About the band:
The Ben Miller Band, a Springfield-Joplin based three-piece, sounds exactly what I want an Ozarks folk band to sound like — loud, dirty, but smart and beautiful at times. Listen to their songs “Jagerbomb Song” and “No War in Heaven” back-to-back and you’ll know what I mean. But I think the band describes their sound best on their MySpace page: “We call it Ozark Stomp. A mix of old style blues with bluegrass, zydeco, folk, hip-hop with a driving beat. The hip-hop portion usually only comes out at the live shows.” The guys quit their day jobs three years ago and now they play live five nights a week. You can see them on Friday night at Patton Alley Pub with the Chicago band Sexfist.
About the show:
Ben Miller Band with special guest Sexfist
When: Friday, May 15, 9 p.m.
Where: Patton Alley Pub
Interview (with multi-instrumentalist Doug Dicharry):
It sounds like the beginning of your “Jagerbomb Song” was recorded at a party. Someone keeps yelling, “Doug is f***ed up…look at him!” over and over again. What’s the story behind that?
Doug Dicharry: (laughs) Well, Ben Miller and I use to live together and we had recording equipment. If we had after parties at our house, we would set up the recording equipment and just not tell anybody. And in this particular instance, we’re just sitting around having a few beers…not really wasted or drunk or anything. And Ben’s girlfriend’s brother comes into the house and he’s completely wasted. He has in his drunk mind that I’m f***ed up. So for some reason he just says it over and over and over again. It’s hilarious (laughs).
What’s going on at the end of the song?
DD: It sounds like someone smacking something?
Yeah.
DD: It’s not our most shining moment (laughs). When we got really drunk, we developed this game called “test the motorcycle helmet.” Ben was wasted so we tested it on him. We, uh, put the motorcycle helmet on him and hit him in the head with a hammer.
You guys have a really unique sound. Do you know of any other bands that sound anything like the Ben Miller Band?
DD: There’s been a few bands that I can kind of relate us to. Like Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band kind of has that bluesy dance-y feel to them. There’s a band out of Austin, Texas called the Sideshow Tramps and they’re kind of similar. All three of us are unique.
How would you describe a typical Ben Miller Band show to someone who hasn’t seen you before?
DD: That’s tough. It’s fun. I just tell people, if anything, you’re going to have a good time. Most everything is really dance-y. We have lots of different feelings throughout the show. We’ve got slow pretty songs, dance-y ones, and spooky songs. I guess we have a little ADD. We don’t like to stick with one sound.
Most musicians in Springfield have a day job and play music on the side. But you guys don’t do that, right?
DD: We all did for a while. Ben was working at Wal-Mart. I was waiting tables and doing a little bit of everything. We were just doing (music) when we could. Ben got to the point where he could just do open mic nights and support himself. Then we started playing with him and started booking shows. We booked so many shows nobody had enough time to have another job.
What’s your favorite thing to do in Springfield when you guys are all here for a show?
DD: I love to ride my bike on the Greenway Trail. When the guys come to town we like to check out the music shops. We usually go check out our buddy Dave at High Strung. Hoover is another one. The other thing we like to do before the shows is eat. Springfield has some great restaurants.
What are your favorite restaurants here?
DD: All three of us are hooked on Grad School. We get the mushroom steak sandwich with tilapia spinach salad. Another one is Thai House. We love Thai food. And Big Momma’s on Commercial Street. Those would have to be my top three.
Anything else you want to say?
DD: We’ve been trying to get this double disc CD out for like a year. It looks like it’s almost actually going to happen. So in the next couple months we should have a double disc coming out with all original songs.
