Come and listen to delightful, traditional Irish Music as the tunes bring out the dance of the Culkin Irish Dancers. Always a fun event for our fans at Lahinch Tavern and Grill!
The 3 of us formed the band after many weekends on the Wye River. Jim, Larry & Mike have been friends for over 30 years and we have a great time playing music.
We hope you can join us for some good tunes with good friends at our next gig!
The Gravel Road Band brings a feast of funky blues, bluegrass, R&B grooves for consumption by MoCo buds and the listeners. Bluesgrass will be served up hot and spicy with Fiddle and Mando chops, on a cool bed of riffs from old acoustic guitar and doghouse bass recipes from the south. Chef Slocum adds a few of his own concoctions, professionally selected to complement the evening’s diverse menu. Three full courses of cool, hand-cooked magic that will leave you shaken, stirred and smiling! Special guests, John Relph and Janine Lewis will provide the fireworks, Nancy Lisi, will (as always) keep us in line with sublime jazzy bass lines the whole night long. See you there!
Come and listen to delightful, traditional Irish Music as the tunes bring out the dance of the Culkin Irish Dancers. Always a fun event for our fans at Lahinch Tavern and Grill!
OMG brings the best live music to Lahinch Tavern & Grill in Potomac, MD! After performing for one of the largest audiences on record at Lahinch, OMG returns to pack the dance floor again! Join us for engaging live music, great food, and free parking.
OMG is one of the area’s most popular variety cover bands, cranking out the best songs from across the decades and today, including Rock, Pop, Funk, Top 40s, Disco, Motown, and more. OMG will have you singing and dancing to all your favorite songs, so wear your dancing shoes! 🙂
Lahinch features delicious, upscale-casual cuisine by Executive Chef Ted Hughes. His innovative menu features a wonderful fusion of Irish and American fare, with an amazing selection of appetizers and entrees, and a full bar with hand-crafted cocktails and beers on tap!
Lahinch is easy to find in the Cabin John Shopping Center (close by to Montgomery Mall). Plenty of free parking and no cover charge.
Come and listen to delightful, traditional Irish Music as the tunes bring out the dance of the Culkin Irish Dancers. Always a fun event for our fans at Lahinch Tavern and Grill!
Caolaidhe came to America from Holywood, Northern Ireland in 2005 to pursue a career in music. While establishing an earlier band, he found himself in need of a fiddle player. As fate would have it, Meghan (a classical violinist) was working at an Irish pub in DC as a server while teaching music at a nearby public school. Through Caolaidhe’s acquaintances, he was lucky enough to meet Meghan and quickly auditioned her for the band. What Caolaidhe didn’t know was that he was auditioning his future wife. Fast-forward a few months down the road, and Meghan and Caolaidhe found themselves living on ’19th Street’ in Arlington, VA, writing songs and creating the sound that would become the backbone of The 19th Street Band.
With a chemistry and stage presence similar to Johnny & June, they tend to captivate audiences just by being themselves. Having fun and keeping it real. Making sweet, simple rock and roll. The two combine their instrumental talents with strong harmonies and high energy, bringing genuine joy to the show and instantly connecting to every audience.
The 19th Street Band has had the honor of sharing the stage with country music stars such as Rodney Atkins, Craig Morgan, and Chuck Mead. They have opened for The Wheeler Brothers and Spirit Family Reunion at The Hamilton as well as Grammy Award-winning Western Swing icons, Asleep at the Wheel, at The Birchmere. They have also packed the house at such venues as the 9:30 Club, Black Cat, Strathmore, Jammin’ Java, Rock & Roll Hotel, Kingman Island Bluegrass Festival, The Washington Folk Festival, Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in Nashville, The Black Box in Belfast, and Hill Country BBQ and Pianos in NYC. The 19th Street Band has steadily been performing 230 shows a year for the past 5 years, and they are recently back from a tour in Northern Ireland, where they performed live on BBC Radio Ulster and were a part of the Open House Festival in Bangor. Their new album, The Things That Matter, is currently getting air play on BBC Radio and multiple radio stations throughout the UK.
