Five Firsts: Eric Margan of the Red Lions

NAME: Eric Margan
BAND AFFILIATION: The Red Lions
INSTRUMENT: Guitar?

1. THE FIRST ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT WAS … I think it was either Radiohead’s “OK Computer” or Weezer’s “Pinkerton.” I was a late bloomer when it came to buying albums, as that was around sixth grade. I’m fairly certain I’ve listened to “OK Computer” on a regular basis ever since I bought it. I wish the first albums I bought were by the Beatles, but for some reason I didn’t listen to them until sophomore year of college.

2. THE FIRST CONCERT THAT I EVER SAW WAS … probably Richard Marx at the Starlite or Bette Midler at SPAC in the early 90s. I remember the Richard Marx thing because my family also went to see him play softball before the concert at a radio station event. I was probably 5 years old. The first concert that I ever drove to on my own will was probably Guster at the Palace Theatre or Weezer/Get Up Kids/Ozma at SUNY Albany. Or maybe it was John Brodeur and the Kamikaze Hearts at St. Rose.

3. THE FIRST MUSICAL INSTRUMENT I EVER OWNED OR PLAYED WAS … my flute! Actually, I think they had us learn Suzuki recorder in fourth grade. I was a middle-school flute nerd boy.

4. THE FIRST SONG THAT I EVER PERFORMED IN PUBLIC WAS … “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream at the OK5K roadrace in Kinderhook. A friend and I played that song repeatedly for an hour on someone’s front lawn by the 2-mile marker. But no one got tired of it because each audience member would only hear about 30 seconds of us as they ran by.

5. THE FIRST BAND I WAS EVER IN WAS … I sang in a barbershop quartet in high school. We did arrangements of old jazz standards at a talent show. On the rock front, I played bass and sang lead vocals in a 3-piece garage band called Cantacide, whose name was merely the fact that we “can’t decide” on a band name. We used multi-fx pedals and tried to sound a lot like Weezer and Built To Spill. We played for a few years before graduating from high school.

After singing solo in the recent Capital Region’s Got Talent competition and making it all the way to the final round, Eric Margan is back with his band the Red Lions, leading them into the Exit Dome (aka, the WMHT-TV studios in North Greenbush) to play at the WEXT-FM benefit concert on Friday (October 23).