NIGHT STALKING IN HOLLYWOOD

Written By: Margaret Gaydos

   Who would have thought that my Pale-faced neighbors at the Sunset Travel Inn would be fellow Chicagoans. Yes, my curiosity was piqued when I saw the Chicago license plates; yet a chance meeting was tough being that they only seemed to come out at night! One night I caught one of them sneaking over to "Rock-n-Roll Denny’s" for a late night snack. Yes, I finally met one of my Chicago neighbors and found out that they were really Chicago Vampires -our own ENERGY VAMPIRES, in Hollywood, to play two late-night, bloodletting shows at the Troubadour and the Whiskey.

   His name is Jonathon. He hails from a tiny town in Romania, where he was exposed to an overdose of radiation over 2,000 years ago and became an ENERGY VAMPIRE. He came to the United States over 1,000 years ago, where he migrated West and somehow ended up in Chicago. "The perfect place to find the perfect band", he claimed.

    It took months, but Jonathon found the perfect band to accentuate his strong vocal ability. He hung out at local clubs and watched them all jam. He found Christian Nelken, a hot and very energetic guitar player. He found the powerful Jim Staffel to groove on the drums. Lastly, after a few false starts, Wayne Carlson was recruited to play bass. There it was-the perfect band! Jonathon then proceeded to contaminate them with his style of music and they too became ENERGY VAMPIRES.

   This contagious style of music can be labeled as the usual "hard rock with an edge", yet, there is something shocking different about this band. I think the closest label (and I hate labels) would be "Energetic Shock Rock".

   The ENERGY VAMPIRES made their stage debut on "All Saints Day" of this past year and they really became energized. You see, ENERGY VAMPIRES feed off the energy of their audiences. Their victims must be very energetic and full of life. Therefore, the band must always put on a thoroughly entertaining show to assure that the audience is fully electrified. This high-energy, shock value entertainment consists of pyro, smoke, spider webs, coffins, chainsaws, power drills, and much Marshall amplification! However, I don’t want to give away too much because describing a vampire show would be like someone telling you the end of a suspenseful

has definitely paid off because the ENERGY VAMPIRES no longer pay to play in L.A.! In fact, they are actually getting paid for their upcoming shows in April, which is quite an accomplishment for any band, much less a Chicago-based band.

   Despite their coastal success, the band has no plans of relocating to L.A. Chicago is, and will remain, their home base, although bi-coastal travel will remain a major part of the VAMPIRE game plan. Yes, I did say "bi-coastal" because come summer, the ENERGY VAMPIRES will invade the most gothic city of all...NEW YORK!

   ENERGY VAMPIRES also take their music seriously. The classically trained Christian has been playing guitars since he was 13. Although influenced by Kiss and Randy Rhoades, Christian tries to bring a more classical style to every VAMPIRE song and yet not be an Yngwie clone. Jonathon has studied privately in a variety of schools and will be finishing his major in voice next year. And what can one say about the rhythm section? Jim is not influenced by drummers. He is influenced by the color black, Animal (of "Muppet" fame) and sex, which probably accounts for all of his excess energy. Wayne claims to be influenced by Timi Hanson, but this rhythm section practices long and hard together and is as tight as any  bassist and drummer could possibly be.

   All members contribute creatively to ENERGY VAMPIRE songs and they are constantly writing new material. The band is just finishing up the recording of their first demo which will be released on their own "Vampire Vinyl" record label. The band also has their publishing company, "Beast Music", through BMI. The ENERGY VAMPIRES will be consequently  shopping the demo, label, publishing, and band as a package. Exec’s in this business are very receptive to new and fresh  material so it should only be matter of time before labels are fighting over this fresh and unusual band. So, if you have yet to experience an ENERGY VAMPIRE show, come this May when the band  returns to Chicago...do so!

You may be so into this night-stalking, you may never see the light!

horror flick. You really must experience the ENERGY VAMPIRES for yourself. The VAMPIRES are very high energy, straightforward shock because they need to create a great response from the audience so they can feed off their energy. VAMPIRE fans may leave feeling tired and sluggish, but they never leave harmed and they certainly never leave feeling disappointed.

   Aside from feeding off energized Chicago audiences, the ENERGY VAMPIRES regularly feed off Hollywood audiences, which is how they happened to cross my path. L.A.’s Full House Productions has been regularly setting up shows on the Strip for the band. They play the Roxy, the Whiskey, and the Troubadour with such fervor that the band has already developed a huge Hollywood following. The band usually comes out to L.A. a couple of weeks before their shows to promote and sell those ever-so-famous tickets. I saw every one of them passing out flyers to the hundreds of people crammed into the KNAC "Pure Rock" concert at the Florentine Gardens on Hollywood Blvd.

   They also did radio interviews and ENERGY VAMPIRE pictures and ads graced the pages of Bam, Rock City News, and Screamer, L.A.’s premier entertainment magazines. In fact, the February 2nd issue of Rock City News contains a great review of the recent Whiskey show that contains this quote: "A band that promotes this hard deserves to be seen!" All of this promotion