This week’s edition hails from the Caribbean Pool Bar at the Plim Plaza Hotel and the band, One Night Stand. The three-piece band features guitarist and vocalist Mark Rierson, drummer Frank Del Piano and bassist Eddie Saah. Their genre is classic rock, and they can easily switch to blues, southern rock or even country music, depending on the reaction of the crowd.

Mark is the quintessential front man for the group and has the talent of getting a crowd excited and engaged. He has played with bands in the Washington DC area for many years and started One Night Stand about nine years ago. Frank served our country in the US Marines and led the President’s Own Marine Corps Band, where he performed for six US Presidents at the White House, starting with Richard Nixon. He also has been a music teacher in several local schools. Eddie is one of the most popular bassists in Ocean City. You can find him sitting in with many local bands as the “hired bass player,” and he never misses a note, no matter who the band du jour is.

I met up with One Night Stand on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at the Caribbean Pool Bar, during Cruisin’ Weekend.

Vincent: “So guys, what makes this band unique or different from the other bands in Ocean City?”
Mark: “If nobody else wants to take this question, I will.” Mark politely asked permission to respond from his band members. “It’s our song selection and diversity of songs. We are like the Mix 106 of bands. We play everything form the fifties to today’s current songs. We play everything from country to rock to classic rock and everything in between. And I know when I’ve captured an audience by watching them and seeing them mouth the words to a song or dancing to that song.  We play songs that you want to hear when you come to a place like this in Ocean City. People don’t want to hear originals in an environment like this. They want to hear something familiar, something you can tap your feet to, have a cocktail to, and sing along to or dance to the song, if you want to.”

Vincent: “Well, I certainly saw a lot of chair dancing in the audience for your first set.
Mark: “Right, and, if we don’t see that, we change it up. Maybe it’s not a classic rock audience, maybe it’s a country audience, so we’ll pull out the Johnny Cash songs, or, if it is more of a biker audience, we’ll pull out the Aerosmith songs, and we do this on the fly.”
Frank: “For example, the songs we play here today may not work in a nightclub situation, so we’ll play a completely different set for that crowd.”
Mark: “Our songs are arranged in sets of ten songs. And we may not open up with set one. We may open with set ten, depending on the crowd.”

Vincent: “The songs that you play are songs that few other bands play.”
Mark: “That’s right. I go for deep cuts on the albums I have. These are great songs, but they’re not the standard songs that you always hear. Now, there are your standards that we have to play, like “Sweet Caroline,” and “Brown Eyed Girl,” which you just have to play, you know? I mean, it’s not summer unless you hear “Margaritaville.” So, we throw those in there too.”

Vincent: “Changing gears to your bass player: Eddie has been with you for a couple of weeks?”
Eddie: “A couple of months now.”
Mark: “Eddie is a very talented individual, and he has played with just about every darned band we know. So it makes perfect sense that he play with us.”
Eddie: “Yeah, I freelance a lot as a bass player until I can find a permanent home.”

Vincent: “Great, Eddie. Hey guys, tell me about this summer. Where will y’all be playing?”
Frank: “We’re playing at the Original Greene Turtle; they now have music there Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. We will also be playing at Whiskers in Ocean Pines, and we’re playing the opening of the Jellyfish Festival in June.”

Vincent: “Wow, congratulations, that’s a big deal to play at the Jellyfish Festival!”
Frank, “Right, June 20th is for all first responders and Marine Corps, and there will be the marching of The Colors, and we should be up on stage there for that.”

Vincent: “Sounds exciting. Now, Mark, you have your own technology service company, where you deal with power supplies. Frank, you have been a school teacher lately. Eddie, do you have anything else going on outside of music?”
Eddie: “Yeah, I watch TV.” We all laugh.
Mark: “Yeah, Eddie is getting his law degree from Judge Judy!” We all burst out into laughter.

Vincent: “Well, thanks for the time, gentlemen. I can’t wait for the next set.”

As the band returned to the stage, people became visibly excited to hear the music again and looked at them as if they were thinking, “Finally, the band is back. Now, our weekend at the beach can continue.”

The Caribbean Pool bar is on 2nd Street, and it’s a great venue to hear live music on a beautiful afternoon. It’s a relaxing environment where you can “whoop and holler” or just kick back and enjoy the pub food and a cocktail. There is usually plenty of seating on the deck in the sunshine or around the large outdoor bar in the shade. The combination of One Night Stand and the Caribbean Pool Bar is almost unmatchable.