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!

Just confirmed today we’ll be playing at the Phoenix Room in Norfolk this Saturday night!

We’ve been riding the scheduling roller coaster with some recent schedule changes. As you may know we had to cancel our previously scheduled show for this Saturday at Kennedy’s Bar & Grille in Omaha. We’ll be back in Omaha in May and have some other things lined up for the summer and into the fall at the Arena Sports Bar & Grill and Two Fine Irishmen. And we’re working on getting things lined up for future dates at Kennedy’s as well.

Much thanks to Blake at the Phoenix Room for making Saturday’s show happen!

Kennedy’s was the scene of the latest Mr. Hand Rocktopia! It had only been about a month since our last stop there, but it was good to be back. There was a great turnout that included many friends, so you know we had a great time!

We must thank all those friends who came out! Some even drove as far as Sioux City!

We’ll be eagerly awaiting the return trip to Kennedy’s which will be on April 17th. See you then!

We started covering this song last fall. We grew up, as most children of the 80′s, with Nena’s 99 Red Balloons firmly implanted in our brains thanks to radio and MTV. We were reminded of it and inspired by Goldfinger’s version of this song from a few years back, so we figured why not?

This comes from our show at Kennedy’s Irish Pub in Omaha on January 2nd.

We kicked off 2010 with a show at Kennedy’s Irish Pub in Omaha, NE. This is hopefully the start of more shows to come in the Omaha area!

In fact we’ll be back at Kennedy’s on 2/27 and 4/17. Definitely put this bar and grill on your list to check out…especially when Mr. Hand is rockin’ the house!

We had some fun shows the last 2 weekends and plenty of pics to share with ya. On May 2nd we did an opening set for Midtown Method at 120 Blondes in Omaha, NE. It was a good time and we appreciate everyone that made it out to the show. Thanks goes out to the Midtown Method guys who played a good show and shared the stage with us.

This past weekend we played our first show at the new Phoenix Room in Norfolk, NE. It’s a familiar place with a different name as we used to play this bar many years ago when it was known as the L Bar K. Our friend Blake has done a nice job with the place and we look forward to coming back real soon. Thank you to our Norfolk friends who partied with us, here’s some photos.

This coming Saturday, May 2nd, we’ll be opening up for Midtown Method at 120 Blondes in Omaha, NE. We’ll be playing one short set just after 9pm. Come out early and show some love, then stick around and have some drinks with us as we party with the Midtown Method guys!

120 Blondes is located just north of Blondo St. on 120th. Hope to see you there!