Band Scene IX: Adventures of Chopek

After tracking a second session of the Foo Fighters song "My Hero" with Tom and Mike, I was lucky enough to get to watch a free concert at the Hawk's Nest, a fast food joint and extremely small music venue right next door on the Hartford campus, headlined by Will Hoge (who is featured in the above post- I figured each band deserved their own post). Anyhow the opener was some unknown group by the name of The Alternate Routes from Bridgeport, CT. Featuring a solid mix of acoustic/electric driven rock, and bright vocals I was instantly hooked. Not 5 minutes into the show my friend and fellow Audio major Rob and his brother Mike asked me if I recognized the drummer. "Any Given Thursday?", they said. Wow, I watched that on my iPod last night. It was the same drummer featured on John Mayer's 2002 Any Given Thursday DVD, Mr. Stephen Chopek. No doubt a quick check on Wikipedia confirmed our certain beliefs. Chopek seemed to be the eldest, and most experienced of all the band members, having worked with famous 8-string guitarist Charlie Hunter, who just recently played for Mayer's Continuum on the track "In Repair". If I only had the guts to ask him for a photo as I passed him on the empty stairs after his set...