Nightlife / Stephanie Depasquale

18 members, a 1972 bus and ‘a proclivity toward acid rock’

By Stephanie De Pasquale | Tuesday, October 14, 2008 | () comments

Dark Meat will perform at The Capitol Theatre on Wednesday, Sept. 24. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

The 18 or so members of Dark Meat -- also known as the Vomit Lasers/Family Band/Galaxy -- travel around the United States and Canada in a 1972 GMC bus that was used in the movie “We Are Marshall.”

One of the band’s drummers saw the bus on the side of the road one day for a “really cheap” price, and since a few members of the band double as mechanics, he bought it, said Jim McHugh, who plays guitar, sings and writes songs for the group.

Dark Meat recently finished a tour that lasted more than two months and began another three-week tour this week. With the proximity of the tours, Dark Meat will be about four members short of its normal busload when it comes to Davenport on Wednesday.

“They just found new jobs and don’t quite want to lose them,” McHugh, who admitted he’s broke right now, said of the foursome. “But the rest of us don’t give a (expletive) about those kinds of things.”

In a band the size of Dark Meat, he said, they’re used to dealing with not everyone being there all the time, and the way they accommodate that musically is by switching up the sections where improvisation is written in.

“There’s different variables to our sound that come and go with who is with us, but the sound never suffers, it’s just always different,” he said. “And I feel like that’s a healthy way to approach improvisation, and if it’s dictated by necessity, then so be it, but you don’t want to fall into the same ruts, and when you have different people, it’s kind of hard to fall into the same ruts.”

Dark Meat is made up of two drummers, three guitar players, an organ player, four to nine horn players, one to four female singers known as the Subtweeters, two violin players, a sousaphone player and a guy who makes noise, does Mongolian-style throat singing and plays an Indian drum box.

If you ask McHugh to describe the music such an ensemble creates, he’ll tell you, without hesitation, “We’re a southern punk rock band with an improvisational free jazz horn section and a proclivity toward acid rock.”

McHugh also will tell you that he’s answered that question before, but, “I went to school for fiction writing, so I’m highly skilled in running my mouth off.”

When McHugh isn’t touring, he works a string of jobs that don’t fire him for spending 21 to 22 weeks a year on tour, one of which was in a kitchen with other members of the band, hence the name Dark Meat.

“Some people find it offensive even though it’s an everyday term,” he said. “So I kind of appreciated that because we like to (mess) with people, and it’s just kind of gross.”

If you go

What: Dark Meat, Damien Jurado, Miles Benjamin and Anthony Robinson

When: Doors open 6 p.m., show at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24

Where: The Capitol Theatre, 311 Ripley St., Davenport

How much: $8 advance, $10 the day of the show

Information: thecapdavenport.com, daytrotter.com

Also on the Web: myspace.com/darkmeats, myspace.com/damienjurado, myspace.com/milesbenjaminanthonyrobinson

Stephanie De Pasquale can be contacted at (563) 333-2639 or sdepasquale@qctimes.com.