Archive for the ‘Arts & Nightlife’ Category

A local production of “Rent” is Money in the Bank

Ann-Marie Wightman and Lauren Ashley Durant as Joanne and Maureen. Photo by Dwight Ueda

by Linda Gastelum

One of the first questions I asked Bill Georges, director of the El Camino Theatre production of Jonathan Larson’s “Rent,” was, “Did you take the girl out of Hicksville?” and to my delight he said, “Absolutely!”

I am a purist, having seen “Rent” 18 times – 11 times with the original cast at New York’s Nederlander Theatre on Broadway; thrice at the Pantages here in Hollywood, including last year’s revival with Mark and Roger played by original cast members Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal; once in Las Vegas; once in London; and in a few theaters in between. Hicksville is a town on Long Island, NY, not a village full of hicks as any New Yorker will tell you. The line works, it’s funny and we all get it.

Unfortunately, many productions I have seen outside of New York change the line to, “You can take the girl out of Jersey…” not as funny. To me, changing that line is akin to having Roman Magistrates in movies speak with a British tongue: Yes, subtitles may be annoying but Julius Caesar saying, “Et tu, Mate?” doesn’t really work, does it? The fact that Georges did not change that line, gives great hope that this production will rock.

Time and place

Jonathan Larson penned his modern day “La Bohème” back in the early 1990s, a time when the fear of AIDS kept many in the closet, gay or not.  “Rent” is set in the bohemian section of New York City’s Lower East Side called Alphabet City. Through brilliant lyrics and fast-paced rock music, “Rent” tells the story of a group of impoverished artists struggling to survive and find a voice to give meaning to their young lives, many of which stand to end too soon due to drug addiction and AIDS. Like Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Bohème,” we meet our young artists on Christmas Eve and follow them through a year in the life that is lived day by day: “No day but today,” is the mantra by which they live.

Neil Moutry as Mark. Photo by Dwight Ueda

Mark, a struggling documentary filmmaker whose performing artist girlfriend Maureen leaves him for a tough Harvard educated lawyer named… Joanne, is roommates with Roger, a tortured songwriter “whose girlfriend April left a note saying we’ve got AIDS, before slitting her wrists in the bathroom…” Roger falls for Mimi, a heroin addicted HIV-positive stripper, but struggles to move his life forward with her because he doesn’t want baggage without lifetime guarantees; Mimi, who lives for the day, tries to convince him: “I’m looking for baggage that goes with mine.” Love, life, struggle, strife; although the story is heavy, the music rocks and the dialogue/lyrics have some great humor which is enhanced by character nuance, some written, some adlibbed. Angel, the HIV-positive transvestite is the glue that holds this unlikely family together. He… she, embodies pure joy. She lives for the joy that is today for there is no day but today and she teaches the others to measure their lives in love because at the end of your life, love is all you have and love is all you need.

“Rent” has evolved over the past 15 years, which has been interesting for “Rent-heads,” like myself and Director Bill George, an artist by trade, well known for his success in set design, and I was curious how this production would stand up or stand out.

“This production runs true to the original,” he says. “Although there are slight differences in set design and band placement, it rocks like Jonathan intended!” One reason this rock opera gained cult status back in New York has to do with the eerie and untimely death of its creator, Jonathan Larson. After 12 years of his own struggle as a “starving artist,” many of those years spent shopping “Rent” around off-Broadway, Larson’s dream started to take flight when “Rent” ran a limited three-week workshop at the New York Theatre Workshop in 1994. Finally, two years later, “Rent” officially opened at the same off-Broadway theatre on January 25, 1996.

Bittersweet beginnings

Tony Melson and Edward Jenkens as Angel and Collins. Photo by Dwight Ueda

Tragically, Jonathan Larson died suddenly the night before. Three months later, the production moved to Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre and over the next 12 years won every major award in the Tony for best musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama before officially closing on September 7, 2008. “Rent” remains timely and relevant even with songs like, “…we’re living in America, at the end of the millennium…” and the fact that although AIDS is still claiming lives, it is no longer the pandemic it was in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the core of the piece, love, is timeless and universal.

