The weird, effervescent and thoroughly addictive Boba Fett and the Americans at a previous show. Photo from the band’s .
Denver’s summer of music has officially begun. Its debut was heralded last Friday night at first outdoor show, and the venue promises to hold many more throughout the summer. That night the spectacularly comfortable and intimate backyard was host to the first- ever advertised appearance of local marching-band guerillas , as well as a suitably anachronistic, yet uninspiring set by and his .
Boba Fett & the Americans is a marching-band troupe of local musicians that gravitates around a core group that features DeVotchKa’s Shawn King, Everything Absent or Distorted’s Joe Grobelny, drummer Xandy Whitesel, Paper Birds’ Tyler Archuletta and multi-instrumentalist Audrey Marold. The troupe is led by galactic bounty hunter Boba Fett, who spearheads each performance by chanting into a bullhorn, helmet always intact.
Friday nightap roll call included 15 additional musicians, playing trombones, trumpets, drums and glockenspiels, all dressed to the nines in red, white and blue. The group’s usual schtick has been to crash parties, restaurants and shows unannounced, sauntering directly into the fray with their exuberant brand of marching band funk.
Friday night, all 20 musicians entered the Meadowlark’s backyard from the 27th Street gate, gyrating and playing as they infiltrated the crowd and made their way to the area in front of the stage. After a brief regroup, they belted out a fantastically arranged version of Run DMC’s “Itap Tricky,” evoking the feeling of an inner city prep football homecoming, and then played an animated version of the Go-Go’s “We Got the Beat,” all the while bumping, popping and grinding to their flawless marching band sound.
The troupe kidnapped the entire venue with their infectious energy, continuously circulating through the audience throughout their set. While the funky, rhythmic arrangements would seem enough to enrapt any audience, it was being made an integral part of the show that sold this one. When the group left the backyard conga-line-style, the crowd nearly grabbed on and enjoyed the exit along with them.
In the end they stayed to catch Ukelele Loki and his Gadabout Orchestra close the show. Sadly, it might have been better to end the shindig on the Boba Fett high. While Loki’s current collection of musicians is certainly talented, the group’s performance didn’t seem to be enough to lift their thick anachronism above camp. At times expressing a too- acerbic wit, Loki ultimately alienated a shrinking crowd and reduced it to just a small group of early-20th-century-music diehards after the first 20 minutes.
It seems there is a fan base for this style of music in Denver, albeit a small one, based on the number who stayed around Friday night. Loki’s performance with the Gadabout Orchestra, unfortunately, had trouble translating that style into anything overtly daring, or even very exciting, and ended up merely sounding like a period piece, or an old film soundtrack.
Billy Thieme is a Denver-based writer, an old-school punk and a huge follower of Denver’s vibrant local music scene. Follow Billy’s giglist at
