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Margaret Hair

Margaret Hair's column appears Fridays in the 4 Points arts and entertainment section in the Steamboat Today. Contact her at 871-4204 or e-mail mhair@steamboatpilot.com.

The following are my recent favorite ways a band has expressed the sheer power its Steamboat Springs performance will pack.

All responses were baited with the lead-in question, "What can people expect from your show?" Most are preserved from their original form, without any of the editing for space or sense-making that might have appeared in preview articles about each band:

¤ Hazel Miller, Denver blues singer, about her upcoming Saturday concert to benefit Come, Let's Dance: "It'll be what me and the guys call an extreme dance party. If we don't get 'em up and get 'em moving, then why bother, because it ain't brain surgery."

¤ Felix Pastorius, bassist for The Heavy Pets, about the jam band's upcoming Tuesday show at the Old Town Pub: "All these guys are amazing musicians, and I'm a rock star, and it's going to be a great show."

¤ Eddie Roberts, guitarist and frontman for United Kingdom funk band The New Mastersounds: "If they like funk and they like dancing and they like having a good party then we're the perfect band for them, basically. If they're not into that, it's probably not the right thing to come to."

¤ Josh Peyton, lead singer and guitarist for country blues group The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band: "Well, I mean, basically it's like this. We believe that as far as our show is concerned, as far as what we believe as far as this goes, if people want to just hear music, they can listen to a record. For us, I like to tell stories, and we like to have people sing along, and we like to make it a show. It's more than just about the music, it's about the experience people get from it. : It's a whole experience, so we like to give people a show."

¤ Tommy Benedetti, drummer for reggae group John Brown's Body: "They can definitely expect some high-energy vibes. We've been off the road for like six weeks, so we have a lot of energy pent up and ready to unleash on Colorado and parts beyond."

¤ Alex Toth, trumpet player for the Afro-beat party band Rubblebucket Orchestra: "Our guitar player, he had a really nice metaphor. I'm the band leader and the main kind of composer, and he had a really cool metaphor for what we're doing. It's like if the show is a big wild party, you're at this wild party, and you're dancing, and occasionally there's a really cool painting at the party, and people are like, 'Whoa, look at that.'"

I used to ask a similarly canned closing question: "In five words or less, what would you say about this show to make people come?" Too many people went for the obvious, cliched and wildly untrue answer: "It will change your life." One band went for "You will get good grades."

Having questions planned ahead of time is - at least for interviewing musicians - an invitation for hyperbole.

- To reach Margaret Hair, call 871-4204 or e-mail mhair@steamboatpilot.com