Pigeons Playing Ping Pong
Art for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong’s album ‘Psychology.’
Posted: Thursday, February 19, 2015 12:48 am
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Updated: 12:50 am, Thu Feb 19, 2015.
TheDAOnline.com
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong will return to the stage at 123 Pleasant Street Saturday.
The electro-funk rock band, originally consisting of members Greg Ormont and Jeremy Schon, found its roots in a Psychology 101 class at the University of Maryland.
Both Ormont and Schon had a strong love for music at a young age and a deep desire to continue playing while in college. While studying together, Ormont and Schon came across an experiment performed by well-known psychologist B.F. Skinner in which he used operant conditioning treatments to train pigeons to play ping pong.
Ormont and Schon found their name for the newly found duo. The duo began playing in coffee house shows and open mic events every chance they had, under the name Pigeons Playing Ping Pong.
After performing as a duo for a few years, Schon decided to extend the number of members in the band and welcomed high school friend Dan Schwartz as a drummer and history classmate Ben Carrey as a bassist. Doing this made the band’s sound much more full and versatile.
From there on out, the men continued to play as a band which has been able to play at many promising venues and festivals, including Catskill Chill, The Werk Out, Camp Barefoot, Wormtown Music Festival and many more. Pigeons Playing Ping Pong plays nearly 200 shows every year, all across the country. In fact, Mondays and Tuesdays are the band’s only resting days.
“Personally, it has always been a dream of mine to play music and perform. It’s just crazy how everything just kind of happened out of nowhere. Everything just fell into place,” Schon said.
While touring across the nation, the band developed a relatively strong following. More people were turning up for shows, and the band’s name was becoming very recognizable. Due to this fact, the band was able to become a full-time job for Ormont, Schon, Schwartz and Carrey.
“We thank our fans for being able to do what we do full time,” Schon said. “We have a great fan base that supports us and gives us the opportunity to tour all year round.”
The band will perform some of its older and newer work, as well as cover songs, at Saturday’s show.
“The concert is what you make of it. We do our best to create a fun, carefree atmosphere for the audience, and it’s up to you to join in on that,” Schon said. “The interaction with our fans keeps the atmosphere energized.”
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong will take the stage at 9 p.m. Saturday at 123 Pleasant Street. General admission tickets for the concert are sold online and at the door for $12.
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Thursday, February 19, 2015 12:48 am.
Updated: 12:50 am.
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