The Drams rock the plaza - Mpls - 6/20/07

And the great free shows just keep on coming…

Just two days after Steve Wynn and his ragtag “Loose Change” outfit blew everybody away at the Hexagon bar in Mpls, Brent Best and The Drams hit one out of the park at a rather unlikely setting, playing a free, early evening outdoor gig on the plaza of the Orchestra Hall, smack dab in the middle of DT Mpls. The Drams appearance was part of a series that the Orchestra Hall puts on in June called “Alive After Five” in which a couple of musical acts perform from 5-9 every single day during the month. These free shows take place in a fairly dramatic location – outside in a sunken plaza cum amphitheater, next to a huge reflecting pool and a series of cement platforms, next to the striking architecture of the Orchestra Hall and the Nicollet Mall, and surrounded by the Mpls skyline. There are beer & food vendors and plenty of good vantage points. Outdoor concerts are all too rare in MN (the Twin Cities is the largest metro area in the country without a proper “shed” venue), so we’re all suckers for a chance to brave the elements in order to get some music in the great outdoors – especially when it’s free.

Brent on the boys put on one hell of a show – two full sets with new and old Drams material, the usual choice covers and a healthy dose of selections from Slobberbone, the beloved band that The Drams evolved from. In a relatively short time since a tentative debut at SxSW a few years ago, The Drams have steadily honed their act, turning into a solid live band in the process, performing with a confident verve that is positively engaging. They kicked things off with a classic Band song and never let up; this was easily the most enjoyable of the handful of local Drams appearances over the last two years. There was even a neat bit of synchronicity during “Des Moines” when a brief sun shower occurred right about the time the lyrics referred to the skies opening up. Wow, man…

Since our neck of the woods – referred to by Brent many times as a musical “motherland” – was a key area in the Slobberbone universe, we were treated to a generous helping of ‘bone classics, including a couple of cool solo versions to start out the second set. There were two new songs – the autobiographical (?) “Man of Note,” which has been around for a few months and the newer “Anything,” which Jess later said was his fave of the new songs they’ve demo-ed so far. “Anything” is a brooding, intense tune that already smells like a classic. Some interesting lyrics, too – “Relief don’t come cheap…But if you know some better way / I’d do anything / And if you felt the way I do / You’d do anything.”

The night ended with a rousing – and surprising – reading of the Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ classic, “Straight to Hell,” a song that used to show up in ‘bone sets a decade ago but hasn’t been heard much since.

To recap: the sound was good, the playing was flawless and the setting was easily worth the price of admission. More, please.

Postscript: since the gig was over at a time when most of the rock world is just starting to get moving and nobody had to leave until the next morning, Brent invited a bunch of us over to world famous Nye’s Bar for some post-gig fun – across the river from DT in the suddenly fashionable NE Mpls neighborhood. Nye’s was, not surprisingly, jumping: Molly Maher was laying down some cool folkbluesamericana grooves in the side bar, the piano bar was kickin’ and there was some kind of wild party going on in the back room. The drinks – and polish beer, hell yeah – were flowin’, road stories were told and just before I left, Keith and the roadie were at the piano bar doing bad karaoke versions of Eddie Rabbit songs. :-) A perfect ending to a perfect evening.



The Drams
6/20/07
Peavey Plaza @ Orchestra Hall – Minneapolis, MN
“Alive After Five”

Set 1
1. The Shape I’m In (The Band cover)
2. Hummalong
3. Trust Jesus
4. Man of Note
5. Never You Mind
6. Crudely Drawn
7. To Love Somebody (Bee Gees cover)
8. Winterlong (Neil Young cover)
9. Des Moines
10. You Won’t Forget

Set 2
1. Pinball (Brent solo)
2. Lazy Guy (Brent solo)
3. Robert Cole (Brent + Chad)
4. Biscuits
5. Billy Pritchard
6. Dunk You in the River
7. Anything
8. Gimme Back My Dog
9. Make a Book
10. I Am the Cosmos (Chris Bell cover)
11. Straight to Hell (Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ cover)

Drams article in Dallas Observer

(The Drams @ SxSW 2006 - New West day party)

(The Drams @ SxSW 2006 - Twangfest day party)

Jubilee Year
The Drams are the Best

By T. BALLARD LESEMANN Published: May 31, 2007



The Drams weren't in mind at all when Denton-based songwriter Brent Best—a melody-minded veteran rock dude who knows his way around a hook and a heartfelt lyric—first started working on the songs that ended up on the band's debut, Jubilee Dive.

Despite what you'd think, the Drams aren't haunted by the ghosts of Slobberbone—just of two little girls.

"When Slobberbone shut down, I wasn't ready to do a band thing again," admits the singer/guitarist. "I'd been doing the solo thing here and in Europe for about a year. I'd been recording at home with the intent of doing a solo album at some point, with a clear idea of how it should sound."

Slobberbone evolved from a straightforward-but-stumbling country-punk band in the mid-'90s into a critically acclaimed underground roots-rock act. They released a low-budget debut titled Crow Pot Pie in 1995, followed by Barrel Chested in 1997. By that time, the band was touring across the Midwest and East Coast with a solidified line-up featuring Best on lead vocals and guitar, Brian Lane on bass, Tony Harper on drums, and Jess Barr on guitar and a variety of stringed instruments. The quartet made a racket that had as much in common with '60s garage-rock and post-Brit Invasion pop as it did with the ultra-twang reverberating around the so-called "alt-country" scenes. Their 2000 album, Slippage, followed the excellent Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today.

The Drams' lineup currently features two of Best's Slobberbone mates—Barr and Harper—along with singer/keyboardist Chad Stockslager and singer/bassist Keith Killoren, both of whom add to the group's expanded instrumental range and vocal harmonies.

"Our first show came together almost accidentally," says Best. "At a South by Southwest [in Austin] a few years ago, they had me scheduled in between several rock bands, and I didn't want to just show up with me and an acoustic guitar, so I called Jeff and Tony up—and Keith and Chad from Dallas band Budapest One—and put the band together on the fly. Our first show ever was at South by Southwest, which was kinda weird. New West was really into the demos, so we kept it together and pressed ahead."

Produced by engineer Matt Pence (Centro-Matic, South San Gabriel), the 14 songs on Jubilee Dive bounce off Best's from-the-gut sentiments, life lessons, personal observations and colorful stories. The organ and piano parts add a earthy dose of late-era Beatles, The Band, Badfinger and Big Star to the guitar-based foundation.

"The point with Slobberbone was that we kept things fairly simple and straightforward," he says. "Chad is a really good arranger and has this pure rock/pop pedigree for someone his age, so that adds a lot more to it. It's a cool thing to have in the arsenal, you know? In the studio, it was the first time in my life where I had to get brutal with the editing and producing and cutting things. When we were younger, we weren't very good players, so we basically got what we got [laughs]. There was never as much decision-making going on. This newer attitude made for a really fun time recording. If something was kind of over the top but made us smile, we kept it."

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2007-05-31/music/jubilee-year/