Great Music at Grind

text and pictures by Dave Lieben

Last Saturday's Monthly Grind at the Saxman Tribal House didn't feature any comedy skits, but it did feature five great musical acts.

The show was hosted by Ketchikan City Council member Steve Williams, who mentioned that he used to give tours of the Tribal House to tourists. During stage changes, he told the audience interesting facts about the Tribal House.

First up were the Sound Waves jazz club. They consist mostly of 7th, 8th and 9th grade students. Their selections included the Weather Report classic Birdland, as well as Santana's Evil Ways. The members include Kateri Somrak, Kate Cessnun, Sonia Christensen, Kathryn Brooks, James Kelly, Theresa Somrak, Nate Norton, Tyler Woodell, Ben Rosenfeld, Eric Kuehl, Allison Neterer, Krysta Smestad, Megan Cessnun, Katie Cronk, Brian deBourguignon, Kyle Bailey, Jesse LeBeau, Sam Pitcher, Brian Vreeland, Lane Davis, Jeff Owings, Kevin Mackey, Sean Hovik, Devin Hahne, Kayla Luhrs, Clay Hanson, Archie Inoncillo, Nelson Hays, Sean Thrush, and Ashley Nelson. They were directed by Roy McPherson.

Jon Stack was next. As with last year, he mentioned who the artist was that recorded each of the songs, except for the one by Indigo Girls. Last year he performed Amy's Three Hits, this year he performed Emily's Closer to Fine. He had the crowd in stiches with a song about the latest Star Wars movie, sung to the tune of American Pie.

Australian-born Greg Thomas was next, he accompanied himself on acoustic guitar on some original songs, including an excellent "political" song written about East Timor before it became infamous.

After the ever-popular intermission, Otter Limits performed. The group was joined by South Pacific's "Emile DeBeque," played by Dave Rubin. Other members included Mary Larsen, Don Pennington, Terry O'Hara, Tom LeCompte and Bill Anthes. The group ended with a great version of Woody Guthrie's Do Re Mi, including a verse about tourists written by Larsen.

For this reporter, the highlight of the night was the "eclectic jazz" of Lush Life. While most of their "eclecticity", if you will, might come from their horn-bass-drums instrumentation, they turned in a great set, including Thelonious Monk's Well, You Needn't. The band consists of Dave Kiffer on saxophone and clarinet, Bob Blum on electric bass and Kim Kleinschmidt on drums and percussion. They will be performing at the New Year's Eve Celebration on, uh, New Year's Eve. [Best of Kanoe update: "Eclectic" wasn't the word I was looking for, but I'm not sure what word I was looking for. -Ed.]

The next Monthly Grind will be on Saturday, December 18th.