TONE WORLD "NEWZ"
04/10/06
Where the Hecht is Arno wandering off to?

Let me start this off by saying, ARNO HECHT IS STILL A MEMBER OF THE SLASHTONES. In the 12 years Arno Hecht has been a Slashtone, Arno has never missed a gig. Arno is still rehearsing and recording with the 'Tones, but Arno wont be performing with us on May 19th at Irving Plaza NYC for the "Joey Ramone Birthday Bash".

Arno had accepted a spot on tour with the legendary Dion ("The Wanderer", "Abraham Martin and John"...) in support of Dion's new, critically acclaimed CD, "Bronx In Blue".While originally not on the schedule, Dion and his band will be in Ohio the weekend of May 19th. So unless Arno finds a time machine, he will not be able to appear in two place at once.

We've always booked around everyone's schedule and we've been pretty freaking lucky not to have had too many conflicts when you consider the caliber of musicians that have been in this band, and the many other projects everyone's always involved in. This time the Ohio gigs sprung up out of nowhere last week and Arno Hecht was in a bind. Arno, like the rest of us, has ties to the Ramone's family tree and really wanted to perform at the "Joey Bash" for the third year in a row, but he couldn't really give up the road dates with Dion either.

So What does all this mean regarding the Slashtones you ask? Go ahead and ask out loud, I'll wait... ("What does all this mean regarding the Slashtones?") I'm glad you asked. It means that for the first and only time since 1994, The Slashtones will be performing without a saxophone player or Arno Hecht. And this will probably be the only gig this band will ever do without Arno. If it was any other gig other than the "Joey Bash"/Lymphoma Fund benefit, we would just cancel the show. But this time, the show must go on.

Technically, myself, Steve Budgie, Roderick Kohn and Tony Moore could go on for one night as a four piece band and play simplified arrangements of our tunes, but it just wouldn't be the same. Every song is structured around two instrumentalists. So what to do? Truth is, I'm not sure. I've got a few ideas of what to do, bring in an entire horn section from the Island, add another guitar, add two guitars, add a flute player, maybe a violin or a sitar player or bring in the New York Philharmonic string section. (Not really enough room on stage for the Philharmonic strings, so that's out.) I've sent up some smoke signals to a few musicians, I'll let you all know what happens as soon as I know.
That's all for now,
Peace Out!
Harry Slash

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