Tidwell's Treasure's second Northampton gig turned out to be a fortuitous one: the East Longmeadow band walked away with a victory in its Happy Valley Showdown heat, securing an invitation to the annual battle of the bands finals on Feb. 21.
"Happy Valley Showdown was pretty cool," says guitarist and lead vocalist Sean McMahon. "Our whole game plan was just to go in there and rip everything as fast and hard as possible. We turned on the heat for it and won. It was cool to be there playing in the midst of all these other bands and seeing the scene, since we just started playing in Northampton. Getting the win was great since there were some really established bands and some tight players."
The group was formed in 2007 by McMahon and schoolmates J Witbeck on bass, drummer Tim Jangl and tenor saxophonist Emily Duff.
"We started getting booked playing mostly covers at the Pizza Shoppe in East Longmeadow, playing three-hour sets," McMahon says. "It started spreading, word of mouth, and the more we played and wrote, the more people responded. We play all kinds of stuff. We have one tune that I wrote a year ago and it's a funk-jazz-metal thing, then we have a '90s rock thing, and then this raga-based batch of tunes. People just love coming out for the music and the good times."
McMahon says that entertaining themselves is just as important as pleasing the public. "We really just try to write shit that you can move to. For us it's more about playing something funky, something with a good groove to keep us occupied. When you're a musician, you have to get into a groove anyways, so it's awesome that people will dance, too. We definitely want the music to be groovy and danceable.
"When we're putting together our music and our costumes, we want it to be fun. We don't want us or the crowd to be bored at all. At our last Halloween show, Tim wore a one-piece woman's bathing suit with a picture of Gary Busey's face on his crotch. The thing was red—right out of Baywatch. He ended up winning the costume contest that night."
The quartet frequently ramps up the volume and chaos on stage by adding "guest stars" Maddie Palmer on lead and backup vocals and McMahon's brother Griffin on vocals and keys.
Whatever happens to Tidwell's Treasure, the band's members are all dedicated to lives in and around music. "Basically, all of us are music school grads or on our way to being that, and we all want to be teachers," says McMahon. "I'm trying to get some students together, J teaches and Tim wants to teach. We're trying to be all-arounders, really."
And what about this treasure of Tidwell's?
"The treasure is a mysterious thing," McMahon says. "That's for the listener to figure out."
Tidwell's Treasure appears at the Iron Horse Feb. 13 in support of Rubblebucket Orchestra. For more, visit www.tidwellstreasure.com.
