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| What: GAM in concert
When: About 11:30 p.m. today Where: Velvet Elvis, 127 W. Congress St. Cost: $4 cover Info: 236-0665 What is GAM? ''It's a state of mind,'' said guitarist Kevin Rose. ''It's a Space Giant's character, it's a mantra to a tantric god, it's 'genetically altered mice.' '' In plain English, it's whatever you want it to be. Which got us considering the possibilities and we came up with: The Diversions' Top 5 Things GAM Stands For: 5. Grapes are meaningful 4. Get away, Madonna. 3. Guitars and moussaka. 2. Great! Another moose. 1. Guys and music. |
GAM going and making fans happy at Velvet Elvis By Gene Downs / Savannah Morning News
Guitarist Kevin Rose, meanwhile, tries to find whatever's causing his guitar to buzz; studio owner/sometimes-guitarist/friend Bill Hodgson and bass player Mike Walker chat idly in a corner; and drummer Sean Krause beats out bits and pieces of rhythms with the casual air of a Picasso drawing stick figures. Suddenly, from behind the snares and cymbals, you hear a half-whispered ''One, two, ready, go'' and GAM is off on something called ''The Mermaid Song.'' About halfway through it disintegrates, the musicians falling off one by one, like milers in a marathon, until only Hodgson is left. Then, he too gives up. ''It's dirty,'' Rose apologizes. ''It's old and stinky and we haven't played it in a while.'' While the others go back to talking, Hodgson begins to strum again. Krause joins in, then Rose and Walker. And who knows -- this could end up as a track on GAM's next album. ''We all come in with pieces and morph them around,'' Kozel says of the creation process. GAM has been morphing music together since 1993, longer than just about any local rock band except EROK. Actually, Rose and Kozel have been playing together since 1991 but, for some reason, couldn't keep a drummer. Krause, a former Maytag salesmen in Washington, D.C., came along in time for the band's first public appearance, on June 26, 1993, at the old Congress Street Station. Through the years, they've kept a fairly constant lineup and a rock-solid sense of humor. In a photo for their most recent CD -- ''Phase 8,'' released in July -- the guys are dressed in aluminum foil harnesses and coneheads. The liner notes mention that the music was tracked, in part, at Flannery O'Connor's Childhood Home, where Rose once had the second-floor apartment. And when a Rochester, N.Y., college station sent them a list of interview questions, the band sent back a tape with every query answered in an ominous, Darth Vader-ish, ''We are GAM! And we play GAM!'' ''We don't take ourselves too seriously. That's pretty easy,'' Rose says. ''We just have fun with it, because the minute you try to do something, it never works. So, we just let it happen.''
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