Tours of “Rent” have graced the stages of every major city in this country as well as countries on six continents and has been translated into every major language. El Camino College is one of the first colleges in this country to be granted the rights to present the full stage version, which opens tomorrow evening at the Campus Theatre, 16007 Crenshaw Boulevard, Torrance. Georges, who directed frequently during the 1990s, but had been focusing on set design since, has assembled a cast of young actors from Redondo Beach to Burbank, and he says there are a few who could step off the stage and on to Broadway.

Rent is being performed tonight and tomorrow, plus the next two Fridays and Saturdays, March 19-20 and 26-27, at 8 p.m., as well as March 21 and 28 at 3 p.m. Tickets, $25. Call (310) 329-5345 or toll-free (800) 832-ARTS or go online to centerforthearts.org. ER

Toad the Wet Sprocket plays Brixton

Toad the Wet Sprocket, who play at Brixton Thursday night.

by Mark McDermott

In the book of Toad, there are many things.

There are hobbits and Buddha’s, chickens and butterflies, an angry ode to a political prisoner, an upbeat meditation on fleeing nature of happiness and the singularly strange song of a janitor.

“I get around,” said Glen Phillips, the lead singer of Toad the Wet Sprocket and a prolific songwriter whose body of work continues to spiral into new musical galaxies as a solo artist.

Toad the Wet Sprocket was, and occasionally still is, a rock and roll band. But Toad was also an unusually varied enterprise, an adventure, and a fleeting phenomenon in its own right. The band was formed by Phillips and three high school buddies in Santa Barbara in 1986 and by the mid-1990s had catapulted into national rock stardom, scoring hits with songs such as “All I Want” and “Walk on the Ocean.”

And then in 1998, Toad abruptly went away. The band broke up, somewhat acrimoniously, despite having a large and devoted following and broad critical acclaim. They have reunited sporadically over the years, including tonight, when the band plays at Brixton as a part of a short ten-city tour.

Phillips, who has become a cherished cult figure as a folkish solo performer and collaborator (with members of Nickel Creek) in the band WPA, said he appreciates the opportunity to return to the rock altar.

“It’s cool to come back and play,” he said. “When I really only had the one outlet, I really rebelled against the nature of rock. I didn’t want to be so broad, I didn’t like the idea of doing all these simple gestures – basically, if you told people to get excited, they would get really excited. I wanted to trick people into being really excited, or I wanted to make them think, or get them on all these other emotional levels. Now it’s kind of like, wow, at a rock show you can really push these buttons in a different way. It’s the difference between playing guitar in a parlor and a pipe organ in a cathedral. It’s a different animal.

Phillips was 16 when Toad formed. He essentially came of age in the band. Phillips said he finds it interesting to return to a mode of life he didn’t fully appreciate at the time.

“Unless you really need to be a rock star, it’s an incredibly counterproductive thing to have happen,” he said. “I think there is a fantasy people have that it will somehow feed you and fill you, but the reality of it is a much stranger experience. I mean, there is beautiful access, beautiful experiences and some really wonderful things about it, but it also creates incredibly unconstructive expectations about how the world acts. It’s been great to be out of it for ten years and to be able to step into it again as adults with a little gratitude and a little perspective and appreciation for the bizarre kind of chance to lead a very different life than most people get to lead.”

“We’ve been humbled,” he added. “We have been as humbled as anyone can get. We are working for a living and working very hard, and we have gratitude for how incredibly lucky we were – frankly, how lucky anyone is to even come close at making a living at doing what they love. It’s a really, really rare thing.”

It may be more hip to be an underground star of a sort, but it’s also much more difficult. The bottom line is that indie artists struggle to make ends meet.

“I spent probably a large part of the last 10 years feeling entitled, like I did this thing early on and people really responded well, instead of realizing what a statistically improbable-lottery-winning experience that was,” he said. “I thought that was how life was supposed to work, and I’ve been schooled. We were very lucky, which is not to take away from how hard we worked. And the fact that I think we did some very good work.”

Toad the Wet Sprocket’s biggest hit, “All I Want,” somewhat appropriately, was about the quickly passing nature of happiness itself.

“It sounds like the happiest song in the world, but once again, it’s about how fleeing happiness is,” he said. “I know a couple people who seem to live for the most part in that state, but it’s rare. To me, it’s more of a moment to moment kind of thing…” ER

Toad the Wet Sprocket play Brixton March 11. 8 p.m. See www.brixtonsouthbay.com for tickets and www.toadthewetsprocket.com for more info on the band.

