Washboard Abs Rock with Boulder Acoustic Society!

Giving the term ‘washboard abs’ a whole new meaning – or perhaps it’s original meaning - Boulder Acoustic Society combined fiddle, marimbas, stand up base and (you guessed it if you are paying any attention at all) …washboards!! to lay down a rollicking roller coaster ride of bluegrass, rock, barbershop quartet and just good plain fun. They rolled it all into The Temple Bar in Santa Monica on July 10. Scott Higgins donned a washboard for rhythm as explained by the unofficial frontman, Aaron Keim. They needed to use it to snag second place in the national Bluegrass festival where they weren’t allowed to rely on their traditional rhythm section they had laid out at the Temple Bar. They are obviously having too much fun, adhering to their various roots styles with neurotic exactness yet a wry sense of humor simultaneously.

They opened the set with a splash with ‘Surfology’. This is one of their most genre-bending and densely jazz infested songs which start out as an instrumental then kicks in with unexpectedly punchy harmonic vocal chants. As Aaron said, ‘We are such nerds we spend time doing things other folks don’t do, like look for the perfect bike horn for our washboard’ He went on to point out Scott Higgin’s washboard black gloves with metal nails that looked impressively ‘creepy’ and invited takers up for a back scratch with them. ‘Thingy’ from their‘8th Color’ album starting with marimbas and strings was cascading like the soundtrack to an animated butterfly swooping around as light as a feather. ‘Mango Juice’ is one of my faves, with a lilting almost cartoonish melody, reminiscent of Pilot Drift, the indie experimenters from Texarkana. It was the most heartfelt love song…er, to mango juice! A tropical squeeze, like the beginning of Weezer’s Islands in the Sun, without resorting to the W’s roaring distortion later in the song, and not missing it. ‘I’m Satisfied With My Gal’ made you think you were walking down Main Street in Disneyland hearing a ragtime quartet. This song showed off their strong tight vocals that you tend to ignore when caught up in keeping up with the whitewater rapids of music styles they pour over you like the Colorado River splashing over boulders in its wake!