As part of this year’s Slingshot Festival, Kenosha Kid will finish its two-week tour at Hendershot’s Coffee March 28. Celebrating the release of its fourth studio album, “Inside Voices,” the band will play two sets alongside Etienne de Rocher.
“It will be the last night of our two-week tour, and I think we’ll be ready to land at our home base as part of Slingshot at our favorite venue for the evening,” said Dan Nettles, the guitarist and central figure behind Kenosha Kid. “I’m looking forward to that celebration on stage, basically.”
The show’s format will consist of alternating sets from the two acts. To keep things moving quickly, each act will have its own stage already set-up.
Currently touring with five members, Kenosha Kid’s line-up now consists of a standard rock trio alongside two horn players.
“It’s a huge honor for me to have them want to come play and come do it, make it come alive,” Nettles said.
Blending multiple genres into one eclectic sound, the group has something for fans of jam, jazz and instrumental music in general.
“Songs without words can mean so many things. Words are just so damn specific and they fail a lot, I think, compared to music and what it can mean for you,” Nettles said.
With such strong ties to various traditions of improvised music, much of Kenosha Kid’s live set involves spontaneous composition. During the production of “Inside Voices” especially, the band tried to curate its collection of improvised ideas and choose only the most efficient iterations.
“That was the thought behind the recording: let’s play live and then, the next day in the studio, we’re going to digest that and make diamonds out of coal,” Nettles said.
Although Nettles says the music itself hasn’t changed direction, the approach to “Inside Voices” stands out from Kenosha Kid’s recent past. Since 2010, the band has uploaded over 20 live recordings on its Bandcamp page, something Nettles said he did to capture the spontaneity of live performances.
“There’s just a lot of risk-taking live, and that’s what makes it exciting. That can lead to really incredible results. It can also lead to some spectacular failures, which is okay, too,” Nettles said.
Nettles’ appreciation of both the victories and so-called defeats of live improvisation tie well into his views on his growth as a musician. Each musical step, whatever direction it may be in, forms a path, and Nettles seems to appreciate walking it.
“I think about music through time a lot also – where a song means one thing while I’m writing it, and it means all these other things two years later after I’ve performed it hundreds of times and the experiences that I’ll have in that time,” Nettles said. “It becomes a layered feeling.”
Another curious aspect of “Inside Voices” is the existence of its forthcoming companion record “Outside Choices.” Nettles said that the two albums were originally a double record that he chose to split up to give him time to learn from his release of the first one. “Outside Choices” is planned for a 2016 release.
de Rocher said his performance will be in a format fairly new to him. de Rocher will be taking the stage alongside cellist Jacob Morris, armed with a keyboard and a drum machine.
“It’s fun. I like playing keyboard,” de Rocher said. “It’s just a different thing than playing guitar or acoustic guitar.”
With the nature of his experimental line-up for this show, de Rocher’s set will involve lots of newer, more experimental songs. In addition to de Rocher and Morris, Dan Nettles of Kenosha Kid will make guitar appearances on a few songs.
“I was really happy to find [Kenosha Kid] just as a fan, as an audience member. Dan is also just a great player to have solo on stuff of mine sometimes,” de Rocher said. “I’m just a fan. Dan writes great stuff and makes good records.”
Nettles expressed excitement to play for fans at the show and hopes to see as many people there as possible.
“I’m really impressed by the fans, the people who are listening to the music. I think about them a lot,” Nettles said. “My whole goal on this tour is to get the good music that we make to that less than one percent of folks out there who are into it. I always think of that little sliver of people out there that are music people. Those are the great people that I’m writing for, playing for and going on tour to see.”
