First, our one and only CD review, for The Right Place:

This comes from the October 2004 issue of Metronome Magazine's Hearings section, written by Douglas Sloan...

"What band do you know of locally or nationally that boasts four songwriters in the same group? I'm thinking, maybe the Eagles... The Beatles, and Break Even. This young band is an enterprising quintet that writes cool songs and plays them with equal energy and enthusiasm. Singer Jeff Bissett, bass guitarist Dave Gammon, guitarists Robert Parker and Steve Wyka and drummer Bob Sullivan have a great band setting where everyone contributes to the greater cause. Shouldn't everything work this well? Best songs: "The Right Place," "Turn Away," and "The Sun.""

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And now for the great list of past Break Even shows:

This is left over from the original Break Even website. There used to be pictures included, but this is text only. Maybe some day I'll be feeling sentimental again and put them back. Not tonight though.

Past Break Even Shows

12/17/04 - J Rags, Tewksbury, MA

Another fine night at J Rags, our home away from home. Big crowd. Much bigger than we anticipated. Thanks to everyone who came out. Also, thanks to everyone who brought gifts for Hart House. Just like last year the toy drive went well. Thanks for making Christmas feel like more than just another day.

We had what can only be described as our first heckler at this show. Some one who had too much to drink even before arriving at the bar who seemed to mistake us for a jukebox. Steve handled it best. When our heckler came to the stage to give us a list of songs that would be better than the ones we were playing (most of which would have caused Rob to quit the band... hair bands give him nightmares) Steve just nodded his head to each new suggestion and commented that we used to play that one but we dropped it and didn't remember it anymore... which caused Rob serious internal injuries from trying to hold back the fits of laughter. Thanks Steve, nice work.

Jeff also handled it well as he brought a handful of copies of our CD - The Right Place over to the heckler's table during an instrumental break. We then spent the rest of the set trying not to fall apart as the heckler and the heckler's friends tried to figure out who the band on the CD was... despite the great big sign on the stage that said Break Even, and the pictures on the back of the CD case that just happened to be pictures of the 5 guys on the stage. Thanks Jeff, nice work.

If you heckle Break Even, Break Even will get it's (meager) electronic revenge!

Original Song Debut: Something New

8/20/04 - J Rags, Tewksbury, MA

A show at J Rags that didn't have any technical difficulties! YEAH! Lets not pull punches though, the weather sucked, the drinking water in town is contaminated with a chemical that is found in rocket fuel, and the state of Massachusetts had banned smoking in all public places, including bars. All of these things conspire to keep people from going to the rock & roll show, but thankfully a whole buncha folks came out for the rock, and most of them stayed for the whole night, and all of them were nice and loud. Can't thank you people enough.

The band played pretty well. Summer time and changing work schedules and stuff like that have kept us from rehearsing as much as we'd like lately. Tonight we played much better than we probably should have. Playing in front of people can be strange. Many times bands that rehearse 4-5 times a week will completely come unglued when there's an audience, while at the same time bands that practice once a week when they are lucky can rise to the occasion and pull off a strong show. Fortunately for us, Break Even appears to be one of the latter types.

Items of note: Twice during the night we were asked if we played any "hair band" stuff. I must apologize to those two folks, but there are no mullets or hair extensions allowed in this band. Sorry.

6/18/04 - J Rags, Tewksbury, MA

J Rags again and this time there's a new CD! We officially released The Right Place on the unsuspecting public. (Kinda makes us sound like mad scientists when I put it that way)

What is it about J Rags that makes the equipment act screwy? Twice at J Rags Steve has had trouble during sound check, and twice at J Rags Rob has had trouble coming back from a set break. Is it the air? Is it the water? Is it the cat doing the duck walk dance? Not that it matters, by the time the playing started everything was fine.

Items of note: Duck walks and chicken dances. "Security?" Autographs (blush).

Original Song Debut: Dreams Die

1/3/04 - Mammoth Road Club, Dracut MA

Happy New Year! We rang in 2004 in style... ok so we were a couple of days late, but you get the idea. This was probably the most relaxed we've ever been on stage. We were loud (Dave turned Steve's amp up when he wasn't looking), we were noisy (feedback is life), and we had a great time. I hope everyone who came out to see us had as much fun as we did.

12/19/03 - J Rags, Tewksbury, MA

Break Even's Triumphant Return to J Rags. We did our first show together at this bar 4 months ago. Things went so well that first night that I thought it would be tough to top it, but top it we did. Everything that worked in August worked better tonight, and all of the little things that went wrong in August went right tonight.

Items of Note: We had our first (and hopefully last {no offense}) Def Leppard request. Once again the room was so full of people that there was no room to move. Last but not least, two words: Pole Dancers. Enough said.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and extra thanks to everyone who donated gifts for Hart House.

11/28/03 - Samantha's, Salem, NH

You folks are going to have to forgive me, but I can't get enough of this "name in lights" stuff. I'm lovin' it!

The day after Thanksgiving 2003 just plain rocked. Before the show started I was nervous. I didn't think we were quite ready for this one. Shows what I know. Turns out we were really on. I'll keep my mouth shut from now on.

Items of note: We had our first Skynyrd request. We also came one step away from our first "woman-dancing-on-a-table" experience. She danced on her chair, which was still good enough for me. Finally, apologies to the guy who wanted us to play Creed during the first set so his girlfriend could hear it. Samantha's wanted us to keep things quite for the first set so as not to disturb the dinner crowd upstairs. We would have done it otherwise.

11/07/03 - Mammoth Road Club, Dracut, MA

How do you know you're successful? When you see your name in lights! The best thing anyone in an audience has ever yelled to us, "You guys are as tight as a fat lady's sock." The guy who said that gets huge originality points from me, thanks.

Original Song Debuts: Four Walls

10/11/03 - Burgundy's Billiard Room, Derry, NH

Another 4 sets, another big crowd, another happy house, and this time we all fit on the stage! We rocked in an attempt to take people's minds off of the Red Sox loss to the Yankees on this the night of the Great Don Zimmer Toss of '03. Once again, heads were banging, toes were tapping, and folks were dancing. Thanks to all who came out to see us.

Original Song Debuts: Turn Away

8/01/03 - J Rags, Tewksbury, MA

The first gig. Turned out better than I think any of us could have imagined. The room was packed to the rafters. The staff told us that it was the biggest crowd any of them could remember. Thankfully, most of the people stayed for all four sets. Folks crowded around us, sang along, banged their heads, and just grooved in general. A great time was had by all.

Original Song Debuts: Black Mark, The Right Place, Suicide, The Irony of it All, The Sun