Big Weekend performs at Mug Shots Bar and Grill in Homer Glen. (Provided photo)
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Big Weekend, a classic-rock cover band, will headline Homewood Artisan Street Fair

Big Weekend, a local cover band that especially covers classic rock songs, will perform at Homewood Artisan Street Fair on Saturday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

A Big Weekend setlist can include songs from the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty and others. Band members Tom Furlan and Dave Bond said the rock and roll music of the 1960s and 1970s is in their soul and a part of who they are.

Big Weekend performs at Mug Shots Bar and Grill in Homer Glen. (Provided photo)
Big Weekend performs at Mug Shots Bar and Grill in Homer Glen. (Provided photo)

The name of the band comes from the Tom Petty song of the same name.

Big Weekend’s members are Bond on vocals and harmonica, Furlan on vocals and rhythm guitar, Eddie Fell on vocals and drums, Kevin Long on bass guitar and vocals and Marty Farrell on lead guitar.

Before Farrell joined, the name of the band was Tom Furlan and Friends. As they got more serious about playing music together, Furlan became less comfortable with the band name. Bond said Furlan texted him other band name ideas and they eventually landed on “Big Weekend.” 

Furlan said he first met Bond at an open mic night at Bank Shots Bar and Grill in Lynwood about five years ago. 

“I saw this guy playing the harmonica. I wanted to do the Canned Heat song that had harmonica in it. So, I went up to him and said, ‘hey, can you join me?’ He said ‘no, I got to go,’” Furlan said.

Bond laughed as Furlan reminisced about this night.

“A few weeks later I met him again and asked him again. And he said ‘yeah,’” Furlan said. “It turned out we’re both Beatles fanatics. Because I come from the same micro-environment that we grew up in. We’re kind of the same age. And a few weeks after that, he said ‘would you like to form a band?’”

Furlan has lived in Homewood for about 30 years while Bond moved to Homewood two years ago. They said that they’re neighbors in the same condominium building.

Since forming the band five years ago, Big Weekend has regularly performed around the South Suburbs and Northwest Indiana, mostly at bars and parties. They said a slam dunk performance is when they look out into the crowd and see everyone dancing.

“[Homewood Artisans Street] is a little bit different for us because it’s in the middle of the afternoon,” Bond said. “It’s a little bit different than what we normally do and we’re really looking forward to it.”

“I lived in Homewood probably 30 years and I never dreamed that I’d be playing in a band at the Artisans Fair in Homewood – with all my friends, neighbors and people I grew up with. I’m a little nervous,” Furlan said.

Bond said covering classic rock songs is about more than nostalgia.

“I don’t think it brings us back to those days. It’s in us already. It’s deep down in our soul – all of that music. And if we can put it out somehow and feel good about what we’re putting out, it just makes us feel good,” Bond said.

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