Neighborhood Bands: Third Time Thru

Story by Matt Young | February 20, 2010 | Tags: band, music, rallypoint, rock, third time thru

Cary, NC -  When you are in a band, how do you know whether or not you will be able to pull off a song?  You pretty much know about the “third time through”. Hence, the name Third Time Thru. In the second of our series about local dad/mom bands, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Alan Ayers and Glenn Simon of the band.

From the TTT web site: “Third Time Thru is a band made up of quite good musicians of  ‘a certain age’, who all long ago opted to join the establishment and get day jobs, and who now are expressing their mid-life crises (and in some cases embarrasing their teenage children) by reliving their rock-and-roll fantasies. The band members are all from the Raleigh and Cary area. The playlist of the band has a lot of classic rock and roll, and Motown, but is constantly evolving to include other styles as well . We put on a great show, and we tend to work reasonably cheap in this age of DJ’s and canned muzak. We’re currently looking for a good excuse to set up the new fog machine.”

8 Pieces

There’s Don Jones, on electric bass, synthesizers and, occasionally, electric fiddle joined by Alan Ayers and Andy Citron on electric guitar.  Dave Leder is on drums, and Glenn Simon on keyboards .  There are three lead singers: Robert Babb (“make sure you mention that he plays a great harmonica and guitar too”, I was told), Merri Robinson and Carole Eagle.   Almost everyone harmonizes.  Just imagine the possibilities.  Alan and Robert are North Carolina natives.  Dave is from Virginia.  The rest of the band are transplants from the north.  Dave, the drummer, plays in a couple other bands.  They are all friends.  They go to parties together.   They cook out at each other’s homes.  They enjoy each others’ company.

“We simply love music, love doing performing and we like being together.  We’re honest with each other and differences are settled openly.  We sure aren’t in this for the money.  There’s not much really to be had.  Many of us go to work each day to RTP.  It’s just all about the music,” Alan Ayers told me.

They met each other through work and through each other.  Some of them worked in RTP together, some were friends of another band member before they joined the band.  Some of them met at Indian Princesses.  It all just fell in place.  The original core band members have been playing together since the mid -90′s.  They strive to get whoever their audience is to participate through dancing.

“We were all born in the ’50′s and ’60′s so we gravitated to what we listen to when we were kids – Motown and classic rock.   We try to mix in some Dave Mathews and more current stuff, especially if it’s going to be a younger crowd,”  Alan said.

The Gigs

“Third Time Thru” does a gig every 3-4 months.  They are mostly hired for private parties and family events like weddings, but recently played at RallyPoint Sport Grill.  They have also done a number of charity events.  Many of them would like to do more but it’s hard with families and full time careers.  Even getting coordinated to be together for  rehearsals has to be complicated with eight band members.  Check them out.  Any band that can stay together for 15 years has to be doing something right.

If you are interested in booking Third Time Thru contact Glenn at toxrtp@aol.com.