It doesn’t seem possible but this month marks the 15th year since Mr. Hand was formed. I guess it’s like they say, time flies when you’re rockin’ and rollin’! We have a lot of memories including several St. Pat’s shows in O’Neill, NE, playing at the Orpheum in Sioux City, IA, and of course many people who still come up to us and say “You played my prom!”

1995 was the year, and we started out as a 4-piece. Jeff Conrad on bass and backing vocals, myself on lead guitar and backing vocals, Jeff Lickfelt on drums and backing vocals, and Larry Mortensen on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. We based ourselves out of Norfolk and still consider it a special place for Mr. Hand. Interestingly, we spent the first several months writing and recording our first CD “Scheme of Things” before we played our first show in the spring of 1996.

We continued play more shows and released a cassette single (remember those?) called “Why Don’t We Write A Movie?” in 1997 and then our 2nd CD “Treats!” in 1998. These were busy years for us as we played a lot of shows, continued to write our own music, have our music used on an MTV show, and basically figure out what kind of band we wanted to be.

The end of the decade/century found us going through transition as Larry decided to leave the band in 2000. This was definitely one of those points in our history where we could have packed it in and said “We had a good run.” But we decided to continue on as a 3-piece with Conrad taking over as our lead vocalist. We continued to write our own music and release 2 more CD’s during this period of the band with “Fueled by the View” in 2002 and the “Simple Ways EP” in 2005.

At the beginning of 2006, we went through another transition when Jeff L. left the band to pursue a career opportunity that took him to Arkansas. Again, we were faced with the decision of whether to carry on or not. Obviously we decided to continue and brought Craig Verbeski on board to pound the drums. Not only that but he also increased the number of tattoos per band member considerably!

During the past 4 years since Craig joined the band, we’ve continued to play a lot of shows and have had some great opportunities to open some big shows. More recently, the band has moved to Omaha and just this summer released our 5th CD “Second Start“.

It’s definitely been a great ride for us with a ton of great memories. We’re excited to keep it rolling and see what the future brings.

But first we need to celebrate our 15th Anniversary of Rock! Join us August 27th and 28th at The Depot in Norfolk, NE to celebrate. We’ll have a free keg on the 28th starting at 8pm and our original drummer Jeff will be joining us on stage throughout the weekend. It’s going to be a great weekend filled with music and friends!

So here’s to you for coming out to the shows over the years and sharing a drink with us! Feel free to leave your comments below and share any memories you might have of the last 15 years, we’d love to hear from you!

A little late with the update here, but here’s some pictures from our show in Wausa, NE at the Pork Chop BBQ Celebration! Like last year it was a cool evening but a good time just the same!

We’re a little late with this report but better late than never! Summerfest this year was hot. I mean really hot. But it was totally awesome!

We were lucky enough to open the show again this year, for in our opinion the best lineup they’ve ever had – Rick Springfield, Loverboy, Night Ranger and the Rude Band. We kicked things off from the Jagermeister Stage shortly after the gates opened at 3pm and took all the sun could dish out with the 105° heat index during our set. Did I mention it was hot?

But we stood tall and rocked. The show also turned out to be the debut show for our new cd, Second Start. We finally had our finished cd’s in hand and played several songs from the cd, but most importantly we really appreciated the response from everyone who defied the heat to listen to us and buy a cd.

We have some great pictures to share…some good action shots during our set, one with the winner from our Summerfest ticket giveaway, and our friend Mike who met Rick Springfield after the show while wearing his Mr. Hand shirt proudly!

Thanks again to Shawn and the Divots staff as well as Dave and his Jagermeister Stage crew. It was a day we’ll never forget!

Another summer, another Q125 party! This year the Q125 celebration took place in Pender, NE and I could have sworn that every person who has ever lived in Pender was there.

We played for their Friday night street dance and had great weather and thanks to a last minute reprieve from the Nebraska Dept. of Roads they were able to have alcohol at the event. All these factors combined to create a great party atmosphere! We were so honored to be there and help celebrate Pender’s history.

