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The ladies take the stage this weekend
Bryant's best
Saturday: Jaki and the Joysticks play rock ’n’ roll, 10 p.m., Moe’s Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave., 259-9018.
Wednesday: Brooklyn bluegrass with the 5 Deadly Venoms, 9:30 p.m., Summit, $5. 600 Main Avenue upstairs, 247-2324.
When I moved here 13 years ago, the guitar-angst-pop-rock landscape resembled the area south of Bloomfield: barren.
Sure, we had the great Smut Vendor, Super Bee and a few more acts that floated around. But as of right now, there are more bands playing the indie-guitar-driven rock of my youth than ever before.
Some of these bands are fronted by ladies, too, which gives you a dose of female-fronted rock 'n' roll that is far from the standard folkie-gal-with-a-guitar-yawn-fest. One of those bands is Jaki and the Joysticks, fronted by Tracy Ford (presumably Jaki) on guitar and vocals and featuring her husband, Jon Ford, on drums, Kelly Rogers on guitar and Brian Arens on bass.
Jaki and the Joysticks started out three years ago as Pinhead. It played a bunch of shows as a three-piece band before Rogers joined.
It continued to play shows, including some great three-band bills along with the Freeman Social and the Lawn Chair Kings.
Then came what has happened to thousands of bands: It discovered there was another band with its name. I've said it before, if you're going to form a band, Google the "great" name you've thought of. It is probably already taken. So move on.
The rock quartet recently finished recording its debut CD at Animix Studios in Hermosa with Doug Joyce.
"It took longer to record that CD than it should have," said Tracy Ford. "These songs are old to me now; we're moving on, we've got more albums to make."
In addition to more albums to make, the band has more shows to play, including Saturday night at Moe's Starlight Lounge, and a bill with the Lawn Chair Kings on July 4th at the Summit.
Saturday night's show at Moe's is the first time it has played the venue. It will be doing more of an acoustic show with a scaled down sound system.
Acoustic, however, doesn't mean yawn-town. The band assures something in the rock vein. It also will be playing some new music.
Tracy Ford is writing constantly, and now is moving in a different direction for developing the songs.
"I'm trying to experiment with writing lyrics down and bringing it to the band, letting the band come out with something, and we put the vocal on top of that," she said. "When I write with the guitar, the vocals end up being melodic with the rhythm of my strum and that's boring to me; I'm tired of that."
It's also moving into a more dance friendly (two-step, individual wriggling or slam) direction, while remaining a rock 'n' roll quartet.
"We are doing some more dancy stuff," she said. "My goal is that when we play, people dance and have fun. That's the goal for playing out."
Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
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