Anchoring the SoCo music scene

Highway Poets

Highway Poets, a popular young Sonoma County band that is beginning to make inroads in the greater Bay Area market, also stresses original music, said founding member Sebastian Nau.

“For most of the year, we play mostly in Sonoma County, but then for a couple of months, we pack in so many other venues in March and April, like the Fillmore and the Great American Music Hall” in San Francisco, Nau said.

“We play the Last Day Saloon, Russian River Brewing Company, the Mystic Theatre, Aubergine and the HopMonk Tavern in Sonoma County.We do a new set every time we play Sonoma County, never the same show twice,” he added. “We try to do some new takes on old songs, and keep it exciting.”

Dave Daher, owner of the Last Day Saloon in Santa Rosa, counts Pride & Joy, the Dirty Dub Band and Danny Click and the Hell Yeahs among his mainstay bands. The Pulsators are slated to play there Nov. 23.

The Brothers Comatose

Younger local bands like the Highway Poets and the Brothers Comatose have had some success playing San Francisco venues on the strength of their songwriting, Daher explained.

“They’re moving around there because they have original material that they’re trying to promote,” he said.

Not all of the bands that write new material are newcomers on the local scene. For example, the Sorrentinos, led by Danny Sorrentino, has produced a large repertoire of original songs.

Local music fans can rattle off a long list of bands that they’ve come to love — Detroit Disciples, Frobeck, Poor Man’s Whiskey, Wonderbread 5, THUGZ (Tribal Hippie Underground Zone) and more.

Musical styles range from roots and world music to classic rock and dance favorites to original songs, but the bands all have one thing in common. They keep showing up to play.

“We just enjoy playing music,” said Campbell of the Pulsators. “We have a tradition of creating a party atmosphere and dancing. We’re not expecting people to just sit and listen. It’s not uptight.”

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. See his ARTS blog at arts.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.