Hour Gang

If the members of Denver’s Eleventh Hour appear to be suffering from an identity crisis, you can hardly blame them. According to Howard Bridges II, drummer for the youthful combo–which also includes lead vocalist/guitarist Shane Ewegen, bassist/ vocalist Brian Long and self-proclaimed djembe “intern” Nathan Frank–the people who attend the band’s live performances often don’t know what to make of them. “At some of the punk shows we play, they’re like, ‘Speed it up,'” he says. “And at the cafe shows we play, they’re like, ‘Turn it down.'”

Therefore, concludes Ewegen, “We pretty much just play really loud and really fast every time.” But this approach doesn’t always work, either. In Ewegen’s estimation, “We’re sort of between scenes right now.” Although the players find that some bills suit them better than others, he acknowledges, “I don’t really think we fit in at all. There’s a lot of punk rockers who don’t like us at all and a lot of other people who do.”

In describing the latter camp, Bridges states that the group’s diehard followers are people “exactly like us,” in that they appreciate every type of music imaginable and aren’t afraid to wear their loyalties on their sleeves. Adds Ewegen, “They’re the kind of people who’ve got, like, their Docs on. Plus some polyester, a reggae shirt and a daisy somewhere, or whatever. Pretty much it’s the people who don’t really care what other people stereotype them as, I suppose.”

A question about the group’s sound prompts a similarly opaque explanation. Notes Bridges, “I don’t think we started playing music so that we could be a certain type of band.” Rather, he opines, “I think I would describe our music as a variety of spaghetti, with mozzarella sauce, meatballs, mushrooms, cucumbers and everything in one bowl.”

The Eleventh Hour menu also includes a heaping helping of non-sequitur tempo and stylistic changes, along with group yelling, apparently random stops and starts and some surprisingly effective rhythmic breaks sprinkled with Frank’s djembe. When asked what possessed them to add Frank to the act, Ewegen replies that the motivation was “definitely drugs.” More seriously, Bridges explains, “We’re really rhythmically oriented. But I can’t do it all myself. And it sounds really good when Nate jumps in there with the djembe.” This approach is especially effective on numbers such as “Burrito Song” and “Cheeseman O’Briane,” a sort of rap-in-progress that had no title until the bandmembers were forced to supply one for purposes of this article.

The group’s lineup has remained fairly stable over the last two years. The performers got together at East High School, an institution from which Long is the only Eleventh Hour graduate to date. Soon, the outfit (named after Ewegen heard a friend’s father deliver an admonition against completing Spanish homework at the “eleventh hour”) was appearing at such choice concerts as a Boy Scouts of America-sponsored battle of the bands competition held at Lowry Air Force Base. Ewegen insists that the crowd “liked us better than the other band. But the other band won because the judges were biased–they were the parents of the band.”

“But we still got, like, free studio time,” Bridges reports, “so it turned out pretty cool.”

Indeed, Eleventh Hour is now in the midst of recording its second album, a cassette project that the group hopes to release by July. After that, the bandmates plan to tour regionally before returning home to begin college or careers. Such steps will be big ones for these fledgling musicians; after all, the only bandmate who’s left the parental nest is bassist Long, who supports himself with a job at Einstein Bagels. Bridges may be a natural for a similar position given the rapidity with which similes about edibles spring from his lips. “It’s like cooking,” he says about Eleventh Hour’s creative process. “Like, Shane will go, ‘Hey, I’ve got this piece of meat here.’ And Brian will go, ‘Well, why don’t we try some pepper on it and put it in the frying pan?'”

With graduation, will Eleventh Hour move from the frying pan to the fire? Ewegen isn’t certain, but he admits, “It’s a good thing most of us live at home and don’t need to buy food.”

Eleventh Hour. 10 a.m. Sunday, June 2, People’s Fair, Silver Bullet Stage, 14th and Broadway, free.