– Wiggy (guitars)

When he was 15 Wiggy was in a band named “Vicious“, which gives you a general idea of what we’re dealing with here. The band (as you can clearly see if you dared click on the above link) terrified parents and sent their kids off to clubs like Sea Seas in Moosic for healthy doses of headbanging. After being given a Sunday night gig….a dead night for the owners….the band was soon playing to hundreds of kids…who would line up around the block waiting for the doors to open. This made Wiggy sorta popular in high school….or at least shed enough light on him so that he wasn’t routinely beaten up for having hair so long he used to tuck it into the back of his pants. Rock and Roll can save lives…in many ways. He has since either cut his hair (his story) or lost his hair (everybody else’s story). It’s hard to tell ’cause the last time anybody has seen him without a hat on his head was the last time anybody has seen The Edge without a cap on his.

Like most teen bands, “Vicious” now lives on only in the memories of the kids who weren’t too drunk or stoned to retain them. But Wiggy moved on to form “Jugdish”, who become one of NEPAs most popular bands. And also one of its best. Their setlists were so varied that, writing this years later, they seem incomprehensible. I mean, “ABACAB”? Really?

He swears. I’ve heard him play it too. Note for note. It’s creepy. The guy can play anything, which is why every band wants him. His current band “Jigsaw Johnny” is currently alive and well, albeit in about 17 different configurations. He agreed to join the Shillelaghs after Flannery bombarded him with late night drunken text messages promising him he wouldn’t have to play more than three chords and could take a break from playing the Frampton talk-box. It was, obviously, an offer he could not refuse.

He is quite adept at doing “the worm” while onstage, and not missing a note. That alone is worth a $5 cover.

Over the last 25 years he’s been the founding member of “Jugdish”, who then transformed themselves into “Jigsaw Johnny”, one of the best bands in the land.

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