Jan. 14 | 9 p.m. | $10-$12 | 21+
Moe’s Original BBQ | Tahoe City
The musical edification of The Heavy Pets’ guitarist Jeff Lloyd began at an early age in the small town of Goshen, N.Y.
“My dad used to make me identify what he was listening to in order to impress his friends,” he says. “I could recognize voices and sounds from when I was really little.”
As a teenager, Lloyd bought a Yahama Eterna acoustic guitar from his uncle and began jamming to his parents’ old vinyls.
“I’d memorized the records to where I knew where every skip was,” he says. “I’d sit and play along with the Allman Brothers, Jethro Tull, Mountain and learn every riff, just figuring it out by ear.”
Once he unearthed a Jimi Hendrix documentary on a grainy old VHS cassette, the rest was history.
“From then on I was literally and figuratively lighting my guitar on fire,” he says.
A couple of years later, Lloyd met co-guitarist Mike Garulli at Goshen High School.
“There’s a feeling when everything’s clicking and we’re playing a really great show that’s addictive and I couldn’t ever give it up. … It’s pure magic at its best.” – Jeff Lloyd
“We were both the guys who brought acoustic guitars to school,” Lloyd says. “At lunch time he would go sit with his group of friends and play something for them and I had my little group of friends. Then one day we said we should just sit together so we’d have a bigger circle of friends. Soon after, Mike’s dad dropped him off with his bass stack in my basement and that was that.”
Although they became quick comrades, Lloyd and Garulli initially came from different ends of the musical spectrum, a fact that has continued to influence the diverse sound of the band to this day.
“Mike was in an up-and-coming hardcore band and I was really into Phish,” Lloyd says. “Although we found some common ground with Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, musically we were coming from different places. I think that was really important. He was coming to me with wild ideas and I think I was maybe like that for him, too.”
Listen to The Heavy Pets’ “Stolen Smile”
Their decision to start a band was settled the summer of 1997 while traveling together to Limestone, Maine, to attend a Phish festival known as the Great Went.
“We had just become friends and musical partners,” Lloyd says. “Basically we are out there on a hill overlooking 80,000 people talking about how this is amazing and we know what we need to do. It was just so incredibly inspiring to see so many people come together for one band.”
The remainder of the band was founded through connections made at Syracuse University where they ended their college career on an impromptu jam session with Parliament-Funkadelic.
“It was a pretty wild and crazy party, and one hell of way to finish school,” he says.
Lloyd and the rest of The Heavy Pets later reconnected with Parliament-Funkadelic after moving to South Florida to work for an Internet marketing company in preparation for their musical ambitions.
“We moved there with the idea we were going to save some money, start a band the right way,” Lloyd says. “We put money away for a couple years and then went right into being a full-time band.”
The Heavy Pets have since played more than 1,300 shows across the country, earning a regular spot in the rotation at most major jam-band festivals and an especially strong following in the Southeast.
“I understand that jam band is a dirty word to certain people, but we’re not your uncle’s jam band,” Lloyd says. “Our focus is on songwriting and playing really high-energy rock ‘n’ roll.”
Ten years into their professional career, The Heavy Pets aren’t looking back. They’ll be rocking Moe’s Original BBQ in Tahoe City toward the middle of an 11-shows-in-12-days West Coast tour with the Brothers Gow from San Diego.
“When people ask us whether we think we’re successful or not, I say, yes, simply for the fact that we get to do this,” says Lloyd. “There’s a feeling when everything’s clicking and we’re playing a really great show that’s addictive and I couldn’t ever give it up. We’re still chasing the dream and living a life that we are proud of and rewarded through. It’s pure magic at its best.”
