Deep Banana Blackout

Thursday, Oct. 4; the Gargoyle (Washington University)

Comments (0) By Lee Abraham Wednesday, Oct 3 2001

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Gurgling bass lines pulse a thumping rumble of funk as dancers wiggle and twist under a spinning rainbow of colors. Kicking out one tipsy, party-naked groove after another, the horn section slips and slides with the relentless rhythm of a porn star on Viagra. It's nothing new. Smiling wide behind dark sunglasses, the bandleader simply known as Fuzz shreds acid-soaked guitar licks while looking out over the crowd, clearly amused at the sonic boinkfest he's seen so many times before.Headquartered in Connecticut, Deep Banana Blackout has been tearing up the east coast since the mid '90s; more recently, they've been working on cultivating a national fan base, doing cross-country tours. The band's recorded debut, Live in the Thousand Islands, and double-CD live followup, Rowdy Duty, have sold a combined total of over 20,000 copies, an impressive feat for an independent band. Those stats caught the attention of Allman Brothers drummer and Flying Frogs Records founder, Butch Trucks, who signed DBB to his record label. Trucks wasn't the only major artist listening: Jazz guitar great John Scofield was so impressed with DBB's drummer Eric Kalb and percussionist Johnny Durkin that he enlisted them to play on his critically acclaimed Verve release, Bump. After lineup changes last year brought multi-instrumentalists Hope Clayburn and B. Smith into the band, DBB released Feel The Peel, a masterful studio album produced by legendary engineering guru Tom Dowd.