CAPE COD – In early 2020, the world was going along as it seemingly always did when suddenly the whole system got a case of the jitters.
Things froze up. Things started up, then stopped again. It was worse. It was better, and then it was far worse. It was all so jittery.
In this chaotic atmosphere, a Cape Cod band was born. They were physically miles apart from each other, but they connected through the wonder of technology and the virtue of patience.
Meet The Jitters – Liam Hogg on drums and vocals, Rick Barry on guitar, and Paul Roberts on bass – three calm yet passionate musicians who were determined to make music during the pandemic despite dealing with a technology that at any time might get the jitters.
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Using an app called JamKazam – sort of like Zoom for musicians – the three began playing music together a year ago and have not stopped since.
“If it were not for the pandemic, none of us would have explored what this software has to offer,” said Roberts.
Three nights a week for the past year, Hogg in Harwich, Barry in Marston Mills, and Roberts in Plymouth, have hooked up to JamKazam and played music with each other live and mostly in-synch (when there are no jitters) over the internet as if they were in the same room.
“I can’t think of any musician that wants to play alone,” said Roberts. “For a while, this is as close as we could safely get.”
Covid 19, Quarantine, & A Band On JamKazam
This story begins, as a lot of pandemic stories do, on Friday the 13th – March 13, 2020.
“My last gig was Friday the 13th,” said Hogg, who was already in several bands before The Jitters. That night, as word came that the state would be shutting down for two weeks to flatten the curve, Hogg recalled that while some bands were cancelling gigs, his band, Earth Junior, “decided if everything is going to shut down, we better play.” They played.
“After that,” said Hogg, “I stayed at home watching the news for two weeks.”
Meanwhile, Barry and Roberts, both of the band, Soul Purpose, had been playing a couple of nights a week up until the shut down.
Barry recalled a gig with another band he is in, Anna & The Moderns, shortly before the shutdown when the toilet paper shortage was big news so the band offered a 12-pack of toilet paper as a prize for a dance contest winner.
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