Kyle "Curly Back" Boe
b. 20 Apr. 1984
Instruments: Fiddle - Guitar - Vocals
Roots and Influences: The Beatles - Black Sabbath - Deep Purple - Lester Flatt - Jethro Tull - Judas Priest - Metallica - Modest Mussorgsky - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Earl Scruggs - Dmitri Shostakovich - Arthur Smith
Formal Connections: Oak Grove Intermediate School Orchestra - Bloomington All City Orchestra - Olson Jr. High School Orchestra - Thomas Jefferon High School Orchestra - University of Minnesota Campus Orchestra
While it is known that Kyle �Curly Back� Boe was born on April 20th, 1984, it remains unclear whether he is native to California or Minnesota. The question arises because it is known he was conceived in Merced and that his parents moved back to Minnesota around the time of his birth, but no one has been able to determine whether it was before or after. Mysteriously, no record of his place of birth can be found, and Curly has always avoided the subject when questioned.
What is clear is that his passion for fiddlin� was driven by his discontent for what passed as �music� around him. This is easy to understand, as when he was entering kindergarten, the New Kids on the Block were annoying the hell out of everyone. To make things worse, his elementary school music teacher forced his classes to sing shitty pop songs at their concerts (the low point of this came with 1994�s performance of Michael Jackson�s �Heal the World�).
(Incidentally, he first met future bandmate �Deaf� Joseph Bartolotta while they were playing for the same little league baseball team in the summer of 1992).
At this point , Curly�s only exposure to music came from his dad�s old records (such as the Beatles, Van Morrison, and Deep Purple) because he refused to listen to the radio. It is believed that his father was also an avid fan of classical music, which may have led to Curly�s interest in playing the violin. (Other reports say he chose the instrument because he thought the chin rest was �cool�).
Boe did not take the instrument seriously at first. In a highly suspicious series of events in the fall of 1994, Curly broke his left middle finger--one of the most important fiddlin� fingers--and taped it to his ring finger after splinting it. This left him to fiddle with essentially only his pointer finger, allowing him to have an excuse for sucking at his orchestra�s first concert. Although he joined the elite All-City Orchestra in the fall of 1995, Boe continued to treat music as a secondary concern (the primary concern being slacking off).
The low point of his orchestral career came during a controversial exchange in the spring of 1998. Curly found he could relate to very few members of the orchestra. One day after a thorough tongue-lashing from their conductor, Curly said to one of the cellos: �I can�t believe Ms. Liss thinks we actually listened to her little lecture.� Problem was that Ms. Liss was standing right behind him, and was deeply offended. After a few days of bitter arguments with her, Curly was given an ultimatum: either apologize to the entire group, or walk away from her orchestras forever (at the time, she also directed the high school orchestra). Unwilling to be forced out, Curly swallowed his pride and made an emotional speech in front of the group encouraging unity and hard work.
(Boe eventually won the "War on Liss" in the spring of 1999 thanks to the help of Deaf and other close orchestra members.)
Curly was stand partnered with Deaf in the fall of 1998, when they both joined the Jefferson High School Orchestra. The following year was a period of strong musical growth for both future bandmates. Their stand partnership was the spawn of their fiddlin� era, and Curly started to listen to more music from the previous generation�s time, such as Hendrix and Black Sabbath.
1999-2000 looked like it was going to be another bright year for stand. Unfortunately, concertmistress/1st violin section leader Mary Moulder and 2nd violin section leader Jenny Lowe were unhappy with their respective groups, and for the first several weeks of the season there was much tension between the two factions, as everyone was afraid of being a casualty of the encroaching bombshell trade.
This fire was fuelled by the new regime (newly instated director Mark Lakmann)�s desire to shake things up in the orchestra. Nearly a month into the playing season, Curly was traded to the first violins, thus ending his stand partnership with Deaf. Curly was a fish out of water and was so unhappy with the dynamic of the first violin section that he decided to take the second half of the playing season off and joined a rag-tag, unofficial theater group.
Luckily, the two were reunited for the 2000-2001 season. After Lowe retired, however, the second violins were a total wreck as a result of the lack of leadership. Unhappy with this, Curly again took the second half of the season off, and Deaf signed with the first violins as a free agent during the summer of 2001. With his free time, Curly continued pursuing his interest in theater. It was then that he first met Andrew �Berko� Berkowitz.
In the fall of 2001, Curly was officially reinstated into his beloved second violins. With Deaf gone to the firsts, Curly gladly took new orchestra mate Berko under his wing as his new stand partner. With a new fiddler to compliment their antics, Curly and Deaf had a renewed desire for music. It was during this time that Deaf opened up Curly�s musical world with Metallica�s S&M, which finally opened the door for Curly to accept and love more recent rock acts such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Smashing Pumpkins, and others.
In the spring of 2002, Curly, Deaf, and Berko officially formed the �Fiddlers on the B�ze,� and the rest, as they say, is history.
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