The Schmeltz

There is a recipe for managing the FMF schedule... use a grain of salt. With 250 bands on the roster, conflicting schedules and the unforeseeable late starts
there's just no way you can count on fitting it all in. But then again, sometimes the most interesting things happen when you don't plan. Case in point:
The Schmeltz!
I didn't know who these guys were and I barely noticed their time slot on the 3rd night of the festival at Wall Street Plaza. But as I walked past the outdoor
stage during (on my way to another venue) and saw a guy in a Batman costume unloading a bass, The Schmeltz became THE band to see. From the moment they took
the stage they were my favorite band of the weekend. The frontman's fuzzy pimp jacket fluttering in the evening breeze revealing the PERVERT t-shirt
underneath. The Gnome strapped to the back of the guitarist. Song titles like "Soccer Mom", "Whiskey Dick" and "The Spocker" (yes, a sexually explicit song
about our favorite Vulcan) Also, they all work for Blue Man Group. The front man actually IS one of the Blue Men. His explanation of the band's name is, "it came
from an action figure some of the us tried to make. Most of us used to work in a toy store."
For Cryin Out Loud! How can you NOT love this band?
-Jim Carchidi, Fieldsedge.com


- Fieldsedge.com

Simply put: if Devo, The Ramones and Weird Al had an orgy, The Schmeltz would be left at a Fire House 9 months later... and they'd rock the place. The frontman is a Blue Man, sans the make-up. Really, that's his day job. The whole band starts their set in costumes. There's a Pimp, a Choir Boy, Batman, a Greaser, something that looked like a golfer and a guy in a prom tux with a Gnome backpack that he beats with his guitar at show's end.

Anyway, if the song titles aren't enough to entice you (Soccer Mom, Whiskey Dick, The Spocker) then the lyrics will. Example: The Spocker, "Open your cargo bay. Let me dock. Move over Kirk. Make way for Spock!"

They are the self appointed "World's greatest opening band in the world!" They are, and then some! When the 2 best bands you see during a weekend are The Police and The Schmeltz, you had a damn fine weekend.
-Jim Carchidi, Fieldsedge.com

- Fieldsedge.com

"We're what might happen if Weird Al Yankovic and Stone Temple Pilots had a baby," guitarist Vince Parrulli is telling me before the outlandish pseudo-parody rock band took the stage Saturday at Wall Street Plaza.

Dressed in a choir robe, Parrulli is the most normally attired member of a group that also includes a guy with a stuffed gnome strapped to his back and another guy in some kind of masked superhero costume.

With songs inspired by Star Trek and covers that include Olivia Newton John's "Let's Get Physical," the Schmeltz are WAY more Weird Al than Stone Temple Pilots. It works surprisingly well, especially when the one dude starts impaling that poor stuffed gnome with his guitar.

Maybe the secret of the band's magic is that these guys are solid musicians, with day jobs playing in Orlando's Blue Man Group. I hate to break it to them, but I like the Schmeltz better...
-Jim Abbott, Orlando Sentinel

- Orlando Sentinel

Most non-comedic comedy act: Watching the Schmeltz, a local gag band featuring members of the Blue Man Group, appropriate rock music for their painfully obvious, limp-dick stabs at humor killed a small part of my soul.
-Bao Le-Huu, ORLANDO WEEKLY

- Orlando Weekly