Words and photos by: Victoria Caputo

Garcia’s is always a rockin’ place, and tonight was no exception! Two local bands brought the place alive with their original rock n’ roll tunes!

The first band to perform was Dead Weight Burden, a powerhouse rock n’roll band right from Port Chester. The band consists of powerful trio that serves up some of the best original music that Port Chester has to offer. Greg Sotire (Vocals & Guitar), Cheech Carriero (Bass), and John Scampoli (Drums & Backup Vocals) have each been playing music for over 20 years. Their music is inspired by southern, 70’s, American hard rock n’ roll. Not only does their music speak to them, but it speaks to the audience and gets them to feel the emotions behind the words. In their song “Life’s Hard”, the band goes through the obstacles of life with you, including the early death of one of frontman Greg’s heroes. Their song “Clover” reminisces about Greg’s vacation home upstate where his father planted fields of clover for the deer to come eat. Sotire sings: “I’m going over, fields full of clover, where happiness ain’t so far away.” Luckily for us, happiness isn’t so far away wherever Dead Weight Burden is playing either!

Next up was East Coast Rednecks, also hailing from Westchester County. Another trio, these three really know how to bring down the house with their own powerful music. Tony Lunario (Vocals & Guitar), Rob Dominguez (Bass) and Tom Tulotta (Drums & Backup Vocals) always deliver hardcore metal music that get’s everyone up on their feet! Their influences include Black Label Society, Clutch, Rival Sons, and so much more! The East Coast Rednecks are professionals at shaking up the house and ensuring that everyone in attendance has an awesome time jamming out to their music. Songs such as “Mr. Gripper” and “Take it Back” are some of the many ultimate crowd pleasers. Three albums later, and the band is still going strong, creating and performing new and exciting music all the time! I’m looking forward to whatever they come up with next, but one thing’s for sure, they’ll definitely be rocking our world ECR style for quite some time!

Did you miss their performance tonight? No problem! You can find the music of both Dead Weight Burden and East Coast Rednecks on Youtube and iTunes. Be sure to be on the lookout for their upcoming events all over the area. Port Chester has so much love for these local bands, and that was definitely shown last night. We all hope to see them both back at Garcia’s really soon!