Three Laramie bands to showcase tonight

Written by Andrew Call

Thursday, 19 February 2009 18:16

The bands St. Olas, Another Dream Band and Hawking Takes the Stairs will take turns sharing their music tonight at 7:30 at the Grounds Internet and Coffee Lounge, 171 N 3rd St. This is the first time the three bands have played together.

St. Olas recently recruited its youngest two members and began playing for the Laramie crowds.

“Will and I have been playing since ’95 and then we moved away for a while,” Kelly Farris, singer and guitarist for St. Olas, said of himself and drummer Will Plumb. “We convened as St. Olas in 2007, doing two-man shows for a bit, and later on we picked up Joel and Chelsea.”

St. Olas became what it is today with the addition of Chelsea Williams on the bass and Joel Luben playing the keyboard and providing vocals.

Farris had trouble categorizing the style of music he and his band mates play, putting their sound somewhere along the lines of soulful punk rock. “I really have no idea,” he said with a chuckle. Some of the band’s musical influences include The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and Ween.

“We just really started getting some shows together,” Farris said. “I don’t think any of us have any illusions of making it big, we’ve all got our own lives, we just enjoy making the music. It’s fun to get up there and play.”

Another Dream Band’s Peter Blomberg shared Farris’ incentive. “We all really love the band and love playing, but it’s just hard when you’re so far apart,” Blomberg said.

The band’s bassist Caleb Blomberg currently lives in Greeley, Wyo., and the drummer Mathew Thomason lives in Denver, Colo.

With musical influences like Thrice, As Cities Burn and Anberlin, Another Dream Band claims their music comes with a little extra kick.

“I tell people it’s aggressive rock,” Blomberg said. “I grew up with some pretty heavy stuff, and our music has some punch to it.”

Blomberg and his brother got their start at a school-sponsored battle of the bands in the fall of 2003, quickly putting together a band to enter into the contest. “It went all right,” Blomberg said. “We did some shows after that and switched around some members. In the summer of ’04 we got our drummer.” The band has stuck together since then, playing around Wyoming and working on a CD that they hope to release next summer.

Rounding out the band trio will be Hawking Takes the Stairs, a group of Laramie musicians who put their music in the rock/funk/lounge category.

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