The fourth edition of Pure Acoustic will feature two acts that have performed at the event previously — the 1984 Draft and the Boxcar Suite—plus the hip-hop “wild card,” DipSpit. The event is Feb. 15 at Yellow Cab Tavern.
The impetus for the first show back in 2016 came from organizer Jeff Opt’s inclination toward putting on “What if…” shows. For instance, what if Dayton’s top musicians recreated The Band’s final performance live, or what if a loud Dayton band, like the 1984 Draft, played quietly.
“Luckily, I have a very loud voice,” said Joe Anderl, lead singer of the Draft. “But to be able to do that, there’s fear as an artist: were people just going to talk over us and drink beer? And we found out in the first 30 seconds what we were dealing with. The whole room just went silent. I think the audience quickly realized how special it was to have that closeness.”
The Pure Acoustic shows also remove the stage component from the performances, putting the audience and bands at eye-level, heightening the intimacy between the two.
The performances have alternated from show-to-show with either the audience circling the bands around the middle, or having them perform on the fringes. Each act takes the spotlight every two songs, as well.
Being a proponent of doing “What if…” shows, Opt has encouraged musicians to perform outside of their comfort zones.
“It’s kind of just getting back to something basic and primal, something we can all experience on the same level,” Opt said. “The audience gets to hear music in a new way, because it’s presented in a new format, all-acoustic, so they’re forced to listen. They really have to be quiet if they want to hear what’s going on.”
Take Tim Pritchard, guitarist for power-trio, the Boxcar Suite. If you remove his pedalboard and all amplification, we hear the roots of the Boxcar Suite’s songwriting, unfiltered. And while we may hear how the songs are intended to sound at a standard show, hearing them purely acoustically allows for a novel listening experience.
“The Pure Acoustic night draws people who are intent listeners who want to hear the lyrics and appreciate the nuance of music,” Pritchard said. “It’s much more like going to a museum than a band performance.”
But as different as the performances will be for bands like the 1984 Draft and Boxcar Suite, those bands are still guitar-based; whereas DipSpit, Dayton’s sardonic answer to the Beastie Boys, must reconfigure its entire performance norms.
The hip-hop trio is a “push-play band,” with a laptop typically providing the beats. But because of the nature of Pure Acoustic, DipSpit is forced to forgo the electronics and start from scratch.
“We knew the three of us couldn’t do it by ourselves,” said member Lane Martin, “so we reached out to some Dayton superheroes of music, and they agreed to join us.”
For the show, musicians Phil Doncaster and Steve Makofka will add extra instrumentation to the trio, which will include glockenspiel, pump organ, accordion and electric bass—in accordance with the event’s fine print guidelines—that will be played quietly through a small amp.
Collectively called the DipSpit Family Players, the group is essentially writing new arrangements for the tracks, considering many of them wouldn’t normally translate to acoustic instruments.
On a one-on-five phone call with the group, one of the DipSpit members quipped: “It sounds a lot less heinous every single week.”
While the DipSpit inclusion into Pure Acoustic is a bit unorthodox, it all goes back to Jeff Opt’s original vision, testing the limits of his “What if…” propositions.
When asked how he expects DipSpit to translate its big video and electronic presentation to such an intimate show, Opt said: “That’s the great unknown. That’s part of the fun.”
Brandon Berry writes about the Dayton and Southwest Ohio music and art scene. Have a story idea for him? Email branberry100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: Pure Acoustic with the 1984 Draft, the Boxcar Suite & DipSpit
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15
Where: Yellow Cab Tavern, 700 E. 4th St., Dayton
Cost: $10
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