BILL’S SPACE SHOW: Episode One — Karyn Kuhl Band, Space Boys and Host William James Hamilton

“Bill’s Space Show” has landed, and we’re pretty excited about it.

“The Space is our studio at the Neumann Leather Building,” says host William James (Bill) Hamilton. “We mostly use it to rehearse our bands, and a couple of others practice here, too. It’s a decent amount of space so we host a lot of the big collaborative shows when they need to practice—like the Hoboken Last Waltz or the recent Led Zeppelin tribute.”

Hamilton has long been a fixture in the Metro area’s cultural scene. “I used to put on concerts at my previous space, but I never videotaped or recorded many of them. As someone who does television production for a living, I think I just wanted to enjoy the show, but I don’t have any footage—no record of what we did! I decided that if we were to do shows at the Space they would have to be recorded and videotaped.”

The “we” includes Dave Calamoneri, Greg Randolph and Travis Tompelstiltskin.

“Davey—we’ve been playing in bands together for like 10 years and he’s really damn funny. I met Greg at my day job over at the NBC; he’s an editor, shooter, and has been producing and directing music videos—in fact he just did one for Overlake’s new album. His enthusiasm has been extremely beneficial to the process… plus he knows how to wear a poncho. Travis Tompelstiltskin is a gaffer in the film and TV industry and has been my housemate and studio mate forever. Super damn funny. All around great guy. Also, we can’t make him leave.”

With a solid A-Team in place, the plan came together.

“Travis, Dave and I had dabbled in sketch comedy a few years ago when we made a show around my band Nipsey. We really enjoyed making comedy and have wanted to do more for a while. ‘Bill’s Space Show’ provides the opportunity to put on a show for a live audience, record it for a digital audience, and produce some funny videos.”

Episode One (see below) features performances by the Karyn Kuhl Band, as well Q&A with Karyn, interspersed with some good ol’ fashioned deadpan non sequitur from The Space Boys.

“Bill’s Space Show is meant to feature great bands, provide insight into the group/artist, and make the audience laugh at some absurd scenarios,” says Hamilton.

“As a musician (because of my day job, I suppose) I’ve always gravitated towards promoting my music by producing video because it is a great way to promote music, and the more entertaining the presentation, the more memorable it will be. We thought we would try marrying the concert and interview footage with our comedy shenanigans and see what happens. I grew up in the era of the ‘variety show’ and many were based around pop acts like Sonny & Cher—there is some influence there.”

With a terrific first episode out right now, there’s plenty more to come from the Space.

“We are fortunate that we have access to so many amazing bands and musicians—like Overlake who is the featured artist for Episode 2. The Space Boys—the four of us really enjoy working together. So we’re having a ball making the show and we hope it will help bands expand their audience.”

Without further ado…

“BILL’S SPACE SHOW: EPISODE ONE”