Allen Sanford is a key figure in the beach cities revitalized music scene. Photo by Mark McDermott

Live Music: Saint Rocke

The story goes that once upon a time in a bygone era the South Bay had a happening live music scene. Those were the days of the Strand and Concerts by the Sea and a bunch of other clubs that no longer exist.

Bygone, be gone: live music is enjoying a resurgence in the South Bay, and Saint Rocke is leading the charge. The venue, owned by the same group of young local entrepreneurs that operate the Union Cattle Company, opened two years ago in the vastly revamped former Pitcher House locale on PCH in Hermosa Beach. Saint Rocke has since established itself not only as the premiere music venue locally – as recognized by BOB voters – but has also helped put the South Bay music scene back on the map.

Owner Allen Sanford said the reason voters chose Saint Rocke for the BOB award isn’t really about what he and his partners (which include his brother Jed, Robert Bogdonavich, and Brian Macias) have done in these two years.

“The people that deserve the credit are always the artists, man,” Sanford said. “All we try to do is make sure the artists that play here get seen in the best possible light. We give them the tools – the lighting, the sound, the stage – and then it’s all up to them….We definitely really care about the artists, so we built a place they can actually call their own.”

Nationally touring artists such as Julian Marley, Tab Benoit, and Rebelution have graced Saint Rocke’s stage, but perhaps what the venue has become even better known for is a place to catch emerging artists, including leading lights from the LA singer-songwriter scene such as the White Buffalo, Mieko, Jay Nash, and Chris Pierce. Arguably the heart of Saint Rocke is its weekly Wednesday night Sound Box, a jam of local professional musicians headed by Steve Aguilar that never fails to reach spontaneous combustion.

Saint Rocke is also breaking boundaries, broadcasting live, high-definition webcasts of its nightly performances dubbed “iRocke.” The Net venue has attracted 2 million viewers and has become an attraction for artists that normally play far larger venues – upcoming acts include No Effects, Pepper, and Kottonmouth Kings.

“We are breaking down some walls,” Sanford said. “It’s starting to rock ‘n’ roll.”

The future of music in the South Bay, Sanford argues, looks good and sounds even better.

“Long live music, man,” he said. “Long live the art of performance.”

Saint Rocke: 142 PCH, HB. (310) 372-0035. www.saintrocke.com

Runner-up: Brixton. 100 Fisherman’s Wharf, RB. (310) 406-1931. www.brixtonsouthbay.com

Weeds star Kevin Nealon is one of the top commedians who make Comedy & Magic arguably the best comedy club in the world.

 

Best Comedy Club: Comedy & Magic Club

Who’d have guessed that readers found this their favorite place to go for humor and sleight-of-hand? Perhaps it has something to do with all those world famous comedians like Robin Williams and Bill Maher dropping by, not to mention Sunday night regular Jay Leno.

Owner Mike Lacey is well known for hosting local charities in both his main room, and adjacent Live at the Lounge music club. On March 23 the club will host four of the biggest names in comedy, Kevin Nealon, Rosannee Barr, Sarah Silverman and Garry Shandling in a benefit for comedian “Big” Joe Kenny, who was recently diagnosed with skin cancer.

Comedy and Magic Club: 1018 Hermosa Ave., Hermosa Beach. (310) 372-1193, or comedyandmagicclub.com.

Runner-up: Easy Reader. Talk about sleight-of-hand, their writers spin floss into gold every week. You can’t beat that!

Sangria owner Kevin Barry (right) keeps his club jumping.

Best Club to move artistically: Sangria

Sometimes it’s location, location, location, but at Sangria (in addition to location, of course), it’s also ambience, ambience, ambience. Our host Michael Santomieri points out that there are three different atmospheres, separated dance floors and mixed music genres, plus lots of room to spread out, and an indoor/outdoor feel with the remote-controlled roof on the interior (or is that exterior?) patio.

Santomieri also says that every major sports team in Los Angeles has a Sangria DJ at the helm. Jeremy Roueche does the AVP, the Clippers and Dodgers; Troy Doram does the Ducks, and Omar Trujillo did the Kings and has dropped in for the Lakers. In short, this is the place to relax and to try out those new moves on the dance floor.

