Before Braille comes to Hogan's

Heather Frye, Lewiston Tribune

Iif they could have changed one thing about the past six years, the five members of Before Braille might have been on tour months ago.

Getting out and playing music is the important thing, says the Mesa, Ariz.-based band's lead guitarist, Hans Ringger. But the extra time Aezra Records has kept the fledgling indie rock band in the studio and off the road has had good results, Ringger admits. In that time they have tightened up, added a 17-year old virtuoso percussionist, another guitarist and cut their first album. They have only sold about 300 or 400 copies of "The Rumor," but it's single "Twenty-Four Minus Eighteen" is moving into the top five on some alternative music charts. Still, playing live and making music is where Before Braille prefers to be, says Ringger in a telephone interview from Santa Monica, Calif. The band, who plays tonight at Hogan's Place in Clarkston, has just finished a gig in Santa Monica. "I don't think we have ever aspired to be a big hit band," says Ringger. "We started out making music for the pleasure of creating it, and that's what we are still doing." Before Braille began six years ago when Ringger returned to his desert homeland in Arizona from Germany and hooked up with old high school friend David Jensen, who also had just returned from overseas. Brandon Smith, another high school friend, joined the two knocking about in the garage by day and playing house parties by night. In time the three became five. All bring a wide variety of influences to the music, but they have managed to blend and bend to one another's style. Grinding, heavy and impassioned bass and percussion with melodic guitar and vocals defines Before Braille's sound. But song for song, the band mixes influences to create a sound that ranges from punk meets Pink Floyd to metal ballads meet indie alternative (Radiohead) and classic rock. Lately the band has been likened to a harder, rawer version of Arizona contemporaries, Jimmy Eat World. It's nice to be compared to a chart-topping band, Ringger says. But he grates at any comparison, preferring like his other bandmates to remain outside the box of being easily defined. "We are still pushing the limits of our talent, just watching every day where music takes us."

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