Anyone who knows us well knows that Jeff and Bret are from Beemer, which is just down the road from Pender and also has a Q125 celebration coming up next summer. After playing in Bancroft last year for their celebration and now for Pender, both towns have set the bar high and we look forward to see what Beemer will come up with for next year. Heck, maybe we’ll go 3 for 3 and play for another Q125!

If there’s 2 things we can count on it’s that The Depot serves up killer Jagerbombs and our friends and fans in Norfolk always show up to party with Mr. Hand! It was a good time and a great way to kick off the summer portion of our schedule.

Thanks to all who came out…we can’t wait to return to Norfolk on June 26 for Summerfest at Divot’s when we will have our new CD, Second Start, available!

Brian Bellmer is the winner of our Mr. Hand Summerfest 2010 Concert Package!

Brian wins 2 GA adult tickets to the Summerfest 2010 concert on June 26th, 2 Mr. Hand t-shirts, autographed copies of our upcoming new album Second Start, Simple Ways EP and Fueled by the View cd’s, and an autographed 8×10 photo of the band.

Congrats to Brian and thank you to everyone who entered the contest! We hope to see you all at the Summerfest show when we open for Night Ranger, Loverboy and Rick Springfield…it’s going to be a great show!

This past weekend was our first ever stop at Green Acres in Norfolk, NE. It’s always interesting playing in a club you’ve never been to before. You don’t what to expect or what kind of turnout you’ll get. Any of those concerns were put to rest quickly!

We had a good crowds both nights. Some new faces, some familiar faces and some that we hadn’t seen for a while. We played many of our new songs, giving everyone a preview of what our new CD will sound like. And oh yes, the crew at Green Acres staff was great. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to play there again.

On to the pictures…

OK, so calling our next cd a masterpiece might be stretching it a bit. But we began recording tracks this past weekend on what we think might be deserving of Grammy recognition. Alright, all kidding aside we spent some time in the studio over the weekend and wanted to share some pics.

We went to work at the Northeast Community College Recording Studio in Norfolk, NE and  focused on recording drum tracks for the songs that will become our 5th cd. Things went well and we have a good start on the recording. Next up: recording bass and guitar tracks.

Thanks to our engineers at NECC – Kristy and Tim, plus our good friend Chris who lent his capable hands to help us get things done!

Enjoy the studio pics…

We spent this past Friday at The Depot in Norfolk, NE for a one-nighter. But with the party taking place that night it felt like a typical weekend at The Depot. It’s really no surprise though as we’ve come to expect it!

We were excited for the show because we knew we’d get to play our new songs for some more of our Norfolk friends. In fact we debuted one more original called “Facing Down” as we prepare for our upcoming recording session this weekend. It’s been a great spring playing all these new original songs and getting such great response and feedback about the new songs from everyone. We really appreciate it and it’s made us very excited to record these songs and release a new CD this summer!

Now check out the pics…

It’s time for a contest! Summerfest 2010 will be held on June 26th at Divot’s in Norfolk, NE and features an incredible lineup including Rick Springfield, Loverboy, Night Ranger, The Rude Band, and of course us! It figures to be one of the summer’s biggest rock & roll concert events in Northeast Nebraska.

Do you have your tickets yet? If not, you may be in luck! We’re giving away a Mr. Hand Summerfest 2010 Concert Package to 1 lucky winner!

What’s included in the Mr. Hand Summerfest 2010 Concert Package?

• 2 GA adult tickets to the Summerfest 2010 concert on June 26th
• 2 Mr. Hand t-shirts
• Autographed copies of our upcoming new album, Simple Ways EP and Fueled by the View cd’s
• Autographed 8×10 photo of the band
• All told this package is worth $135!

Enter to win by filling out the form below*. Enter only once, duplicate entries will be removed. Drawing for the Mr. Hand Summerfest 2010 Concert Package will be held on June 7th.

Immediate family members of Mr. Hand band members are not eligible to win.

* All entries will also be registered for the Mr. Hand Email Newsletter. The newsletter is sent out monthly and includes our latest news and upcoming schedule.