Sangria: 68 Pier Avenue, HB. (310) 376-4412, or sangriahermosa.com.

Runner-up: Twelfth and Highland, Manhattan Beach, 304 Twelfth St., MB. (310) 545-1881.

Best Juke Box: Shellback Tavern

Other than the food and the companionship, what’s better than walking into a bar or dining establishment and being able to hear your favorite music? A live band won’t always get around to honoring your request, but a juke box is your servant, your personal valet, and always at your beck and call.

“We take great pride in all aspects of the music played at Shellback Tavern,” says owner Bob Beverly. “Our main music system consists of the latest Touch Tunes Juke Box, and this model allows for thousands of song choices.

“Over the years we have learned what titles to offer and which ones to block. Our playlist and music categories were hand-selected by me and L.A. juke box owner Mike Pearlman. Our manager, Rico DeAlba, also collects song requests daily from customers to be added. Maintaining the proper music balance,” Beverly concludes, “is an ongoing effort of the whole staff.”

Shellback Tavern: 116 Manhattan Beach Blvd., MB. (310) 376-7857

Runner-up: Johnny’s Dive, 100 “J” Fisherman’s Wharf (adjacent to Brixton), RB. (310) 406-1931

Jeremey Buck and the Bang return to town March 27 for a show at Zen Lounge.

Best Original Band: Jeremy Buck & The Bang

This is the third year running that Jeremy Buck & The Bang have been acknowledged as our favorite live band, and their weekly residences at The Lighthouse Café and Saint Rocke have brought them even more of a following.

During the past year the group received a great deal of attention after their single, “Just For One Night,” was picked up by radio station 100.3 FM The Sound. A music video for the song showcases a classic parody of “Rock of Love” with Bret Michaels and “The Dating Game” of the late 1960s. Right now the band is touring, playing the Midwest for the Men’s Basketball Big Ten Championships and the NCAA Final Four Championships in Indianapolis. Their next local gig is Saturday, March 27, at Zen Lounge in Hermosa Beach. For visuals and other information, Jeremeybuck.com.

Runner up: The Darlings

“The time has come” for the Imposters

Best Underage Band: The Imposters

“We’ve been going at it for a bit more than four years now,” says Nickolai Preiss, “and things just always seem to be improving.” Since this time last year, when they were first voted Best Underage Band, The Imposters have released a vinyl LP, “The Time Has Come,” and toured on both sides of the country. Next month they’ll release “Bus Stop Blues,” a 45 rpm, and plans are afoot to record a new album this summer. The group has already written most of the material, and Preiss says, “It has a broad reach across the genre spectrum… It is definitely going to be our most expansive and elaborate album to date.”

Runner-up: Local Hate

DJ Dik got his start underage, sneaking in the back door of Sangria.

It’s a perfect resumé for the job: born and raised in the South Bay, high school in Redondo, college in Hawaii, and he currently resides a block from the Hermosa Beach Pier. What more could we want from our favorite spinmaster?

Best DJ: DJ Dik

DJ Dik – or Richard Podgurski if he gets pulled over – seems to be everywhere at once. He currently deejays at Waterman’s (formerly Dragon) and Sharkeez, and occasionally he’ll pop up at Sangria, Twelfth and Highland, and Brixton. That’s just locally. You may find him coming or going from San Diego to Hollywood, Portland to New Orleans to Hawaii, with a few stops in between for private events and fashion shows. And when he’s not in the clubs? Just look outside and you’ll see him surfing, skating, or playing volleyball.

He says the music he plays is diverse and can accommodate any venue, but what makes him stand out, in his opinion, is that he’s not afraid to play something you’ve never heard, or to rescue an oldie that packs a punch marked “2010.” His selections depend on the atmosphere more than they do on music charts or radio. Plus he’s racked up 10 years of experience, beginning when he was 17 and was sneaked through the back door of Sangria and into the DJ booth. In a sense, he’s never left. More at DJDIK.com.

