Pampelmoose by Dave Allen of Gang of Four — music . media . web. culture

©Nilina Mason-Campbell

So did Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band live up to the hype when they played the Doug Fir on Tuesday night? Well, if you weren’t there to witness the performance yourself, you can wipe your brow with relief because the quintet most definitely did.

I stepped into the underground venue having heard oh so much about the Seattle-based troupe without actually having heard a single one of their tunes. In other words, I knew to expect a 13 year old drummer and the married couple who adopted him leading the band, but with no clue about his skills or their sound. That was cleared up the second they strode onto stage looking very Von Trapp with coordinated vests and a dress created from upholstery-like material. The musical style? Very dance-able guitar rock – as danceable as you can get without treading into the disco-fied territory of Franz Ferdinand. However talented, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel in terms of music (though not a retread by any means), but they certainly are when it comes to the category of fun.

While the venue was unfortunately rather barren, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band played with all their endearing might as if playing to a sold-out crowd. There were a number of instrumental problems that plagued the beginning of their set, but all were shrugged off with commentary from uber-personable frontman Benjamin Verdoes who dubbed the evening “the fixin’ stuff night.” A shout from a guy in the audience asked if Verdoes could fix his life. I think the group’s set pretty much fulfilled that request, but you’d have to ask him. For me, at least, it did, for I was spinning and dancing around without a care in my head until the final song of their two-tune encore.

At times it was almost unnerving just how much of a focal point 13 year old drummer Marshall Verdoes is for them (without having any vocal duties as is usually the case in garnering attention) and he never seemed particularly enthused to be, but for how fierce his drumming is, it’s understandable. I only hope his age doesn’t morph from initial talking point into being a gimmick, because the group has enough going for them regardless of membership ages and relations to need it as a ploy. Plus they’ve already got something super cute in multi-instrumentalist Traci Eggleston-Verdoes and anything she does, whether it be climbing across the drum-kit or holding a drum for a bandmate to bounce tennis balls off of for additional percussion. And with their energy? It totally doesn’t seem like a shtick. There’s not a drop of insincerity, just energized fun that reaches from the stage to the crowd.

The group has been riding a steady wave of press well before playing their first performance. That can either spell really bad things such as coming up short or spell really good things, like in Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band’s case: W-E-L-L W-O-R-T-H T-H-E H-Y-P-E.

Mt St Helens Vietnam Band – Dull Reason