DonnaK:  Quite some time ago I heard that Hugh Laurie was in a nifty little band called Band From TV that was entirely comprised of… well… people from TV. Last year they released a version of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” for the House soundtrack and I thought it quite good - if you haven’t heard if I highly recommend you checking it out. That was the last I heard of the band… until a short time ago.

You see, I’m on Twitter, as is most everyone it seems. One day Jim told me Greg Grunberg, who as you all know plays Matt Parkman on Heroes, had a really great and funny Twitter feed. I added him, and lo and behold the talented Mr. Grunberg so happened to be the founder of Band From TV. What’s more, he was promoting their new CD/DVD combo “Hoggin’ All the Covers” and encouraging people to please buy it as all the proceeds from sales go to a group of charities. Grunny and Hugh in a band playing great songs where the money goes to good causes? That was all I needed to hear. This, of course, was a necessary purchase.

A little background. Band From TV is made up of a pretty interesting group of TV personalities. We have the aforementioned Greg Grunberg on drums and vocals, James Denton (Desperate Housewives) on guitar and vocals, Hugh Laurie (House) on piano and vocals, and Bob Guiney (The Bachelor) and Bonnie Somerville (Cashmere Mafia) on vocals. The band also features appearances by others such as Teri Hatcher and Jesse Spencer. The core band is backed by an impressive array of professional musicians - everything from lead guitars to back-up singers to additional percussion to synths. All in all it’s quite an array of performers… but how do they sound?

Not too shabby, in my not-so-humble opinion. I watched the DVD live show and was pretty impressed by the overall quality of both the musicianship and the sound. Most every band member seemed comfortable onstage and everyone could clearly play and sing their hearts out. There were two clear standouts for me. Hugh Laurie is simply astonishing on piano and vocals. I swear that man is entirely too talented for his own good. I really enjoyed his two featured performances and I hope they let him stand out a little more in the future. Oh, and a note to the sound guy… TURN UP HUGH’S MIC!!! For some reason his mic was tuned lower than the rest of the band which was a bit of a let-down. The other standout was Greg Grunberg. Damn that man can play some drums! I was highly impressed with not only his abilities with the sticks and his vocals but with his clear ability to lead the band. Well done, Grunny - you impressed the hell out of me. The rest of the band wasn’t quite on the same level as Laurie and Grunberg, but everyone did a solid job with just a few problems here and there. For example, James Denton can definitely play but was a little hesitant to let loose on his vocals and seemed a tad uncomfortable onstage at times. Bonnie Somerville has one HELL of a voice but tended to hog the spotlight a little too much when other members of the band were being featured. However I didn’t find anything to be glaringly off and overall I thought the whole performance to be quite solid and very entertaining.

However, I do have a really big complaint about the show. As I mentioned above, in addition to the actual band members there are a scad of professional musicians that shared both the stage and a large portion of the actual playing in the show. In point of fact, it seemed the professionals on stage outnumbered the band members about three to one. That to me wasn’t cool. I bought this CD/DVD so I could hear the Band From TV, not the Band From TV being eclipsed and overshadowed by a wealth of pros. I want to hear what these guys can do without all the help, and I was honestly disappointed that I didn’t get to see that. I’m hoping that the addition of so many pros was a one-shot thing for the DVD and that in the future the Band won’t rely on so much outside help. I don’t think they need it and I hope that they will trust themselves enough to just let go and do it themselves - I think they have the talent to pull it off. I’m anxiously awaiting Band From TV’s appearance on The Tonight Show on January 16th to see if they do in fact play with fewer pros. And can I also mention that when I saw the Band From TV schedule of shows on their website that I wanted to put my head through a wall when I saw they just played in Connecticut not three months ago and I had no idea? I could have been in the same room with Hugh Laurie??? Considering that you all know how I feel about Hugh Laurie, I think you can imagine my despair. Here’s to hoping they come back around this way soon.

So… to pass along a Grunny Mission to you all… go out and buy Band From TV’s “Hoggin’ All the Covers”. It’s for a good cause, it’s a good show, and you won’t be disappointed. Hell, it’s worth it just to see Hugh Laurie actually shaking his tail feather at the end of the show! *dies*. So… BUY IT!!! It’s pretty awesome, and it’s certainly for an awesome cause. And check out Band From TV’s website for future news and show info.