Chuggalug is a trio band performing pop/party hits and monster classic rock. We play popular music that you all know, and our own original music that we hope you’ll soon know! Chuggalug wears many hats! They are a 100% LIVE cover band comprised of full-time musicians. Their talent, energy, personality and versatility set them apart as one of the hardest working trios in showbusiness.
Come and listen to delightful, traditional Irish Music as the tunes bring out the dance of the Culkin Irish Dancers. Always a fun event for our fans at Lahinch Tavern and Grill!
WASHINGTON D.C.’S BAD INFLUENCE BAND BREATHES NEW LIFE AND FRESH ENERGY INTO BLUES AND ROOTS MUSICAward winning four-piece group has developed a national reputation via four albums, superb ensemble soundStaying at the apex of the mid-Atlantic region’s competitive blues and roots music scene for a career that spans three decades isn’t easy. But that’s what the Bad Influence Band has done — even while extending their reputation across the country thanks to wildly entertaining, high-energy performances, extensive airplay and three well-received albums.
Whether performing at a festival, on a stage at Kennedy Center, a showcase at the NAMM Show or on Memphis’ hallowed Beale Street, the four-piece group featuring guitarist Michael Tash, harmonica ace and singer Roger Edsall, bassist-vocalist Bob Mallardi and drummer David Thaler are unabashed crowd pleasers thanks to their expert ensemble playing, strong melodies, addictive grooves, sly original songwriting and sheer intensity.
Even audiences unfamiliar with blues and the other styles of roots music that inform the group’s wide repertoire are smitten with the Bad Influence Band’s joyful performances.
“The most important thing is that everybody has fun — the audience and us,” explains bandleader Tash. “Whether we’re playing an original song or a classic, we’re going to put our hearts and souls into it in a way that people can hear, see and practically touch.”
The Bad Influence Band’s audiences have continued to grow in recent years. Their 2011 album Under the Influence introduced the group to a host of new listeners when it made the top five on the “Picks To Click” chart on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio’s two-million listener channel “B.B. King’s Bluesville.” And the same disc — stacked with originals and a few wisely chosen chestnuts that displayed the group’s uncanny ability to make vintage tunes sound new — was a finalist in the Blues Foundation’s 2012 International Blues Challenge competition for Best Self-Produced CD. Under the Influence was also nominated in the Best Blues Recording category for a 2012 WAMMIE (Washington Area Music Association) award.
The new recording, Got What You Need, celebrates the bands 30th anniversary with a collection of originals and classics that the band has been playing for years. The albums Under the Influence along with 2001’s WAMMIE award winning Tastes Like Chicken and the 1998 homage to their musical roots Where We Been trace this popular outfit’s evolution.
The Bad Influence Band’s ignition came in the late 1980s, when Tash was taken under wing by legendary DC-area blues guitarist Steve Jacobs, who began schooling him in the genre’s roots. In 1988, after some years in the rock ‘n’ roll trenches, Tash founded the Bad Influence Band and over the next decade their popularity around the Nation’s Capital area steamrolled. By the time Where We Been was recorded, the group was a six-piece with a reputation for great live shows and a vast repertoire of classic and modern blues.
Various personnel changes and refinements in direction and sound led to the current four-piece line-up of Tash, Edsall, Mallardi and Thaler, which cemented in 1993. It quickly became evident they had a strong group chemistry as songwriters, in addition to their formidable musicianship. All four together refine the sketches for tunes that individual members create. The results include rollicking rollercoaster rides like “Don’t Forget Your Night Clothes,” which pins its midnight romance charm to Edsall’s backbone harmonica riff. Tastes Like Chicken also boasts the tongue-in-cheek parable for the lovesick “The Clown,” which glides over a perfectly chiseled shuffle. Both songs feature Edsall’s smooth red-clay singing, while “Man Child” kicks off Under the Influence with a lightning strike of pure chug ‘n’ roar blues, powered by Mallardi’s whiskey and dust voice. The latter album’s also home to Tash’s tour-de-force guitar performance on the Albert King classic “As the Years Go Passing By.” His playing is an incendiary blend of stinging vibrato, fat-toned single note melodies, dramatic power-strummed chords and graceful fills and asides that punctuate the song’s soul-deep lyrics.
