Black Water Rising Performs at Jamba Juice in Times Square

The first thing you think of when Jamba Juice comes to mind is smoothies and energy boost powder, right? You don't normally think that a rock band would perform acoustically amidst blenders and bushels of bananas and oranges, especially since the music being piped in Jamba Juice locations is blared at deafening, annoyingly loud levels. But Black Water Rising performed an unplugged gig at the Times Square Jamba Juice on July 12, and the results were a bit unexpected.

"I'm really not sure exactly how I feel," guitarist John Fattoruso told Noisecreep. "I guess it's not a bad thing to do, and I'm glad that more people are opening their minds to hard music and giving bands a chance to be heard. After all my years of touring and playing everything from arenas to amphitheaters to tiny s--- holes, I guess Jamba Juice is just one more gig added to the list ... totally different but just another gig. If you would have told me 20 plus years ago when I first started playing guitar that one day I would be playing unplugged at a Jamba Juice in the middle of Times Square, I would have told you that you were on serious drugs, but it happened."

The guitarist admits that he was not "very pumped" going into the experience, and with good reason. "We normally don't do acoustic jams and we don't play smoothie joints either, but once we got rolling it was a pretty cool experience," he said. But he quickly adapted and enjoyed the event, much like Jamba Juice patrons. "They loved the music. We got to jam a bunch of tunes and spin a lot from our CD so hopefully we picked up some new fans. BWR would like to thank everyone who made it possible and Jamba Juice for the free smoothies ... Thank you!!!"