Joe Nacco – Thanks for Asking!
By Staff on August 9, 2025
Joe Nacco – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.
RRX: What was the very first reaction to your music, from the first person to ever hear so much as a practice jam or the demo of your first song?
Joe: I’m not sure it’s the first, but it’s the one I first remember. It’s around 1998. My friends and I spent almost a year working on some covers to get out of the basement and play our first real show. The drummer’s brother stopped by to say hello and we had just finished playing Time by Pink Floyd. So, I look over to him and say, “so Keith, what do you think?” He looks at us with a sympathetic, half-disappointed, slight-cringing look and says, “I think it needs some more work, guys.” 27 years later and I think we’re still working that song out…
RRX: “The best laid plans of mice and men…” I don’t really know the quote, but I know this one; sh*t happens. When we least expect it, calamity befalls us. Sometimes just comic inconvenience. Please tell us a story about some comic inconvenience that happened to you whilst performing?
Joe: It’s the winter of 2004 and we’re set to play Valentine’s in mid-January (maybe not the best idea to begin with). Some electrical fires have a row of houses on fire. The whole surrounding area is closed off to traffic. It’s -10 degrees and now we have to walk about 10 blocks with all our equipment. All the water from the fire hoses and hydrants are all over the streets and causing instant sheets of ice. I don’t how many times we slipped or fell, but we made it. No one is there except for one severely drunk drifter-looking man who keeps trying to get on stage with us. My drummer is trying to fend him off with drumsticks, and he thinks the drumsticks are gifts from the band. Needless to say, our drummer ran out of patience and drumsticks…
RRX: My singer punched my drummer out. Memorable moment, though nothing to brag about. But we have these things that, when summing up your endeavor, an incident comes to mind. What do you got?
Joe: We were playing Ziggy’s in Latham. Directly behind the bar there’s a basement level garage. Now there’s a fence up (likely because of me). However, back in my day, if you were on a set break having a cigarette, you used to be able to just walk out back in the dark and fall 12-15 feet on to the concrete driveway if you weren’t really paying attention. Fortunately, and miraculously, I had nothing but a skinned knee and some bewilderment as to what happened.
RRX: We have to play somewhere, and sometimes those places have more going for them than a stage and a power outlet. What is a memorable place you played, and bonus points if it’s not a well-known place.
Joe: It was 2001 and we’re booked on the Union College Springfest. We’re supposed to be opening for Blues Traveler, G. Love and Special Sauce, and Rahzel on an outdoor stage. It’s May 18th and we unexpectedly wake up to a few inches of snow and ice. We were shocked and disappointed. Blues Traveler had backed out. Union decides we’re still doing the show, but we’re going to do it in the main church because it seats 500 people. It’s the most awkward show ever. We’re playing hard rock and punk songs on an altar. I’m trying to edit all the bad lines out in real time, so I don’t go to hell. Everyone has that tired look on their faces from the unexpected cold weather, while sitting there half drunk and asleep in pews.
Honorable mention to the odd stage set up above the bar at Sportsworld in Schenectady.
RRX: Playing out is tricky because you never know what’s going to happen when you get there. Sometimes everything goes wrong. What was your worst show like?
Joe: It’s probably a tie between the ice storm show and the church show, but we had so many bad shows I can certainly give you another one. We’re booked at Sport Island Pub on Sacandaga Lake. At the time, our set consisted of a lot of mainstream hard rock and heavy metal. The crowd looks like a cross between a preschool field trip and bingo night. So here we come armed with some Zeppelin, GNR, Metallica, along with the area’s loudest drummer ever. After 3 songs, the place had cleared out. The lesson was learned. Always keep a few Barry Manilow songs in your repertoire and a set of bongos nearby for these kinds of emergencies…
RRX: Would you rather have one of your songs blow up and make you a one-hit wonder and household name, or would you rather have all your songs be solidly received, but no chart-climbers? (You have to pick one or the other here.)
Joe: Without a doubt I’d take the one-hit wonder/household name status. At this point in my life it would be fun to walk into a room full of strangers and hear someone say “isn’t that the mmmbop guy?!?!” Better yet, I’d love to hear one of my friends say “hey, I just got ‘JoeRolled’ on tiktok today.”
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