Fox Street All Stars Bring the tour back home with series of local gigs
:: Fox Street All Stars ::
:: Frozen Dead Guy Days :: March 3 :: (7 p.m.)
:: First Street Pub & Grill :: March 3 :: (10 p.m.)
:: Pete’s Monkey Bar :: March 16 and 17 ::
:: Stoney’s Bar and Grill :: March 30 ::
By Timothy Dwenger
There is a relatively unique dilemma that befalls local bands as they begin to grow and attract fans outside of their home market. They are forced to decide how much is too much. In other words, they need to make some educated decisions about how many shows to play at home to ensure they keep their local fan base interested in what they are doing, without playing too many local gigs. It’s a double edged sword as the band needs to be sure they keep their hometown fans happy, while still ensuring enough people turn out to see them each time they play. This is the situation that Denver’s own funky rock and soul band, Fox Street All Stars, finds itself in these days.
Over the past year-and-a-half, Fox Street has found themselves in the enviable position of being able to hit the road with one of their favorite bands, The New Mastersounds. For three tours now, they have had the privilege of opening for England’s funkiest foursome as they have toured through the Rocky Mountains, out to the West Coast, and from Austin to Boston, gathering new fans at every stop. While there have been challenges, the experience of being on the road with such seasoned and talented musicians has been invaluable to the Denver boys.
As they work to build a fan base outside of Colorado, Fox Street is starting to be a little more selective about the shows they play here in Denver. “We kinda have to be careful and not over saturate the market around here,” said guitarist James Dumm during a recent interview with The Marquee as the band was getting ready to hit the road for a brief ski resort tour. “We don’t want to be one of those bands who are playing all over town for no one all the time. We want to make it a little more of an event for the people who do actually follow the band and are into it,” Dumm said. “We want to make it something exciting for them to do as opposed to, ‘Oh we could go see Fox Street on Tuesday here, or Thursday here, or Sunday here.’”
While it may be a tough tightrope to walk at times, this transition is coming at a good time for Fox Street as they begin to seriously dig in and work on recording the follow-up to their debut record Welcome To Mighty Pleasin.’ “We are hoping to get a few more songs finished up while we are out on the road this time,” Dumm said. “I’d say we’ve got five or six that are planned to be recorded, and then we have a bunch of other ideas that we need to buckle down and finish.”
While Mighty Pleasin’ had a hard edged, funky, classic rock kind of feeling to it, it sounds like their next album is poised to reveal a little more of the band’s mellower side that they only teased at on the first album with “Angel Wings.” “While they aren’t ‘prog’ in any sense, some of the songs are a little more dynamic. I think this next record is going to have some slower, more mellow material on it,” said Dumm, before reassuring fans of their raw, funky sound by saying, “Don’t get me wrong, we want the funky and rockin’ tunes on there as well.”
In fact, it’s possible that some of Fox Street’s long time fans may well have heard a few of these ‘new’ songs in years past. “We played some of the songs that are going to go on this next record at the Mighty Pleasin’ release party,” Dumm admitted. “Some of them started back during that time and then words were changed or they were taken out of rotation, or even completely overhauled.”
Though they have only played a few shows around the state since the New Year, the band is ramping up for a series of shows in March that lead up to a high profile opening slot for Little Feat in Utah. They will kick things off with a pair of shows at Frozen Dead Guy Days up in Nederland, come down to Denver for a two night post-Galactic stand at Pete’s Monkey Bar, and head out to Steamboat for two nights at The Tugboat. When all is said and done, the Fox Street boys will celebrate the end of a month of area shows by participating in the 2nd Annual Revenge Of The 90’s Party at Stoney’s.
While they are excited for all these shows, it’s the sit-in heavy Galactic after-show parties that Dumm really seemed to be looking forward to the most. Fox Street has hosted the wild late night jam sessions for the last four years and each year things seem to get a little more hectic up on the stage. Galactic drummer Stanton Moore has made appearances from the beginning and last year, Joey Porter, Lyrics Born, and Tony Hall all joined the band on stage as Fox Street rocked Pete’s into the wee hours of the morning. “This year we are trying to get the sit-ins coordinated a little bit more and make it a bit more of an actual thing, rather than just having them jump up there and jam,” Dumm said. While Stanton Moore is pretty much a shoe-in, with folks like Corey Glover, DJ Logic, and Corey Henry on the bill with Galactic this year, you never know who else might turn up at Pete’s and help funk the place up a bit!
:: Fox Street All Stars ::
:: Frozen Dead Guy Days :: March 3 :: (7 p.m.)
:: First Street Pub & Grill :: March 3 :: (10 p.m.)
:: Pete’s Monkey Bar :: March 16 and 17 ::
:: Stoney’s Bar and Grill :: March 30 ::
Recommended if you Like:
• Gov’t Mule
• Doyle Bramhall II
• North Mississippi Allstars
