By Eddie Dubinsky

Starting as an act for a middle school talent show, these Kempsville teachers have
never lost sight of their number one objective to have fun. Pretty simple, huh? Guess again.
"It's not easy keeping a band together for over six years. All the things that plague big name bands- the business of it all, the mix of personalities, personnel changes, and all, plague and threaten working cover bands like us," says Outer Limits organizer, lead vocalist and guitarist and keyboardist Chuck Wyatt. "But our thing is to stay focused on taking it one gig at a time and having as much fun as we can for that particular night."
Always eager to please, the band takes requests, and the night I visited with them at one of their local favorite hang-outs, The Reef on Shore Drive, it was like a segment of Stump the Band. Playing the most recognizable songs of the 50's, 60's, and 70's, sets them up for a wide variety of requests, but impressively, tonight the band answered the call. The active fan participation and willingness to please is rewarded with a dance floor full of gyrating, sweaty, out of breath bodies ready to call out the next song.
I caught up to Wyatt on the break. "When we play the first few notes of our songs, people recognize them right away. That song jars their memory of a time period and that leads them to another song. Our philosophy has always been to play the songs as close to the record as possible. We want our songs to sound authentic for just that reason.
And the sounds are authentic. Elvis, Jerry Lee, Santana, Johnny Cash, Elton, Mick, all are represented by one of the most interesting and diverse play lists in the area. And the Outer Limits pull it off convincingly.
"Jim (Bulliet, lead guitar and vocals) sings the higher, slower, more melodic singing, and I do the more up-tempo stuff," explains Wyatt. "He's been with us about 5 years, and Dave (Kamakaris, bass) was from the very beginning, 7 or 8 years now from our first Faculty Follies show. Our drummer, Bill Olson, has only been with us a short while."
The Outer Limits regularly gig at The Reef, Baker Street at Woods Corner, and Fishbone's down in Duck. "We hit other places to mix it up a bit, but those are in our rotation. We also do some other things down in North Carolina over the summer since we're all off then. We'll also do some Richmond and Eastern Shore things, but not doing this "for real" (so to speak) make those long, long distance jobs hard. We have families and it's not always about the money for us."
And that's a good thing. As any local musician knows, you will not earn enough to stash a retirement from gigging in town.
Packing up after people begged and received a few bonus songs at the end of the night, Wyatt says humbly after filling an impressive amount of requests, "But we're not always as lucky as we were tonight. We know some obscure stuff, but sometimes people come out with something so out there that all we can do is laugh and make fun of them." He laughs, "No, that would be too easy; instead, we stand around and look stupid by trying to figure it out."
He wraps up reflecting on the night while establishing a philosophy, "I'm pretty sure that people got what the hung around for. Also we got a little play money for the week. But most importantly everyone had fun, the guys in the band and the patrons of the club. Our mission was accomplished for one more gig. Now, we're on to the next."