Ballyhoo! Worth Their Spot on the Map
by Tim Wenger
I read an article recently, I forget where, that said something to the effect of ‘most bands aren’t worth the space they take up on our nation’s highways.’ They go about the business aspect wrong, don’t put enough effort into their live performances, don’t have a solid merch line, etc. etc. Bottom line was, they were destined to fail. I agreed, and immediately started thinking about the bands I know of that are making good on their image and seem to be worth the fossil fuels and used fryer oil they burn through roaming from town to town.
One of the groups that immediately came to mind was Aberdeen, Maryland’s Ballyhoo!, whom I met and saw for the first time on the 311 Caribbean Cruise in May of 2012 and have been (at the risk of sounding like a stalker) avidly following on Facebook ever since. I sat with them prior to one of their cruise ship gigs that week and asked the same questions I ask most bands when interviewing them for the first time. But their answers were better than most- I could tell right away that these guys aren’t just dreamers they are doers, taking their dreams from the point of imagination and laying them out into a professional, goal-oriented plan that they have been putting into action over the course of nearly eight years of constant touring.
Then I watched them play and was blown away. It’s reggae-rock with a heavy emphasis on the rock, giving them an edge and an appeal far beyond the reigns of the genre’s mellow, stoner-friendly roots. They came through Denver on their Winter Brew-Ha-Ha tour with Passafire and Pacific Dub for a stop at the Gothic Theatre this week and I jumped at the opportunity to do a follow-up story and hear about their continued life on the road.
“2012 really kicked off a big year for us,” said front man and guitarist Howi Spangler. “Our record Daydreams had just come out. We did the 311 cruise, and then we did Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey. We did that and then we did the Warped Tour that summer. It was very brutal. It’s dirty, it’s hot, it’s gross, but it’s a great experience. I think every band should do it. If you can survive Warped Tour you can survive any tour.”
Those big name events increased the sales of their record and the size of their following. “Then last year, for the winter tour, we went out and headlined,” said Spangler. “We hadn’t headlined in over a year, and we started seeing a lot more ticket sales and people coming to the shows. We knew that that was a result of all the work we’d done the year before.”
Ballyhoo!’s fan base has not stopped growing. As of pre-show Saturday, the band had sold out six shows on the current tour and had solid crowds each night. Sales of their music online have remained steady as well. “It’s been good,” said Spangler. “People are buying the record and the songs every day.”
Being in a band that tours for a living means being able to separate yourself from home life and remain sane, cutting ties with anything (and anybody) that holds you back. “We’ve been touring for eight years,” said Spangler. “We started the band in ’95 and put our first record out in 2000. Then there was this really weird period between 2000 and 2006 where we started playing some bigger shows in the area, and then it just seemed to taper off in 2002.”
Spangler and the rest of the band had to regroup and figure out where they wanted to go, if anywhere. “We were in this weird stage, like ‘What are we doing?’ We didn’t have a van or a trailer. We finally realized, ‘All right, look, are we doing this or are we not doing this?’”
In 2005, Ballyhoo! did a small tour to the Carolinas with some friends and got a taste of their dream, enough to whet their appetite for more. “Nobody showed up, but it was fun,” laughs Spangler. “We got back and were like, ‘Let’s keep doing this.’ We got a van and a trailer ourselves. We left in April of 2006, the first show was at The Agora in Cleveland, Ohio. We took off from there and haven’t looked back.”
They played shows around the country, and were hooked on the lifestyle. “At that point, I didn’t care about missing home,” says Spangler. “I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’” He know has a son, which makes it much harder to leave, but the band is making a living. “It’s all been worth it. It’s not like we’re out here just fucking off, we’re actually making money and sending money home to pay bills.”
Ballyhoo! took a few weeks off from the road to make their latest album, Pineapple Grenade, in January 0f 2013. The band put the record together in three weeks, following a year and a half of constant touring with little to no downtime. “I was a little stressed out because I didn’t have a whole lot of lyrics going in,” said Spangler. “I felt like I never really had any time to sit down by myself and write, I had written some parts of songs on Warped Tour.” The band spent nearly a week in pre-production, arranging the songs and getting them ready to go, before the recording process began. “Halfway through I felt like we weren’t going to have an album, and we had to leave for tour after at the end of this.” They got it done, however, and hit the road with the new record forthcoming.
The band looks to be back in the Mile High City soon. In the meantime, grab Pineapple Grenade here- http://smarturl.it/PineappleGrenade
Online: facebook.com/ballyhoo
Category: National News
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