Of course, each band member has a distinguished reputation in his own right. Tash is one of the East Coast’s most respected blues guitarists and songwriters, and has been inducted into the Northern Virginia Blues Hall of Fame. He endorses Epiphone guitars, GHS strings, Quilter Amps, Peavey Electronics, Levy’s Leathers, Spectraflex cables and PedalSnake cable systems, and has been nominated for a WAMMIE for Best Blues Instrumentalist.
Edsall shares a similar reputation as a harmonica player and has performed with Jimmy Thackery, Kenny Neal, Kim Wilson and other greats. He endorses Hohner Harmonicas and Peavey Electronics and has been nominated for a WAMMIE for Best Blues Vocalist.
Mallardi began his career as a bass prodigy under the spell of Stax Records, bringing his own original fusion of blues and R&B styles to the band. He endorses GHS strings and Hartke Amplifiers.
The classically trained Thaler played timpani with various Orchestras before picking up the kit and becoming a die-hard blues fan and switching styles, racking up more than 45 years of performing experience. He endorses Sonor Drums, Beato Bags and Roc-n-Soc thrones.
The Bad Influence Band has appeared on hundreds of club and festival stages, including the House of Blues in Las Vegas and the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival. Their winning songs, musical dynamism and strong presence has led to opening slots on bills with a coterie of stars: Heart, Shemekia Copeland, Candye Kane, Roomful of Blues, Albert Cummings and Albert Castiglia, among others.
“We’re looking forward to expanding our touring range and having even more fun playing and recording our music,” says Tash. “We’ve made it our mission to take the blues wherever we can – across the U.S. and to the world — and to entertain audiences and educate fans about just how deep, real, varied and exciting this style of music can be.”
Check out their bios, CD releases, and the testimonials throughout this website. Then check out their up-to-date schedule, pay a visit to their youTube channel, and GO SEE THIS BAND!
Michael Tash
Michael “Jr” Tash was born in 1965 in Silver Spring, MD. He has been around music from an early age. Mike’s father, Ken, had been a singer in the DC area during the 60’s and had established an impressive collection of records from the classic singers of the 40’s and 50’s. Little did he know this had quite an impact on the budding guitarist. In 1975, something happened to launch Mike into the world of music – KISS. Once he saw Kiss he knew he had to play the guitar. He got his first guitar – a cheap acoustic – at age 11. Next came high school and the electric guitars and loud amps, as he moved into the world of heavy metal.
In the early 80’s Mike met DC guitarist Steve Jacobs and discovered the blues. The original Bad Influence was formed in 1988 with bassist Rick Haveland, who gave Mike the nickname “Jr” due to the age difference between them.
For almost 25 years, Jr has been a fixture on the East Coast blues circuit. He has performed at numerous clubs, festivals, made multiple appearances at NAMM shows, and was recently inducted into the Northern Virginia Blues Hall Of Fame.
Jr is currently endorsed by Epiphone Guitars, GHS Strings, Quilter Amps, Seymour Duncan Pickups, StageClix Wireless, Peavey Electronics, Ethos Custom Leathers, Levy’s Leathers, PedalSnake cable systems and Gator Cases. These endorsements include print ads in guitar magazines, social media posts, as well as personalized pages and inclusion on the official websites of these companies.
Roger Edsall
“…Edsall is amongst the DC area’s finest harp players, able to distill Little Walter, George ‘Harmonica’ Smith, Sonny Boy Williamson and Slim Harpo into a personal style…” from In A Blue Mood Online
Considered among the top of the list of blues harpists in the mid-Atlantic region, Roger Edsall combines a mix of styles from classic pioneers Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson, as well as everybody’s contemporary guru, Kim Wilson. Born in Alton, IL – the birthplace of Miles Davis – it was destined that music would be in Roger’s blood.
