuring bands that Ralph was a part of (he played with everyone in town), as well as well known national acts, all to raise money for a charity fund in Ralph's name.
These are the original demos that I recorded that later spawned the band. I'm doing all the tracks with a drum machine. My singing is atrocious on these tracks, but they were quickly done demos, just to see if the songs worked or not.
This is with the full band.
This is a live video from an out of town show, I forget where. But, we did a really good version of "I'm The Man" by Joe Jackson.
This is some live footage from the first Ralphfest. The guy sitting in on guitar, doing Ralph's parts, is a guy named Dave Gage. I'm sad to say that we recently lost Dave as well, due to illness. This was such a great band, but it has such sad memories connected to it. I consider myself lucky and honored to have been able to play music with, and become friends with, both Ralph and Dave. Godspeed, pals.