Hang around Durango long enough and you’ll likely meet someone who has moved here from Wisconsin. People move to Durango from all over the country for the obvious reasons – which is anything but the cost of living – but aside from the states that border Colorado, it feels like you’ll meet more people from Wisconsin than Florida or Ohio. While certainly debatable, what isn’t is the fact that people come to Colorado, feel a certain kinship and if they don’t move here, they find a way to get here often.
That goes for bands as well, as there are many musicians who have found some success here in the Centennial State, which includes Wisconsin’s Armchair Boogie.
Armchair Boogie will make their Durango debut Dec. 4, when they perform at the Animas City Theatre. Opening the show is Lavalanche.
If you go
WHAT: Armchair Boogie plays bluegrass and jam, opening is Lavalanche.
WHEN: 7 p.m. Dec. 4.
WHERE: Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive.
TICKETS: $28.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.animascitytheatre.com.
While it is their local debut, Armchair Boogie has played KSUT’s festivals that bookend summer in Pagosa Springs in 2022 and 2023, laying down musical roots and solidifying friendships.
“Colorado most certainly is our second home,” said Augie Dougherty, Armchair Boogie’s banjo player. “We play in Colorado as much as we play Wisconsin. I would venture to believe that anybody who is listening right now probably has a friend in Colorado that is from Wisconsin.”
The band, who in addition to Dougherty are Ben Majeska on guitar and vocals, Eli Frieders on bass, and Denzel Connor on drums, is proudly from the Badger State, forming a decade ago at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, then moving to Madison post college. Not a band that thinks they need to be in Austin, Texas, or Nashville, Tennessee, to find success, they’re doing just fine in Wisconsin. It’s a solid home base with a sturdy studio in Lunar Lava Audio in Fort Atkinson, the place that has recorded all their records, including this year’s “Hard Times and Deadlines.”
“We recorded in a few basements and that’s not always the best. The space has to be nice; to me, as I get older, I realize how much energy is important to the creation of the music,” Dougherty said. “So there has to be great energy in the room, and also just having really good equipment, and knowledgeable people around you.”
Bands like Armchair Boogie are hard to categorize. “Jam band” often serves as a catchall for a group that strays from genre to genre, which they sometimes do. They’re fine with being categorized as a band that can’t be categorized.
“We talk a lot about that,” Dougherty said. “What is the genre? We can look to the great forefathers of the newgrass scene such as Sam Bush; the genre that I like to say is newgrass, that’s the most appropriate. It’s bluegrass with just a little bit of modern touch to it. I’m not a staunch genre labeler, that’s what I go with, and it feels really good. We would put ourselves in there with Newgrass Revival, and Leftover Salmon, stuff like that.”
If you did have to label them, perhaps look at their set list, as it’s loaded with their originals that are sometimes twangy, sometimes funky, mixed in with covers that could be from the indie, modern or classic rock world. Band members are also first and foremost music lovers, and that’s reflected in what comes from the stage.
“What makes a band really stand out? It’s those things you can’t put your finger on, like when all the members are unique and bring their own cool, unique thing to the table and that creates the sound,” Dougherty said. “I know that Armchair Boogie has that unique sound because we all come from different backgrounds, we like different genres and whatnot, so we make the music that we make.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
