Picks
The Onion, 12/12/97
December 12
Sister 7 w/ Chief Broom: Fox Theatre, 9 p.m., $6.30
The tag "hippie band" will make any Boulder music fan cringe, and rightfully so, but Chief Broom
stands out as a testament to the fact that good ones do exist - it just takes a lot of looking
to find them. At first listen, Chief Broom's visceral folk-rock eclecticism recalls the rootsy
piano work of Widespread Panic, and that alone is a good indication by most measures. But listen
a minute, and you'll notice that the jams Broom was playing when you went out for your cigarette
break aren't the same as the ones it was playing when you left. The band's lack of excessive guitar
jams is likely its most endearing feature, and there's an even balance of spontaneity and moderation
- proof that despite the saggy jeans, there's something inside those heads of long hair.
Chief Broom Sweeps Back Into Town "The band started on the CU campus two years ago," said CB vocalist/keyboardist Dave Cieri.
"The guys in the band lived in the Cheyenne Arapahoe dorm, and I would go practice piano there.
One day, they asked me to play. I was pretty skeptical about starting another local band, as I've
worked with other Boulder bands. But this was different - I knew this band would work."
"Our music is very improvisational," said Cieri. "We try to get back to the earlier roots of
music, but 70 percent of the things we do on stage aren't planned. We take a general musical structure
and then leave the rest to our imagination. It was great taking the band on the H.O.R.D.E. We
played three dates, and we got to meet world-class musicians that turned out to be down-to-earth,
humble and accessible."...
Colorado Daily, September 5-7 1997
...Chief Broom bloomed on the local scene this past year, and earned a slot on this summer's
H.O.R.D.E. tour and at the Mimi Fishman Vision Quest benefit festival. The Chief mixes a blend
of classic '70s rock with blues, funk, classical and folk essences to create free-flowing jams.
-Wendy Kale
Skin Fest
Boulder Planet
...Chief Broom takes the torch and continues to douse the stage with lighter fluid. The rousing vocal
harmonies and rare ability of the band to peak out continually are among their strong points.
The virtuous fingers of the keyboard player are enough to make you stop dancing in order to witness
what happens to somebody when the music completely entrances them...
-Mike Heller
Chief Broom Making Inroads, Despite the Obstacles Yes, their tour van proved less than reliable for their first-ever West Coast excursion. But
otherwise, things have been going pretty well for Chief Broom, a sextet that starts with a surging
jam-band groove and heads off into jazz-fusion, funk, even torch pop.
After only a few months together in their current lineup, the Brooms won a battle of the bands
at Boulder's Fox Theatre, beating the better-known Lord of Word and Zuba. That victory landed
them a three-city spin on the national H.O.R.D.E. tour in July.
The group played this summer at a Red Rocks charity festival with their idols David Grisman
and Merl Saunders, and they were featured at Oregon's prestigious Willamette Valley Folk Festival.
Their impressive self-titled first CD came out this year on Bluejay Records.
And on Thursday, they'll leave the cozy confines of the Boulder scene that nurtured them and
venture down the turnpike for their first-ever headlining gig at Denver's Bluebird Theater.
"If it goes well, it'll speak loudly as to what kind of potential we have outside of Boulder,"
the 22-year-old Dube (pronounced "DOO-bee") said last week.
For transportation on the West Coast tour, which took Chief Broom from Seattle to Monterey,
Calif., the Brooms acquired the RV from hell. "(It) just kept breaking on us, costing us money
we didn't have and making us miss gigs," says Dube.
You start inventing cuss words when your car starts breaking - words that no one knows, but
they're equally as offensive as the ones people do know."
The shows they did make went well, including a stop at San Francisco's Last Day Saloon, a
legendary launching pad for Bay Area talent. There, a saxophonist who played with Jerry Garcia
jumped on stage and started jamming with the Brooms. "It was just a freak thing," says Dube.
After that, because of the broken-down van, "We came home in a U-Haul," he says. "Three of us
were in the box in the back and three of us were scrunched up front. It was hairy, man."
In addition to Dube, Chief Broom is Bruce Bell on guitar, Dave Cieri on keyboards, Putnam
Murdock on acoustic guitar and mandolin and Brian Ravitsky on drums, with Jessica Goodkin, Cieri
and Murdock sharing vocal duties.
The players - all in their early 20s - met in early 1995 in the dorms of hte University of
Colorado at Boulder. "There was a bunch of guys getting together in the hallways every night,
beating on drums and playing acoustic guitars, and they were short a bass player," Dube says.
The band continued as a spare-time project while the members pursued their CU studies; at
one point Dube didn't play with the others for several months.
Then, last fall, after sitting in for a gig, "I decided that I really wanted to be playing
with these guys, because they had come a ways as musicians." Goodkin, a voice major at CU, joined
at about the same time.
Before long - "before we were even that well-rehearsed...as a professional group" says Dube -
the group started attracting a horde of loyal Broom-heads to its shows at local bars and clubs.
"And then (in April) they voted us for the H.O.R.D.E. tour, and it's like, '(Bleep), we'd better
go rehearse!' Actually, at that point we were already working pretty hard, but it kind of
transformed us into something more serious."
The three-date H.O.R.D.E. experience - including the July 20 show at Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre,
followed by St. Louis and Cleveland - was one of the high points of Dube's life, he says.
"When I was 15 or 16, I ditched summer school to make it to the first H.O.R.D.E. show ever.
And seeing those bands (Blues Traveler, Phish, Widespread Panic, etc.) really inspired me to play
music. And then, seven years later, to actually be taking part in it as a performer is probably
one of the most incredible things for me personally. Like, if I die tomorrow...Know what I mean?"
There was a moment backstage at H.O.R.D.E. when Dube found himself surrounded by his musical
heroes.
"You're standing in line at catering,...and Les Claypool (of Primus) is behind you. Here are
these incredible, intense people, really on the cutting edge, and they're like regular guys,
you know, 'Pass the mustard' and stuff."
Dube says the band realizes it has a way to go to establish itself - and to make a living.
"I would love to buy some food someday," he says. "If I could eat, I'd be happy."
For now, the Brooms can bask in their recent achievements. Says Dube: "It's a dream just to be
playing in front of two people who actually appreciate what we're doing."
The Denver Post
"You'll have to excuse my French," says Bill Dube, bassist for the young Boulder band Chief Broom,
after letting fly with a salty expletive. "We've been dealing with broken automobiles for a month."
-Mark Harden