Andrew Root '05 and the Down Beat Keys open for Jon Bon Jovi in New York City
Andrew Root '05 and the DownBeat Keys, a Brooklyn-based hip-hop band featuring five Hamilton College alumni, opened for Jon Bon Jovi and The Kings of Suburbia on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at the Best Buy Theater in New York.
“Sharing the stage with a rock star on the level of Jon Bon Jovi is the type of thing bands joke about because it seems like such an impossible dream,” said The DownBeat Keysband member Andrew Root. “Yet here we are, on the same bill with one of the best-known musicians of our generation. Short of the Super Bowl halftime show, gigs just don't get much bigger than this one. We’re extremely grateful to the Hamilton community for giving us this unprecedented opportunity and proud to represent our college’s incredible arts program.”
The DownBeat Keys has been a fixture on the college music circuit since forming in October 2008 when its members were all undergraduates at Hamilton. The band first began catching headlines with performances on the New York City nightclub scene. “There’s something infectious about both the band’s sound and its personality,” wrote Harris Decker in ASCAP’s Playback magazine. “It’s the product of great musicians.”
DBK has an impressive resume. The band has shared the stage with a range of artists from Talib Kweli to Outasight to Matt & Kim, and the band’s third album, Summer On Saturn, features collaborations with veteran songwriter Jeff Franzel (The Temptations, Clay Aiken, Frank Sinatra).
