Almost famous not good enough for Harry Dash

The three 24-year-olds may practice in a Hudson living room, but their songs are being heard across the country.

By MICHELE MILLER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 22, 2001

Things were not going well for the headlining band at the July 4th Boom Bash concert in Port Richey. The opening act was late in finishing. There was a missing snare drum to track down. Black clouds were rolling in and with power in short supply, the stage manager was stalking the stage and dimming lights to give the juice to the sound system.

Against a backdrop of threatening skies, amateur fireworks and the green and purple neon sign for the Gulf View Square mall, Richard Wise, Howard Abrahams and Richie Reitter finally took to the stage a half hour late.

They managed to pump out seven or eight rock 'n' roll tunes before the skies opened up.

"Well I guess that's it," lead guitarist and singer Wise told the rapidly departing crowd.

So ended another day for the members of Harry Dash.

No doubt, the threesome, who still practice and record in the Hudson living room of Wise's parents, are seeing some solid steps of success. It's been a good run, said Wise. A run that has the band and many of their supporters feeling like they're on the brink of success.

"They're probably the best band in the Tampa Bay area," said James Dean, a disc jockey on Tampa's WSSR-FM 95.7 (Star). Dean recently showcased the threesome on the station's Nine O'Clock News program. "The kids have a lot of talent. I hope they make it," he said.

The band's has been described as sounding like Green Day meets The Beatles. Six of Harry Dash's songs are being featured on MTV's Real World, and a few major recording companies are expressing some interest. They've hired a Los Angeles attorney and the rumor mill is spinning stories that supermodel Elle Macpherson mentioned the band and their song, Sex Bomb, on The Late Show with David Letterman.

That proved to be untrue, according to a Late Show spokesperson, who said it was a tune by Tom Jones to which Macpherson was referring to. Still, the band garnered positive e-mail from viewers from across the country who had searched for the song on the Internet and found the Harry Dash Web site.

"They make a lot of effort on their own to get their music out there," Dean said. "They're always on top of us with courtesy calls -- letting us know what they're up to and volunteering to play free shows."

Harry Dash has sold roughly 4,000 of their locally made Modern Life CDs in the Tampa Bay area, where they've long played the local venues Jilly's, Gasoline Alley, Club More, Neptunes and Jannus Landing.

Then there are their bigger gigs -- Orlando's House of Blues and Hard Rock Cafe, Indyhits in Austin, Texas, and the Viper Room, owner by actor Johnny Depp, in Los Angeles.

Closer to home there's been Livestock and the 2000 Florida Vans Warped Tour for which Wise quickly penned the edgy song, Move It, so the 60s type rock 'n' rollers wouldn't seem out of sync with the typical punk rocker fare.

Earlier this year they placed second in Sam Goody's Bandamonium, a national battle of the bands. In April, they opened for Stabbing Westward at the State Theater. On Monday, they're slated to play the outside pavilion at the Ice Palace before the Dave Matthews Band plays for thousands of fans inside.

They've gotten some positive music reviews from Weekly Planet, Orlando Sentinel and MTV Online who called the band's self-titled CD "by far the greatest local CD ever released in the Tampa Bay area." Harry Dash, which means "flash" or "cool" in English cockney terms, also been enjoying a little air time on some Tampa Bay radio stations.

The band has been together since 1996, but no one is quitting their day job.

While they've made some cash -- $8,000 from NBC's Third Watch, which featured the song Control for Now, $1,000 a night for spring break gigs in the Florida Panhandle and a little here and there for Levi's jeans and Burdines commercials, they usually make about $250 for local shows, said Dave Wise, Richard's father and the band's manager.

Most of that money goes back into the band. The trio of 24-year-olds save some money by practicing and recording in Dave and Pat Wise's Hudson living room, where they stack mattresses up against a sliding glass window to buffer the sound for the neighbors. Still there's other expenses; instruments and recording equipment, traveling expenses, promotional T-shirts and posters and production costs.

Between shows and recording for an upcoming five song EP, they all go to work. For bass player Abrahams, that means nine to fiving it at a computer terminal for samash.com, where he makes Internet sales for the national music company.

Reitter pays his bills by juggling construction work, packaging for FedEx, and playing drums for another local band. Maybe someday Harry Dash will be able to afford real roadies, said Reitter, who still transports his drums in an unreliable Ford station wagon.

Richard Wise, who also writes the majority of the band's songs and tends to the job of mixing tracks for the band's CDs, gets by doing yardwork in his Hudson neighborhood. "It definitely keeps you humble," said Wise. "Very humble."

Still, there's that dream to chase -- the hope of one day sprouting into one of those "power trios," like Cream or Green Day.

The band is doing okay for now, Abrahams said.

"I think things are definitely taking a good swing," he said. "We have some major label interest, which is always a good thing. We're getting some press and strong support from kids in high school, which is great because those are the people that will always buy your material."

"What we need is a big break . . . full rotation in radio. We haven't had that yet," said Richard Wise, who is working hard to write that special song that hits record company executives in just the right way.

"It's been pretty nice," said Reitter, adding that he doesn't mind putting other things, like schooling, on hold while working on that big break.

"It's amazing the things we've already done," Reitter said. "I've gone from playing small bars to some huge shows with this band.

"I think making it is definitely reachable. We've been so close, it's just a matter of time."

Up next

The next Pasco gig for Harry Dash is Aug. 11 at Bourbon Street Concert Club, 4331 U.S. 19., New Port Richey. The band's Web site is www.harrydash.com.

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