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The ‘Vengers, Boulder’s premier ska group, don’t do much soul searching when it comes to their music. “I think the bottom line is, it’s not an attitude thing,” says bassist/vocalist Chris “Limey” Welsh. “You get a lot of musicians who stand there and say, `Right, we’re technically brilliant. Look at us. Enjoy and appreciate.’ But we just want to get you bouncing up and down in front of us, pretty much.”
The band, which recently changed its name from the Ska Vengers when it was discovered that another outfit had prior claim to the moniker, was formed a little over a year ago when vocalist/rhythm guitarist Jeffrey Haycock wandered into Bicycle Village, a local shop managed by Welsh. The pair quickly discovered mutual interests in both cycling and the peppy Jamaican rhythms that Welsh has loved since his days in Brixton, the area of England where he was raised. A few phone calls later, the band’s nucleus (Welsh, Haycock, lead guitarist Scott “Skoob” Wilson, saxophonist Drew Keene, percussionist Evan Eisentrager and trumpeter Grant “Grande” Rieder) was assembled. “And within, like, ten minutes, we were playing `Rankin Full Stop,’ by the English Beat,” Welsh observes. “We realized that we work well together and we were all doing exactly what we wanted to do.”
This in itself was rather unusual, Welsh believes. “There’s a lot of cases where you get a band together to do all originals or whatever, and everyone ends up playing, like, five songs they hate so they can get to play three songs they like.”
While the group’s members have since proven themselves to be prolific tunesmiths, this was not their initial intent. Rather, they merely wanted to perform the work of past masters, including Madness, the Selecter and the Specials. “But it just took off,” Welsh claims. “It seemed like people wanted ska because there was none in this town. Especially in Boulder, there definitely wasn’t.”
By filling this vacuum, the ‘Vengers guaranteed themselves a busy performance schedule at a wide variety of venues; among their recent gigs was an appearance at the tony Denver Athletic Club. As a result of these demands, Welsh reports, the bandmates sometimes describe finding a balance between the band and other responsibilities as “a pain in the ass.” Wilson, for example, is an entrepreneur and devoted family man whose wife has been known to ground him if he plays more than three shows a week. Similar conflicts have forced Welsh and Haycock to trade off frontman duties on occasion; supplementary players such as trombonist Matt Nichols, a recent Colorado transplant whose resume includes a stint with the Secret Cajun Band, have also been employed.
The ‘Vengers insist that they try to avoid performing without their core members. Wilson believes, however, that their off-stage commitments help them keep the music in perspective. “When you start getting kind of ambitious in your head, or when one or a couple of us start saying, `Ooh, we can go places,’ then it becomes a source of frustration,” he explains. “But then the reality kicks in.
“Nobody really wants to get out on the road right now for nothing,” Wilson adds. Instead, the musicians are focusing on building their local and regional fan base in the hope that their efforts will come to the attention of the appropriate record label when the time and the money are right. They will no doubt be aided in this regard by the late-summer release of their first CD, titled What Happens When I Push This? The disc, which Wilson claims is selling well at local outlets, offers an energetic blend of ska staples and original compositions. In the latter area, the disc’s strongest moment is the Wilson-penned “Baby In’a Belly,” a two-and-a-half-minute ditty that avoids the sometimes stilted social commentary of other ‘Vengers tunes while managing to make pregnancy sound like an absolute blast.
Welsh, the ‘Vengers’ ipso facto spokesperson, sums up the group’s approach best: “Right now, fun is the name of the game. I mean, yeah, we’ll take the money, too. But I don’t think any of us would be doing it just for the money. It’s probably more of a hobby right now, but I think that all of us will definitely keep the option open to go like hell straight into Red Rocks” if the opportunity arises. And since the ‘Vengers have more chops than the menu at Ruth’s Chris Steak House, some day it just might.
