Music Box Dynamo To Drop Beats at The Grape Room

A year ago at the North Star Bar, a band called Music Box Dynamo, MB Dynamo for short, decided to put on quite a show. Lead singer/guitarist Drew Bacon from Mt. Airy, bassist Nick Natalicchio from Chestnut Hill, lead guitarist Henry Jaffe from Rittenhouse Square and drummer John P. Hogan Jr. from Fairmount conspired together to surprise Bacon’s girlfriend with an on-stage proposal. In the midst of their alternative rock and blues song, “Dirty Water,” they stopped cold and Bacon proposed.

“I told her it would come one day when you least expect it,” he said. “She was a ball of emotions and answered, ‘Absolutely!’”

It was a nerve-racking for his bandmates as well.

“He told us beforehand he was going to do it. He waited an extra second longer than we planned on to stop playing and the band mates got scared for a minute, but then he did it. I threw in ‘Here Comes the Bride’ in the correct key. My girlfriend was crying too,” Jaffe said.

Celebrating their one-year anniversary Wednesday, the band began as two friends jamming after meeting at a friend’s party. In 2008, Bacon and Jaffe began playing for fun. Natalicchio came into the scene in 2009 through a friend of a friend who casually mentioned he played bass.

Hogan joined the band after he connected with them online.

“Through Craigslist, we were very lucky,” Jaffe said. “We met another drummer before him and thought why see the second guy? But within five minutes, we knew!”

Each musician has an array of influences including The Beatles, Foo Fighters, Bob Dylan, Pearl Jam and Radiohead. Their music reflects their array of interests with some soft melodies that lead into harder jams reminiscent of Pearl Jam. Some of the melodic singing of The Beatles is also strewn into some songs.

The band debuted as Snowguin, the combination of snow and penguin.

“It wasn’t working. No one liked it,”  Jaffe said.

So instead they went with the catchy Music Box Dynamo.

“I read it in a publication from when the ‘96 Women’s Olympics won the gold metal. In an article, they had music playing in the background and a journalist referred to them as music box dynamos and I thought that would be a great band name,” he said.

The crew enjoys their band as a part-time endeavor and are regrouping after a summer of overlapping vacations for the past two months for their third show at in Manayunk on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. MB Dynamo will be giving out free demos as well.

For more information check out the band's website.