Tirebiter has stood the test of time.
Keeney Concert Series Draws a Lively Crowd
WETHERSFIELD - It’s Tuesday night and the Keeney Cultural Center front yard is packed with lawn chairs.

       And this is a relatively light crowd, but a live one, according to Historical Society organizer Cindy Brown, who suspects that early storm forecasts may have deterred some people from attending the second event of the Society’s free concert series. Older concert-goers dance in the audience to everything from Paul Simon to Carlos Santana.

       It’s like a live version of an iPod of classic 60s and 70s songs put on shuffle. And yes, you can sing along. In fact, Jeff Ladd is practically begging you to.

       â€"I want you to picture yourself singing in the shower and nobody’s listening to you,” Ladd tells the crowd. â€"Even if you don’t know the words, we make ‘em up half the time anyway.”

       This is Tirebiter--four guys who just love playing those 60s and 70s hit songs. They love it so much that they haven’t stopped since the band, which has three of its four original members, launched in 1973.

       There’s guitar player Doug Riley, drummer Jeff â€"Sticks” Moran and keyboardist Tom Hanes. Ladd is the bassist, and a bit of a comedian as well.

       â€"People come up to us and say, ‘Are you the same guys?’” Ladd says to the audience. â€"We go, ‘Yeah.’ And they’ll say, ‘What the hell happened to ya?’”

       In case you don’t recognize them by appearance, the music should refresh your memory. Tirebiter grew to popularity in clubs throughout the state throughout the 70s and, judging by their reception in Wethersfield, they’ve more than maintained it. Concert-goers laugh and cheer at all the old gig stories from the Rocking Horse in Hartford.

       But Ladd is quick to remind them that some memories are best relived in, well, memory alone. Like that time they played a cover version of â€"The Streak.”

       â€"This couple gets up out on the dance floor and they’re naked,” Ladd says. â€"It was hard to get through the song after that, so just keep your clothes on.”

       There were no problems there, so the Historical Society won’t have any issue inviting them back.

       â€"These guys are great,” Brown says. â€"We had them many times before.”

       Ladd, a Wethersfield resident, admits that he never would have thought that 42 years after he, â€"Sticks,” Hanes, original guitarist Gary Gidman and former singer John Cooper formed Tirebiter, that he would be making a living playing some of his favorite music.

       â€"I was going to be a music teacher,” Ladd said last week. â€"I said, ‘Maybe later on, when the band breaks up.’ But the hand hasn’t broken up.”

       But it has changed. The lineup remained intact for the first 25 years, with Gidman and Cooper making their exits during the years after. They had one other guitarist, Martin Piggot, before Riley came on board.

       And yes, they do play originals--they completed their Moonlight album in 1979--but Ladd admits that the covers are the primary crowd pleasers.

       â€"They were top 40 songs when we learned them and now they’re classics,” Ladd says. â€"They survived the test of time.”

       And, so far, Tirebiter can say the same.
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