Roger has shared the stage and the bill with the likes of Maria Muldaur, the aforementioned Kim Wilson, Kenny Neal, Jimmy Thackery and a host of others (including Hizzoner Marion Barry – not something everyone can boast!). it’s clear that the savvy of veteran musical experience has served Roger well and is clearly displayed on Bad Influence gigs and in their award-winning recordings.
Roger is currently endorsed by Hohner Harmonicas and Peavey Electronics.
Bob Mallardi
The man with the feel and that voice, Washington, DC native Bob Mallardi picked up the bass at an early age. His father Joseph and mother Louise had verey strong musical bacgrounds that they carried with them from their roots in the old country.
Growing up, Bob’s older brother Bill would play records from James Brown, Booker T. & the MG’s, The Meters, Roy Buchanan, Canned Heat, and assorted Motown artists. This foundation would fuel his musical growth through stints with many DC area bands including the Bluescasters, and in 1995 he joined Bad Influence. Bob’s melding of blues and soul is a big part of the band’s unique identity.
Bob joined Bad Influence in 1993 and is is featured on “Where We Been”, “Tastes Like Chicken”, and “Under The Influence”.
Bob is currently endorsed by GHS Strings and Hartke Amplifiers.
David Thaler
David Thaler was born in 1961 in Washington, DC, and grew up in the Maryland suburbs. He began playing drums when he was 5 (his first “drum set” was a combination of boxes and a toy drum) and he began taking formal lessons at age 7. Three years later, his parents bought him a 1967 blue oyster pearl Ludwig kit, which became his main kit for nearly 40 years.
He played rock, inspired by Carl Palmer, Bill Bruford, and John Bonham as well as Buddy Rich. He also had classical training on timpani throughout the 1970s, studying under Fred Begun, timpanist for the National Symphony Orchestra, and playing with state and national orchestras. After gigging with various rock bands during the 1980s, the blues got into David’s blood while listening to the likes of Albert Collins, BB King, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Earl, and Stevie Ray Vaughn.
David has spent the last 25 years working on both his chops and his blues “feel.” His first real blues gig was in 1992, when he sat in with a local band – which included Roger Edsall – and opened for Junior Wells at Tornado Alley in Wheaton, MD. He was hooked. David sat in for a gig with Bad Influence in Frederick, MD in 1993, and has been with Jr., Bob, and Roger ever since.
David fell in love with Sonor drums during a NAMM convention in 2009, finally hanging up his Ludwigs for a midnight blue Force 3007 Sonor kit.
David is endorsed by Sonor drums, Beato Bags, and Roc-n-Soc thrones.
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Michael “Jr” Tash was born in 1965 in Silver Spring, MD. He has been around music from an early age. Mike’s father, Ken, had been a singer in the DC area during the 60’s and had established an impressive collection of records from the classic singers of the 40’s and 50’s. Little did he know this had quite an impact on the budding guitarist. In 1975, something happened to launch Mike into the world of music – KISS. Once he saw Kiss he knew he had to play the guitar. He got his first guitar – a cheap acoustic – at age 11. Next came high school and the electric guitars and loud amps, as he moved into the world of heavy metal.
“…Edsall is amongst the DC area’s finest harp players, able to distill Little Walter, George ‘Harmonica’ Smith, Sonny Boy Williamson and Slim Harpo into a personal style…” from In A Blue Mood Online
The man with the feel and that voice, Washington, DC native Bob Mallardi picked up the bass at an early age. His father Joseph and mother Louise had verey strong musical bacgrounds that they carried with them from their roots in the old country.
David Thaler was born in 1961 in Washington, DC, and grew up in the Maryland suburbs. He began playing drums when he was 5 (his first “drum set” was a combination of boxes and a toy drum) and he began taking formal lessons at age 7. Three years later, his parents bought him a 1967 blue oyster pearl Ludwig kit, which became his main kit for nearly 40 years.