Musical historians take a well deserved break from the road
When you haven’t heard from or about a band in a while, you start to wonder. Are they on hiatus? Have they split up? Are they festering in a Tijuana jail? Did the rapture happen and only take them?
Sometimes one or more of those things is the proper explanation. Other times, however, it’s something a bit more positive. In the case of the 9th Street Stompers, the only reason you may not have seen them around town lately, at least for a full show, is they’ve been busy touring.
Every once in a while though, it’s good to spend some time on your home turf so the Stompers, in conjunction with OddStory Brewing, have set up a show for Friday, January 26th. There is no cover charge for this 21 and up performance which scheduled to run from seven until ten that evening.
The Stompers are well-known for their superlative early 20th Century style music encompassing the full run of swing, jazz, blues and gypsy, being less of a “reenactment” band than a fully modern group picking up where performers from that earlier era left off.
That’s not so easy a feat as it may seem. There are groups whose whole point is to recreate as accurately as possible a given era of music and while those bands are certainly entertaining to a point, they are also limited in their appeal and longevity, relegating themselves to the realm of novelty acts.
Other groups will make a big show of being “influenced by” some particular style or genre, borrowing a few bits and pieces, sometimes with great effect and purpose, other times as mere window dressing.
The 9th Street Stompers are one of the very few genre bands I know of who have immersed themselves in the style and trappings of a particular era of musical history (though they reserve the right to color outside the lines from time to time) while maintaining a complete sense of originality and freshness.
Put another way, their technique is vintage, their music is brand new. That difficult melding of old and new goes a long way towards explaining their perennial appeal and ever- growing popularity.
It also explains why they are able to spend as much time on the road as they do, which in turn explains why maybe you haven’t seen them much outside of guest appearances lately, which in turn explains why this hometown gig is such a big damn deal.
OddStory Brewing, located down on MLK Blvd., has carved out quite a niche for itself in a town with no dearth of breweries. Where competition is first, you either bring your best game or you get out of town, and OddStory isn’t going anywhere.
Their popular line of flagship brews, including Golden Blackbird Belgian Blonde, Woven Stone Vienna Lager, Cloud Walker American Pale Ale, Monkey’s Heart India Pale Ale, and Snake Root Coconut Milk Stout have endeared them to the hearts and palates of the area’s most discriminating connoisseurs of suds.
The band and the bar make for a wonderful pairing and a great way to bring some sizzle to an otherwise cold, cold winter.