Runner up: DJ Megs

Rico De’Alba grew up at the Shellback. Photo by Brent Broza (Brozaphoto.com)

Best BartenderRico De’Alba, Shellback Tavern
By Deb L.
Rico De’Alba, 32, has been working for Shellback Tavern owner Bob Beverly since he was 12 years old. Over the 20-year stint he has become one of the most well-known faces in the South Bay bar biz. He says he gets great joy from making every customer feel like part of the family. Recently a woman who had been here on vacation called after she got home to North Carolina to tell the owner what a great employee Rico is, that he made her and her daughter feel welcome so far from home. When asked about something people don’t know about him, he says, “Probably that I am married with two young daughters, because I am here working all the time!” His goal is to some day own his own bar so he can spend more time with his family – by having them work there too.
Rico De’Alba: Shellback Tavern, 116 Manhattan Beach Blvd., MB. 310-376-7857. www.shellbacktavern.com
Runner-up: Ron Ciulei, North End, HB.

Happy Hour
Shellback TavernWhere better to find the best happy hour than at the best neighborhood bar with the best bartender in the South Bay? From 3-6 p.m., Monday-Friday, munch on half-priced appetizers (those famous beer battered chicken tenders and hot wings are the most popular), and wash it down with $2.75 domestic bottled beers, $3.23 well drinks, $4 domestic draught beers and $5.50 import draughts. Drink specials continue until 7 p.m. Watch the sunset over the sea and feel like a local even if you aren’t one.
Shellback Tavern: 116 Manhattan Beach Blvd., MB. 310-376-7857. www.shellbacktavern.com
Runner-up: Sharkeez, 3801 Highland Ave., MB. 310-545-6563. 52 Pier Ave., HB. 310-318-0004. Sharkeez.net

Neighborhood Bar
Shellback TavernThe Shellback Surf Tavern has been a locals’ neighborhood hangout since the ‘20s. Originally located on the pier and known as the Silver Spray Café, the bar later moved to its current location as the Knothole. Though the name and owners have changed over the years, it has remained a South Bay tradition. The Shellback is owned and operated by lifelong Manhattan Beach resident Bob Beverly with the assistance of longtime manager Rico De’Alba. With a friendly staff made up of local residents and a classic collection of beach people as its clientele, the Shellback has endured while the world around it changes.
Shellback Tavern: 116 Manhattan Beach Blvd., MB. 310-376-7857. www.shellbacktavern.com
Runner-up: North End, 2626 Hermosa Ave., HB. 310-379-5379.

Mucho’s Greg Losson has the added advantage when pouring what readers rated the best margarita at the beach of having behind him the best tequila bar. Photo by Brent Broza (Brozaphoto.com)

Best Margarita/Tequila bar
Mucho Ultima MexicanaSince opening in November 2007, Mucho Ultima Mexicana has amassed over 185 different tequilas to suite all taste and levels of tequila drinkers. The margarita menu offers several varieties like the “Traditional” made with Herradura Silver and fresh lime juice just like at cantinas in Mexico. “The Mucho Margarita” and “El Dorado Classico” are made with Mucho’s homemade margarita mix. For those who like to experiment with their tequila, try the “El Fuego” made with muddled jalapeno to give it a little heat or the “Fresco Pepino” made with English Hothouse Cucumber which is cool and refreshing. If you prefer fruity margaritas, Mucho offers Passion Fruit, Pineapple, and Pomegranate all made with fresh fruits and purees. Cinco de Mucho happy hour has great appetizers like BBQ Shrimp Tacos, Chicken Quesadilla, Carnitas Sliders, Mucho Margarita, house wines, bottle and draught beer for $5 at 5 p.m. Sunday – Thursday and runs until 6:30pm. No matter your flavor, Mucho will provide you with a margarita to match.
Mucho Ultima: 903 Manhattan Ave., MB. (310) 374-4422. www.muchomb.com
Runner up: Pancho’s, 3615 Highland Ave., MB. (310) 545-6670.

Tequila bar
Mucho Ultima Mexican If you like tequila, there are plenty of restaurants and bars in the South Bay that have a few – and the bartender will probably toss your choice into a Margarita. If you really appreciate fine tequila, though, you’ll drink it straight, and you’ll probably drink it at Mucho. This Manhattan Beach hotspot has boutique tequilas like Cazadores Anejo and Tequila Oro First Vintage that most people have never heard of, the ones that are hand-crafted and carefully aged. Bar manager Jim Martel compares tequilas to wines in their aging characteristics, and is happy to initiate newcomers in the art of tequila. There are excellent options at all price ranges, from El Tesoro and Don Eduardo $10 a shot to rarities like Don Julio Real at $50. Those who really know tequila, or really want to, will find that both the selection and the knowledge of the staff here are second to none.
Mucho Ultima Mexicana: 903 Manhattan Ave., MB. (310) 374-4422.
Runner up: Ortega 120, 1800 Pac. Coast. Hwy., (310) 792-4120.

