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Who We Are and What We Do
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The Two-Second Version 
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Formed in the summer of 1996 by four musicians from the College of William and Mary, Gonzo's Nose has carved a niche for themselves in the D.C. music scene by combining solid musicianship with a repertoire of hundreds of cover songs from the early 80's up until songs that hit the radio just yesterday.
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It's All For Fun
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As we like to say, we've been playing other people's music since 1996. Gonzo's is a dedicated party band playing throughout Virginia, Washington, DC, and Maryland, as well as up and down the east coast, and we've traveled as far as Eastern Europe. Although we're all classically-trained and take this Gonzo thing very seriously, it's really just a hobby for us. We all have real jobs, and because we have (almost) no pretention, we're quite content to be playing nothing but covers. Judging by the response we've gotten, people are quite content to listen.
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If Cheese Made A Sound, We'd Be It
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We've got a monster set list (230 songs, which would be something like 15 hours of music, if we were ever inclined to play it straight through!), and we pick high energy songs that people can dance to, spanning three decades and a mess of different musical styles. Some of our most popular stuff -- this never ceases to amaze us -- is the cheesy 1980s pop. If you've ever been to a Gonzo show, you've seen people climbing on tables for Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl," and screaming through enough Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, Simple Minds, Police, Madonna, Cars, Wham, and Prince (the list goes on) to put down a rhino.
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...But Even Cheese Can Have An Edge
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We also continually add new music to our set (up to ten songs each month), often based on our fans' requests. We're likely to follow up every 80s song with something ten times as loud: Metallica, Alice and Chains, Fuel, Limp Bizkit, Incubus, and Foo Fighters (again, the list goes on). Basically, if it's played on rock or alternative radio, we've probably done it at some point. In fact, it's getting difficult for us to listen to the radio these days because of what our fans call "The Gonzo Effect," which is when we flip through just about every pop music station, only to find that they're all playing songs we've performed one too many times!
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From Spores To Full-Blown Cheese
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The original core of Gonzo's was all connected via the various bands we played in while at William and Mary. Steve and Jon formed "Unabridged" (the band with the sucky name) in 1991. After Steve graduated in 1992, Jon went on to form "Beergarden" (son of the band with the sucky name) with Adrian, and began playing with Kevin in 1995.
In the fall of 1997, after searching for almost a year for just the right person, we added wahoo Colleen to the Nose, who has applied her vocal and keyboard talents with great results.
After three more years with the same lineup, Jon left the band at the end of 2000 to pursue other interests, and we were fortunate to find Adam in a very short time, and brought him in to tighten up our bottom end (heh-heh) by taking over all the bass duties.
Colleen bowed out in September 2002 to make babies, and Gonzo's was fortunate to find singer and keyboardist Jen after just a few tryouts -- in fact, we liked her so much, we cancelled all auditions after we heard her!
In January of 2007, after TEN YEARS, founding member Kevin left to pursue graduate work, and was replaced by the punk-influenced Adam Kamber, fresh off a national tour.
In July of 2007, bassist Adam also left to pursue other interests, and we were delighted to find Andreas, from the Berklee School of Music (and the country of Sweeden) to take over on bass duties.
In January of 2009, after TWELVE YEARS, founding member Adrian bowed out (after commuting from Charlottesville, VA (an hour and a half away) for every practice and every gig!), and we're stoked to have found Mike, an amazing professional singer, to lead Gonzo's on vocals.
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