TOYZ

"North Carolina rockers offer up a plate of reheated AC/DC, ZZ Top and Georgia Satellites — lots of ballsy, southern-fried swagger." - Music Connection Magazine

Toyz is now considered the official house band of the Broken Spoke Saloon in Sturgis, S.D.

The band played eight days there in August as part of the 2007 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and has been invited to next year’s event.

“Sturgis exposed us to people all over the world,” Jim Frissell, lead guitarist and vocalist, said in a recent interview at the Times-News.

Playing motorcycle rallies has become a way of life for the band since it took to the road with the Easyriders Motorcycle Rodeo Tour in January of 2006. Great contacts have been established with national recording acts like Tesla and Firehouse. The band played the Cherokee Survivor Rally in Cherokee, N.C., with both groups earlier this month.

Toyz got its start at Corvette’s, a former club in Burlington. Its first show was in January, 1988. The band has changed members throughout the years, but the current lineup, besides Frissell, features Christian Cates on drums and vocals, Ken Lassiter on guitar and vocals and Rich Tremmel, who replaced Mike Kiley on bass and vocals in March.

“Richard has added a new energy to the band,” Frissell said. “And he sings great, too.”

When it first started, Toyz had to load in all of its equipment and break it down, too. Nowadays the musicians get help with that and they have a manager in Todd Perry of Burlington.

“It’s just a different world,” Frissell said.

Fans come from all around the world, but the musicians still run into people from right down the road. While in Sturgis, Tremmel met a woman who lives in Greensboro, not far from where he calls home.

The band returns home Saturday for a show at Burlington After Dark, formerly The Blue Gator, 3265 S. Church St., Burlington. Its last show there was June 2 and Frissell said “it’s always good there. We always have a lot of fans come out and support us.”

Saturday’s show is special in that the band will perform three original songs, recorded by Thomas Johnson (Porno for Pyros, Rancid) and mastered by Dave Collins (Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, Soundgarden). The CD will be available for sale at the show and can be downloaded on iTunes starting Oct. 31.

Thanks to the Internet, Toyz has gained fans as far away as South Africa and gotten lots of hits on its Web site and MySpace page, too.

Fame hasn’t gone to their heads, though, if anything, all the attention kind of catches them off guard.

“I get stopped in the mall and at the grocery store,” Frissell said, humbly. “It’s still kind of strange to me.”

Cover charge is $6. For more information on the show, call Burlington After Dark at (336) 586-1700. To find out more about Toyz, visit www.toyzband.com. - Burlington Times/News by Charity Apple