Beyond Backstage On the go with Guster

Author: Mary Lane

Late night beer, jamming out to tunes and philosophical conversation - sounds like a typical Friday night at Middlebury, right? Add a chart-topping, college-rock idol band to the mix and you have my past weekend. I spent Friday night hanging out with Guster and their road crew backstage after the concert here at Middlebury, and then I got to do it again when they took me along to Siena College in New York - it's still sinking in.

Guster is comprised of band members Adam Gardner, Ryan Miller, Joe Pisapia and Brian Rosenworcel. Through the band's mailing list contest, I won a chance to volunteer for Reverb, the non-profit organization started by Gardner and his wife that travels with the band in an effort to make its tour carbon-neutral.

Flash forward to after the concert. The other Reverb volunteers - about twelve in all - from UVM and Middlebury, were standing around waiting for the boys to come out for the meet and greet. They did, and I met all of them briefly, and I started talking to Josh about the upcoming John Mayer tour, Reverb's next carbon-neutral concert endeavor. Before I knew it, the other volunteers had already left and Joe Pisapia was plopped down in a big rolling chair, as a roadie pushed him around Kenyon.

"I'm not doing this anymore," the roadie said. "Someone push me!" Joe shouted out. "I'll push you!" I said running up.

Who wouldn't want to get slung around in a rolling chair in Kenyon? Besides, Joe lives in Nashville, a born-again Southern Boy as far as I'm concerned, and God do I miss The South. So Joe and I pushed each other around Kenyon for a while, trying not to crash into the other band members or the walls. Actually, that's a total lie - Joe kept insisting I push him into the group where Adam was standing, but luckily enough, Adam had quick feet every time.

I asked Joe what they were doing before their 2 a.m. bus call. "I don't know, really, what do you suggest?" he asked. I suggested Two Brother's Tavern, and the twenty-or-so-person group of techies, roadies and band members headed out of Kenyon in a big pack. I was in the back talking philosophy with Joe, so I didn't notice at first that the party had been intercepted by two upperclassman boys who led us into Ross. All of us were crowded outside some suite, where kids were stepping out saying, "Holy (pure word), it's (pure word) Guster!"

"You do realize these kids'll be remembering for weeks how Guster showed up outside their dorms?" Adam chuckled to Brian. Well, the keg was tapped, and the band and crew wanted to exercise their legal rights to have tons of fun involving large quantities of locally brewed alcohol, so it was onward to Two Brothers Tavern.

Later that night outside the tour bus, Josh and Joe asked what I was doing the next day and if I wanted a ride down to New York where they were performing Saturday. Well, yes I'd love to.

Next thing I knew, I was driving down to Siena College the following day. I watched the show from backstage, which allowed me the chance to make faces and throw paper airplanes at Scooter, Guster's drum tech, and also to see just how much work goes into lighting, mysterious techie stuff and being a mean security man who doesn't allow a girl to go to the bathroom without a chaperone because she doesn't have the correct pass. Seriously, though, the next time you go to a show, appreciate the guys backstage you never see, scurrying around trying to get guitars exchanged and running around stage to plug and unplug different cords. They're underappreciated.

The concert at Siena was excellent, but not nearly as good as the one they put on here at Midd. Guster, I've learned, feeds off its audience, and the enthusiasm and musical knowledge of the Midd students really helped spur them on. After receiving a few e-mails asking them to play "Like a Prayer" by Madonna, Guster launched into their own rendition in order to see if the rumors of obligatory toplessness were true. Of course, they were. They played a few songs from their new album, Ganging Up on the Sun including "Ruby Falls" and "Satellite," which I later told Joe I wasn't a major fan of - right before he told me that he wrote most of it. My ill-placed comment was the brunt of many later jokes, but thankfully Joe wasn't too offended. Ganging Up on the Sun definitely has a new sound from its predecessors, most notably the replacement of bongos with traditional drums. This move has upset many avid Gusterites, as the bongos that Brian plays is one of the things that has set Guster apart over the years.

The new album sounds much more pop, something that has bewildered many fans. From what I gathered from comments made here and there, the band just wanted to try something different. It's also hard for Brian to play bongos day in and day out; his hands are rough and splotched with purple when he comes off stage and he's had to put super glue in the cracks made in his fingers more than one time. In keeping with their new sound, Guster spiced up the old favorite "Airport Song" with Scooter on the drums and a voiceover from Ryan. The song lists at both concerts were fairly well balanced with music from all five albums. Crowd favorites at both concerts tended to be "Amsterdam" and "Barrel of a Gun," both of which were hit singles.

At the end of the Saturday night, one of the roadies asked me, "So are you coming to Baltimore?" Maybe he was joking. Maybe he wasn't. Was this like an invitation? I assumed it was. Was I going to Baltimore? I mean, screw my transcript, screw a $23,000 semester, screw working my butt off without hope of getting anything higher than B+'s. for teachers who think their class is my only class.

"I really have to get back to school, actually," I said.

"What were you thinking?"

I've heard this question from a few people the past few days, including myself. Truth is, assuming this really was an invitation, giving up on the last few weeks of school, tempting as it would be, would have just added fuel to the fire. Even before I talked to several roadies about it, I could see for myself how addicting this life could be - traveling from town to town, a wandering, wild sojourn across the United State,s would be the kind of grueling yet adrenaline-pumping lifestyle I could learn to love. But just like that little voice inside my head told me to forget doing work on Saturday and drive to New York, there was a little voice outside that tour bus that was saying I needed to get back to reality, don't get addicted to the Jack Kerouac thing just yet, there will be time for more crazy antics later in life.