Local musicians Dyllon Drake and Dugan Frase are stuck with each other. That’s OK with them. Guitar player Drake and drummer Frase met a decade ago, when both were playing in the band Reverend Catfish. Since the two have played with numerous local musicians in various iterations of bands, but if you ask Drake to play and a drummer is needed, Frase is there.
“Every time I’ve needed a drummer, he’s been the guy,” Drake said. “That’s just how its going to be.”
Their most recent band is the guitar-heavy rock band 100 Year Flood, a quintet who in addition to Drake and Frase are guitar player Jeremiah Scott, bass player Ben Baldwin and vocalist Keliana Sherman.
100 Year Flood’s next show is Saturday at Gazpacho in downtown Durango.
If you go
WHAT: Rock music with 100 Year Flood
WHEN: 5 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: Gazpacho, 431 East Second Ave.
TICKETS: No cover.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.facebook.com/100yearflood.
The band came together via the now defunct venue Balcony Backstage, when both Drake and Frase were recruited to play.
“They needed a band to play for the night, and we got a few of our friends together. We needed a quick name, and we came up with 100 Year Flood,” Drake said. “Years later we had the crew that we are now, we slapped the name on it, and here we are.”
What this band wants to do is play. Whether on stage in front of an audience or in the rehearsal space for practice, they not only play to get better, they do so because it’s therapeutic, it’s entertaining and it’s fun.
“The band was born out of necessity,” Frase said. “We always really wanted to play, we just wanted to get out. We got the current lineup up and it was during the pandemic, and again out of necessity we needed to get out and play, to kill the boredom, all of that.”
They’re a straight-up rock band, a group that can bang out tunes that are quick and punchy, or stretch a tune out with an extended guitar solo; while theirs is a sound that would be filed under the “modern-rock” realm, there’s a throwback vibe to 1970s-era AOR (album-oriented-rock) offerings.
Currently, 100 Year Flood has two songs in rotation via streaming services: “Desert Reign” is a cut with big guitar riffs and a Thin Lizzy-inspired vibe that also features Sherman’s aggressive vocals, while “Space Through the Open Door” stretches out to just under seven minutes. It’s a psychedelic wanderer that is drifting and mysterious, a tune that starts somewhat quiet and reserved, ultimately closing with a big stretch of guitar theatrics; with two guitar players, they are self-described as a “guitar-based band.”
“It’s old-school – one guy cranking the rhythm in the back, the other guy forward soloing away like you’d hear on typical AC/DC or something like that,” Drake said. “But really, it’s cool with two guitars, it adds so much more, you can cover a little bit more sonic ground.”
While the two originals are currently the only offerings the band has for at-home listening, there are loose plans for 100 Year Flood to get back into the studio.
“Everybody has a vision on what we want to do in our heads, of course, and hopefully here pretty soon I think we’re going to get back into recording. We did a few tracks at Scooter’s Place a long time ago, and we do stuff at Conscious Roots Productions in Flora Vista, New Mexico, so yeah, sometime in the near future,” Frase said. “We’ve got a lot of originals that we’ve been puttering around for some time, but its time to get those on wax.”
In addition to the Gazpacho show, 100 Year Flood will play July 4 at The Balcony.
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
