HOLLIS – J. Geils Band founding member Danny Klein and his band, Full House, will perform Sunday, Aug. 23, at Alpine Grove, 19 South Depot Road. Doors open at noon.

Klein, known as the “Ace on Bass” will play J. Geils Band favorites and a few deeper cuts thrown into the musical mix as well.

Growing up in New Jersey, Klein’s earliest influences included Muddy Waters, the Rolling Stones and Motown and Memphis music. He attended Worcester Poly Tech in 1964, where he met J. Geils and Magic Dick. They formed a jug band and eventually connected with Stephen Jo Bladd and his vocalist, Peter Wolf. The formation of the official J. Geils Band began in the 1970s.

In between playing live for five decades, Klein took some time to become a chef but said between that and music, there isn’t much money to be made with either.

“I’m a chef and rocker who can’t make a dime doing either,” he joked. “My backup job was when I went to cooking school, and let me tell you, it’s really hard. But cooking in a restaurant on Friday night has the same tension of playing the Garden. It’s just a smaller crowd.”

As the years have gone by, Klein said he doesn’t pay much attention to current music trends.

“I haven’t really listened to the radio since 1982,” he said. “I know names and stuff, but I can’t keep track of all the people rising up, God bless them- that’s what happens.”

Klein said he has much music to learn, from the blues in the ’20s and jazz to R&B and rock and roll of the ’70s.

“I haven’t finished with the era that I’m most familiar with,” he said. “But when we play, it’s all Geils music, which is influenced by blues and R&B. It’s a continuation. I’m playing what I’ve played for 50 years, but with five other guys who I think fit the bill.”

The instrumentals and solos may differ slightly depending on the musician and the night, but it’s straight-up J. Geils Band music, and that’s what fans come out to see.

“Sometimes we re-arrange stuff,” Klein said. “There are certain Geils tunes that I like to do. We’re not a cover band – this is a continuation.”

Klein said he doesn’t stop too often to smell the roses, but knows the impact that the J. Geils Band had on a legion of fans locally and across the world.

“It is a little weird,” he said. “But I’d rather be asked to sign an autograph than not be asked at all.”

Giving 110 percent at each show is what it’s all about and Klein said it’s still an adrenaline rush every time he takes the stage.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “We were always a live band. It just took us ten albums to figure that out and get a studio sound. Playing live is like instant feedback.

Faye Dunaway, who dated Peter Wolf, once told Klein that playing on stage live is like giving a Broadway performance each night.

“If a mistake is made, it’s gone,” he said. “But making a record- oops, let me say that correctly- making a disc, is forever. If you make a mistake on there, it’s there. But live is really the only way.”

Klein has been with his Full House band for 18 years, but like other musicians, gigs dried up with COVID-19.

“Because of the virus, we had summer shows cancelled,” he said. “I feel bad for people who were going to go out on tour, because now they can’t. There’s nowhere to go.”

Playing music is clearly Klein’s passion. As to what instrument he would play when the band first started, that’s another question.

“That’s funny,” he said. “Because when I started with J and Dick, at WPI, I asked what I should play- drums or bass. And J said, ‘Play bass. It’s easier.’ So, I’m a bass player.”

Klein said playing with his band is like putting on his favorite hat. And New Hampshire has always been home to him, having lived in Deering.

“We played everywhere in New Hampshire,” he said. “And when we play live, people expect Geils. We play the hits because they want to hear them, and we do a few more obscure tunes because I can play what I like now.”

Klein doesn’t consider himself the frontman but he added, “For some stupid reason, it’s my band. Go figure.”

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