SAC BEE ARTICLE: It’s Wild sailing for these Boats

By: BOATS Mood: happy Date: 08/21/2008 18:35:22 Music: None

Pop Life: It's wild sailing for these Boats

By Rachel Leibrock - rleibrock@sacbe.com

Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, August 1, 2008Story appeared in TICKET section, Page TICKET38.

The pop-fueled punk band the Boats – David Hayden, Matt Leonardo and Jeff Melendez – will play tonight at Javalounge in midtown.

 

Every band's got a bad-show report and, if it has ever toured, you can count on such tales of woe to grow in both number and degree of awfulness.

For Boats, the most recent horror story was logged last month at a basement gig in Albany, N.Y.

"It was the day after the Fourth of July, and all these kids were throwing fireworks at the bands," says bassist David Hayden.

A bad break, yes, but members of the Sacramento-based punk band, who play tonight at the JavaLounge, try to take it all in stride.

"You know, that show was actually kind of fun – nobody got hurt, and we've played worse," Hayden says cheerfully, talking on his cell phone from Medford, Ore.

If anything, such gigs are routine for a band aiming to stay out on the road as much as possible – and at whatever the cost.

"We're barely able to make ends meet most of the time," Hayden says. "It's great when we can afford gas and Taco Bell for everyone."

With the spike in fuel costs, of course, lately that's been more difficult than usual.

Hayden's not really complaining, even though the 21-year-old musician started the band with friends Matt Leonardo, also 21, and Jeff Melendez, 30, with the idea that they'd "make a lot of money."

It wasn't long, he says, before the trio figured out some of the fundamentals of being in a band.

"We thought we'd go out on the road, come home with a lot of money and split it up," Hayden says. "But there's obviously no money in music – it's kind of depressing."

Lest you think the members of Boats are just soulless, cash- hungry fools, it's not quite like that.

"We just wanted to get together and play and sound like the bands we like," Hayden says, citing the Briefs and the Clorox Girls as major influences on Boats' catchy, pop-fueled punk sound.

Now, the band's hoping to earn enough cash to record a series of 7-inch singles and keep the tour wheels rolling.

They're even thinking of trying a more cost-effective, eco-friendly approach.

"We may get a diesel van or convert ours to run on vegetable oil," says Hayden, who says he kept a carefully tally of the band's most recent fuel charges.

"It cost us at least $5,000 in gas for these shows," he says. "If we convert the van, we could drive to the East Coast for just $80 – restaurants will give away their discarded oil for free."

In the meantime, they'll continue to get by with a little help from their friends.

"Before we left on this tour, a guy at the bar where I work gave me a hundred-dollar bill," Hayden says. "He told me, 'You're living the dream.'

"If we could, of course, we'd live a little better," Hayden says. But this is good and we are having fun."

BOATS

WITH: The Enlows, the No-Goodniks and Flip the SwitchWHEN: 8 tonightWHERE: Javalounge, 2416 16th St., SacramentoHOW MUCH: $5INFORMATION: (916) 441-3945 or www.myspace.com/javaloungecoffeeLink to the article:http://www.sacbee.com/music/story/1122116.html

THANKS RACHEL!!!!!