The Falcon   |   Volume 81, Issue 26

Published 6/02/10   |   Log In

A group not easy to ignore

Friends and Family energize the stage on Friday night at the Q Cafe following performances by Be Honest, Ruth Bryan! and John Leckenby.
Photo credit: HALEY WILLIAMS/The Falcon.

Musicians, friends create new sounds for local audience

By DUSTY HENRY, Features Editor

Published: May 26, 2010

As 80s rock blared over the speakers at Q Cafe on Friday night, the seven members of Friends and Family jogged onto stage wearing matching blue Everett soccer track jackets, short-shorts and knee high socks, grabbing their instruments to ready their performance.

"We do what we do in normal life," said Kevin Engle, bass player and SPU alumnus.

Friends and Family, which has existed for a year and 20 days as of Friday, is a seven piece band based out of SPU. Over 60 people attended the show, most of which were Seattle Pacific students. The band's eccentric nature comes out in a genre of music that Engle described as "cluster-folk."

A French horn, a violin, a trumpet, two partial drum sets and an accordion play alongside the usual rock outfit of bass, guitar, keys and vocals in the band.

The sound ventures on the dramatics of The Polyphonic Spree but with a sound similar to David Bowie teaming up with Arcade Fire as his musical, super hero sidekick.

Their music has larger than life sounds, as if it were some sort of indie rock misfit orchestra. As the sound grew louder, the music became more intricate with marching band-like horn parts and bright violin lines.

The band is the brainchild of guitarist and lead vocalist junior Ben Rowe. Rowe started the project after playing in the bands Marathon, The Flaw and The Prophet. There, he met Engle and drummer Noah Dahlstrom, an SPU alumnus. After the bands split up, Rowe started to do solo music but was more determined to start another band.

"It was important for me to be playing with a lot of people than by myself," Rowe said.

Rowe recruited people for the group over time. The band's name describes the group; the people that ended up being in the band were all friends of Rowe. The group is constantly growing and taking on new shapes.

"We picked friends to be in the band that just happened to play instruments," said sophomore Holly Dahlstrom, violinist for the band.

Holly Dahlstrom was first asked to join Friends and Family when Rowe saw her tap dancing in Hill Hall. Subsequently, he asked her to play a show with him. During their live performances, Holly Dahlstrom stands on a wood platform and uses her tap dancing as percussion while she plays her violin.

Rowe described the band as having showmanship with their performance. He wants the show to be an experience for the audience, he said. The number of people in the band is crucial to that cause, he added.

"I think it is really important because there's two billion bands out there," Rowe said. "We stand out visually ... We're hard to not look at."

On Friday night, the band definitely stuck by Rowe's sentiment. The performance was full of eccentric dancing. Ben Lewis, drummer and former SPU student, stuck a plunger to his stomach at one point.

Trying to arrange schedules for practice with seven people can have its difficulties. The band has never actually been in the same room at once, Engle said.

"Because we're friends first, we've been accommodating to (schedules)," said junior Nate Rogers, keyboardist and accordionist.

During each show, the band tries to have a costume theme. For the show on Friday, it was the tracksuits. For their first show last year, also at the Q Cafe, they all wore costumes with a flower theme.

The band has played nine shows since their incarnation. There is rumor that the band will do a West Coast tour late this summer, but nothing is confirmed yet, Rowe said.

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