Shade's Sub Zero martini features an ice shell. Photo by Brent Broza

Best Martini
Shade HotelZinc Lounge at Shade Hotel is a fusion of coastal living with LA nightlife. Cool, hip, comfortable, inviting with neo-modular furniture designed by Christopher Lowell. Zinc has perhaps the longest bar in the South Bay. One of the coolest features is the Sub Zero Martini served from a glass of ice; it’s truly the best way to enjoy a chilled martini. For happy hour, Get Your Fix for Six: Monday – Thursday, 4-7 p.m. $6 selected drinks and small plates. Benefit from no corkage fee on “Cellar Sundays” by bringing your treasured cellar wines to pair with the decadent small plates menu.
Zinc Lounge: Shade Hotel, 1221 N. Valley Dr., MB. (310) 546-4995. www.shadehotel.com
Runner up: Zane’s, 1150 Hermosa Ave. (at Pier), HB. (310) 374-7488.

Best Sports Bar
Shark’s CoveAlthough it’s a Pittsburgh Steelers bar, fans of the black and gold aren’t the only ones who flock to the warm atmosphere of Shark’s Cove and its 70-plus TV screens.
“On any given Sunday there will be more than 100 Steelers fans in here, but we can show about 17 different games at a time,” said bartender-manager Nick Ortega.
The crowds show up for college football and basketball, NBA games and other sports events as well.
“Another thing we pride ourselves on is being the Cheers of the South Bay, appealing to the locals,” Ortega said.
Owner Shane McColgan keeps the local touch in mind when he hires staff members, nurturing the “where everybody knows your name” vibe.
The Shark’s Cove in Manhattan, at 309 Manhattan Beach Blvd., boasts tons of TVs showing tons of sports as well.
Shark’s Cove: 1220 Hermosa Ave., HB. 310-798-3932
Runner-up: Sharkeez, 52 Pier Ave., Hermosa, 310-318-0004; and 3801 Highland Ave., Manhattan, 310-545-6563.
sharkeez.net.

The Rescues play Saint Rocke Tuesday night

Indie supergroup The Rescues play Saint Rocke

by Mark McDermott

The plight of the solo singer songwriter is stark. Alone on a stage, night after night, accompanied by a guitar or a piano, one voice raised in song. It is a soulful but sometimes lonely musical endeavor.

Thus The Rescues gathered: four singer songwriters, all successful in their own right, came together to form a band. Over the past year, the buzz around The Rescues has slowly built – they signed a record deal with Universal Republic, scored song placement on Grey’s Anatomy, and performed a series of sold-out shows in Hollywood (one which had scalpers selling $10 tickets for $300).  A self-titled four-song EP released this week gives a small but tantalizing sample of what the buzz is about, demonstrating what happens when four adventurous, seriously skilled songwriters raise their voices together in song.

Beauty happens. The four voices of The Rescues – Kyler England, Rob Giles, Gabriel Mann, and Adrianne Gonzalez – soar together in swirling harmonies serving well-crafted songs that somehow both use pop conventions and simultaneously transcend them. The Rescues are the antidote to the manufactured pop band now in prevalence: all four are highly trained musicians, and it shows, but together, they also have a rare musical chemistry that can’t be taught or trained.

The Rescues, quite simply, fit.

“It’s pretty amazing and powerful,” said England in an interview last week. “It’s really cool to be a part of, because you just play your position, you just contribute your part, and then it comes together to make this thing that is way bigger than yourself. I think because all of us had been solo artists for a while, writing by ourselves, touring by ourselves and that kind of thing, this group is really special.”

The roots of The Rescues go back to the Berklee College of Music. England and Gonzalez met each other the vaunted school – one of the finest musical academies in the country – and Giles attended there a few years earlier. Each eventually made their way to LA and became staples of the local music scene. Along with Mann – who attended the University of Pennsylvania – they were part of a loosely affiliated group of musicians that sometimes shared billings and even occasionally contributed parts on each other’s records.

