By VR Scavo 

When a big purple van pulls up with a beaver logo and the band name Just the Tip covering all sides, the crowd will probably have its doubts. Band members take the stage clad in T-shirts and jeans and the sound of shore cover bands come to mind. Bruce Springsteen? Obvious. Poison? Heard it. Journey? Been there … but not like this. 

Just the Tip brings the term cover band to a new level, a party level. For a band that started as a coincidence — four guys working together in the music department of a talent agency realizing they had the pieces to form a band — the Tip now packs bars, plays weddings and dabbles in acoustic gigs. The Tip has even graced the stages of some of New York City’s most well-known venues including B.B. King’s Blues Club and Arlene’s Grocery. 

But don’t get confused, they don’t take themselves too seriously if the name tells you anything — a name that was picked by the four original members of the group sitting around quoting Wedding Crashers when Chad Lewis, one of the band’s guitarists, suggested it. 

“None of us at the time ever really expected to play a gig, so we were all just like, ‘sure,’ and then we actually started playing gigs and at that point we were committed,” says Eric DeLange, who originally was not a singer,  but thought he’d give it a try when the group was formed. Now he sings lead vocals and can change his voice to meet whatever the song calls for.   

“Just the Tip definitely has staying power,” agrees guitarist Chris Tino, who knew DeLange from college and joined the band a little later when he moved to Hoboken. “On the whole, it speaks to what the band is all about. We don’t do this full time, so when we are playing gigs, we’re out there trying to have as good of time as everybody else.”  

Lewis refers to the band as a party band rather than a cover band, and it can be seen in their song selection — Pearl Jam, Michael Jackson, The Killers, Tom Petty, Kings of Leon, Gin Blossoms, and the list goes on and on. Lewis may even end up on the bar belting out his rendition of “Sweet Child of Mine” if you’re lucky. 

 “(The songs we play) are ones that you would play in the jukebox at a good bar,” Tino says. “We rarely cough up a dud song because we fight about what to play so much. We try to cast as wide of a net as possible.”  

“We always go back to the core criteria about what people are going to know and what people are going to like without it being terribly cliché,” DeLange adds. 

Their set list branched out even more when Lewis asked his keyboard-playing friend, Jason Foster, to join the band in the fall as they started to book more weddings. The six-piece band rounds out with original member Todd Matteson on bass and newer addition Ryan Fightmaster on the drums.  

The Tip will join the roster at Texas Arizona for the next few months with the first show this Saturday, February 6, at 10:30 p.m. It is one of the band’s favorite spots to play so you don’t want to miss it. 

“The Texas Arizona shows are always fun,” DeLange says. “Everyone is drinking, partying and having a good time.” 

For more information on other upcoming gigs such as acoustic sets at Hoboken’s Carpe Diem or shows in New York City, check out the band’s website at www.justthetipband.com or become a fan on Facebook. 

See you Saturday!

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