Wednesday night August 31 Seattle’s Nectar Lounge hosted another night of wonderful ska bands. This time the evening was headlined by Butt Dial, a band I’ve been meaning to check out.
Butt Dial are wildly fun. They have a gimmick that includes wild costumes, rotating musicians (as in some musicians leaving the stage and being replaced by others) and wild on stage antics. But antics aside, Butt Dial is a group of accomplished musicians and singers.
The band’s lone female (Kitty Camaro)blew a wicked baritone sax but proved she also had pipes as she sang a sultry, rich version of the song Bang Bang (made famous by Cher). It was almost as if she taunted the audience to come hither but if they did she’d bite their head off. Often the band members would sit or squat on the stage floor without missing a lick.
Besides Kitty, two other scene stealers were Sunny Radford who sang lead on many of the songs and played a pocket trumpet. He wore polyester black checked pants with suspenders, was skinny as a bean pole and for the first couple songs or so wore these corny kids sic fi looking goggles. Trumpeter Lu Badu played the audience by sitting on the stage and leaping about and playing Vegas lounge singer. I LOVE Butt Dial. The rest of Butt Dial consists of Scott Glasgo on trombone, Steve Roberts on bass, Brad Papineau on drums, and Tyson Lynn on guitar/vox.
Preceding Butt Dial was a Bellingham group called The Austerman File. These guys played a real smooth jazzy type ska. They’re the type of band to sit back and relax to, just soaking up their sound. Again, this was a group of highly accomplished musicians with tight knit arrangements where I could hear every instrument, but also hear them blend together in perfect harmonious sound. The Austrian File consists of, Taylor Molzahn-Guitar/Vocals, Cliff Hare-Bass, Todd Templeton-Drums, Aaron Goude-Percussion, Josh Spiegel-Keys, Matt Ambrose-Tenor Sax, Rob Peterka-Bari Sax, Stephen Bailey-Trumpet.
And opening the entire night was a long time favorite of mine, the Skablins. I’ve seen the Skablins many times and I haven’t gotten tired of them yet and I don’t think I ever will. Front man Gordy Whyte is always a bundle of energy, leaping and bouncing all over the stag. Then there’s a sax player who sometimes pretended his sax was a mic and sang backing vocals into it. Bari sax player Heather Beck (and one of the mainstays of the band), blows a very wicked sax while playing the straight person to the zany antics of Gordy. A couple personnel changes have occurred since I saw them back in April, notably drummer Morgan Williams who’s an almost dead ringer of Freddie Mercury. The Skablins ended with their obligatory cover of Hell (more commonly known as The After Life). This is one of two covers they did, the other one being the (godly) Kinks’ Come Dancing. As I said, the Skablins never get old and another night of quality fun ska occurred in Seattle. 4The rest of the Skablins are, Kevin Eyre – Guitar, Backup Vox Anton Beck – Bass Guitar, Ben Curley – Organ, Keys, Backup Vox Patrick Smith-Trumpet Michael Turner Anderson (MTA) – Tenor Sax, Backup Vox Josh Berglund- Trombone, backup Vox.
– Photos by Holly Homan, all rights reserved.