Mann, England, and Gonzalez formed an early version of The Rescues a few years ago, but it wasn’t until Giles joined a year-and-a-half ago that the group really began to cohere.

“It sounds cheesy but he kind of completed the group,” England said. “When the four of us were finally together, there was a balance in a way that wasn’t there before that allowed us to take it to a new level, where it is now.”

Certain patterns have seemingly become set in stone in the formation of pop bands. Basically, it goes like this: you have a drummer, a bass player, and either one or two guitar players and/or a keyboard player (horns are highly optional). There is one lead singer, maybe two occasionally.

This might explain why audiences may be somewhat disconcerted at what happens at The Rescues’ shows. All four band members sing lead. Instruments are shared. Giles frequently plays bass while at the same time kicking a foot drum. Sometimes an accordion makes an appearance in Mann’s hands, while England has taken to the ukulele with a gusto rarely seen in anyone with hit song aspirations (in this century).

“When all four of first started writing, three out of four of us when we played solo played acoustic guitar, and you just can’t have three jangly acoustic guitars all the time,” England said. “So I decided to pick up the ukulele because I felt like it was a good compliment. It’s in a much higher range and can kind of fill out a different sonic spectrum than the acoustic guitar. We are all striving to learn more instruments, so we can pass things around.”

“I debuted on drums at a gig at the Troubadour [last week],” she added. “I can’t even believe how fun it is to play drums – that is one of the things I’m trying to learn as well as bass. I highly recommend hitting stuff. It’s amazing.”

England said that the band’s openness to different instrumentation, as well as the many possibilities available in arranging two male and two female vocal lines, has allowed them to delve deeper into songwriting craft. All of their considerable musical resources are bent towards a single purpose. Everything is for the sake of the song.

“The cool thing is in most bands everyone has a very defined role,” she said. “There is a lead singer, there is a guitarist, and there is a bass player. For us, not as much…We blur the lines, and I think that brings the focus more on the song. It’s about the song and the vocals more so than so-and-so is wailing on the guitar solo, you know what I mean? It’s always about the song in our band, which I think is fun.”

Appropriately enough – given the band’s unusual musical freedom – the first song they wrote together is called “Let Loose the Horses.” On the very day the band first formally gathered to write, England received a phone call that inspired this song. Her brother, who lives in Colorado, had been forced to evacuate his home north of Boulder because of a fast-spreading brush fire. He called to tell her that he and his wife and their home had survived the fire unscathed. One image stuck with England, however – a neighboring rancher had been forced to let his horses run wild.

“The neighbor didn’t know if the horses were going to get burned up in the flames if they left them in the barn or in the fields, so they had to let the horses completely loose,” England said. “They opened up the gate and let them run, which is where that lyric comes from – they had to set them free to save them.”

“So I told my story when I got [to the band] because my brother had just called to tell me he was okay, and I was really emotional about it…The song just poured out after that because it got us thinking, what really matters in this world if everything you had did burn up? If you lose everything, what really matters? It is the people that you love, and that is the most important thing to focus on.”

It’s a strange thing that more bands haven’t used more voices over the years. When you think about rock history, some formative bands did so – think the Beatles, and later Fleetwood Mac and even Abba. There is a movement afoot towards a more vocally-based music – the Icelandic group Sugar Ros, for example, and Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear both have strong choral elements.  The Rescues both harmonize and also exchange verses, such as the lovely “You’re not Listening” and it gives the music a more theatrical storytelling aspect. And then there is the haunting, a cappella “My Heart With You,” a choral song which somehow sounds both contemporary and ancient.

“We wanted to write something that was a cappella so we could focus on the voice, because several of us are former a cappella geeks,” England said. “We wanted it to feel kind of timeless but also from another time, so that is why the lyrics have the tone of being kind of a period piece, and some of the lyrics the way they are phrased don’t sound completely modern. But we just sat in a room and wrote the melody and all the harmonies together as we went and it just kind of flew out of us and we just kept singing it together until it felt right. It’s an unusual song because it doesn’t have a meter to it – all the phrases are kind of rubato, so we have to really pay attention to each other…”

“It really is an exercise in listening to each other and coming together, as one voice.” ER

The Rescues play Saint Rocke March 9 with Honey Honey. 8 p.m. $10. For more information and song samples, see www.myspace.com/therescues.