Many is the unsigned act that has tried to ingratiate itself with a national notable by stroking said national’s ego. When it comes to the curious case of Last Laugh singer Devin Cordeiro and his newfound kinship with Godsmack mouthpiece Sully Erna, however, Cordeiro says that he got a lot farther with paint strokes—and just plain old being himself.
“I recently painted the new Godsmack studio and spent almost three months with Sully on the project,” he explains. “We became friends and I invited him out to see my band, and I guess he liked it, because he has since sat in three times in the last five weeks.”
In addition to manning the mic for the Godsmack hit “Keep Away,” Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Stone Temple’s “Plush,” Cordeiro says that the impromptu Erna has even been game to tackle the Doobie Brothers’ “Long Training Running” and sit in on the drum kit at Last Laugh gigs at the likes of the Derryfield Restaurant in New Hampshire.
“He’s a pretty cool guy who I think misses being on stage and just jamming out,” Coreiro says. “He gets a pretty bad rap about not being sociable, but I honestly think he’s shy and lets his personality come out on stage.”
For your next chance at a potential Sully sighting, check out Last Laugh at the Boathouse in Dracut March 6 or Garcia Brogan’s in Lowell March 21.
In other brushes with international fame, as previously chronicled in an earlier installment… Connecticut wunderkind Desiree Bassett has been tapped to tackle the guitar duties in Cirque Du Soleil’s production of Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour. The 21-year-old virtuoso received her first big break at the tender age of 15, when Red Rocker Sammy Hagar invited her on stage at MGM Grand Foxwoods to unleash her much-ballyhooed fretboard fireworks on a version of Led Zep’s “Rock ’n’ Roll.”
Cirque talent scouts—not to mention more than a million others around the world—saw the resulting Youtube clip, and the rest is history.
“Of course, production is amazing and everything has to go off like clockwork,” she says of the Cirque experience thus far. “But still, the music team did allow a few little pockets in the program where I can be Desiree and work my own solos.”
Cirque Du Soleil’s Michael Jackson: Immortal tour comes to the Mullins Center (mullinscenter.com) in Amherst on Thursday, March 6.
Meanwhile, the Crawler isn’t sure if—as the title of their 2003 Top 10 hit implies—rockers 3 Doors Down will “love” Todd Harrell “when he’s gone.” But according to a recent press release issued by the band, the longtime bassist has been “indefinitely suspended” from performing with them following yet another alcohol-related arrest.
On Feb. 18, police in D’Iberville, Miss. reportedly found Harrell “slumped over the steering wheel” of a vehicle stopped at an intersection, and charged him with DUI.
While Harrell is certainly not the first rocker to take an impromptu nap in a car, he also has a prior vehicular homicide case pending in Nashville, Tenn.—a distinction the band could no longer overlook.
“We take this action to protect the image and integrity of the band and to encourage Todd to address and resolve his problems,” the joint release concluded.
Despite being a man down, 3 Doors Down also announced that, based on the success of its recent Acoustic—Songs From the Basement U.S. tour, the band has added a Canadian leg, kicking off June 3.•
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email garycarra@aol.com.
