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3 BANDS GO DOWN THE LANE; (AND INTO THE GUTTER) TO STRIKE UP A RELATIONSHIP WITH LOCAL FANS SLMO000020040308e0380006c EVERYDAY MAGAZINE By Daniel P. Finney Of The Post-Dispatch 1206 Words 08 March 2004 St. Louis Post-Dispatch FIVE STAR LATE LIFT E1 English Copyright 2004, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. All Rights Reserved. Three promising young bands walk into a bowling alley . . . No, actually this isn't a set-up for a bad joke. It's a story about how three young bands, Ima Robot, Kill Hannah and the Sounds, went bowling Tuesday at the Pin-Up Bowl, the hot new bowling alley/martini bar in the Delmar Loop, just down the street from the Pageant, on the western edge of St. Louis. The evening was set up by record retailer Vintage Vinyl. Fans of the bands e-mailed the store. The store picked six people to go bowling with the bands, which were playing a show later that night at Mississippi Nights. Other fans could show up, get autographs and mingle. This seemed simple enough until you actually got there and saw a mob of extremely hip looking people gathered around bowling lanes. Then sorting out who's who became something of a task. First, the basic rule: Everyone who is absurdly skinny with stylized hair-cuts, wearing either blue-jean jackets or leather, the latest in fine body piercings and tattoo art and, in general, looking a little bit too cool to be hanging around a bowling alley is probably in a band. The first band on the scene was Ima Robot. They are guitarist Timmy Anderson, bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen and guitarist Oliver Goldstein. The rest of the band, Goldstein explained, "had other stuff to do" and couldn't make the bowling gig. The guys from Kill Hannah rolled in next. They are all so skinny Sally Struthers could do a commercial for them: "For just 30 cents a day, you can make sure these young band members don't starve to death ..." Also, for reasons not immediately clear, all five band members have dark circles under their eyes, possibly the result of wearing mascara. Anyway, the five are bassist Greg Corner, guitarist Dan Wiese, lead singer Mat Devine, guitarist Jon Radtke and a woman named Collene, whose affiliation with the band was not disclosed. The Sounds arrived flashing leather and denim. The gal in front looked like the secret love child of Joey Ramone and Debbie Harry. She's the lead singer of the Sounds, platinum blonde Maja Ivarsson. She's flanked by keyboardist Jesper Anderberg, bassist Johan Bengtsson, drummer Fredrik Nilsson and guitarist Felix Rodriguez. Finally, some ordinary looking people showed up, you know, people who look like they've eaten a meal and shopped in a store where you buy clothes off the rack. They are the contest winners and the fans. Size 37 shoes The bowling was supposed to start at 5 o'clock sharp, but problems arise with the shoes. The Sounds are from Stockholm, Sweden. They're used to measuring things in the metric system. Ivarsson threw her petite, booted foot on the desk and shrugged. "Size 37 European," she said. The guy behind the counter had no clue. "Um, maybe a 6." She tried them on. Too big. "No, my toe was right here," Ivarsson said, pressing down on the bowling shoe right where the laces end. The shoe master fished out a size 5, which seemed to satisfy her. One guy from Kill Hannah, it's hard to say which one, tried to hand the shoe master his own shoes in an apparent trade. "Do I give you these or what?" the band member asked. "Um, no," the shoe master said, eyeing the dusty, well-worn boots. "Keep them. Please." Two fans paired up with each band and the bowling began. It became clear that the Sounds were at a disadvantage when Ivarsson rolled a gutterball on her first toss. "Well, the Swedes probably aren't used to bowling," joked one of the Ima Robot guys. With that, Ivarsson tossed her second ball, knocking down all 10 pins and earning a spare. She turned to her bandmates and said, "The Swedes are pretty good at everything, sweetheart." After that, chaos and frivolity ensued. The bands mingled, making it nearly impossible again to tell who's who, except for the Sounds. Band members cursed in Swedish whenever one of them threw a bad ball. Ringers in Kill Hannah It became immediately clear that the two contest winners bowling with Kill Hannah, Victoria Kezmich and Greg Smith, two St. Louis University students, are ringers. Both blasted away strikes and spares with relative ease. Smith bowled a team-high 141. "I think we should test some of the bands for steroids," joked the Sounds' Bengtsson. "There needs to be an investigation." Kill Hannah won the bowling tournament. Ima Robot finished second and the Sounds, which were held down by Ivarsson's 87 and one of its guest's 63, finishes last. The band did, however, notch the best bowler of the group, Anderberg, who rolled a 164 and, in another game, 179. After the bowling, the Sounds were approached by Terrien Jackson, 26, of St. Louis. Jackson, who wore a blue and yellow Swedish soccer jersey, is something of an aficionado of Swedish culture. He cornered Sounds guitarist Rodriguez, whose father is from Chile. Talking at light speed, Jackson asked about Swedish politics, the news in Stockholm and complained about the isolated, insular views of most Americans. Pleasantly but firmly, Rodriguez turned to Jackson and said, "I am just a guitar player. I'm a stupid rock and roller. I watch MTV. I don't care." Swedish handball Jackson kept talking anyway, taking up with Anderberg, who bantered with him a bit about Swedish sports, including, of all things, handball. At one point, Jackson pulled out a large black binder and thumbed through a mountain of papers looking for a report he'd written on the lack of global perspective by ordinary Americans. Anderberg turned to an observer and said, "This guy sure talks a lot." Band members clearly were uninterested in Jackson's high-minded conversation, yet they humored him for a good half an hour. When the Sounds finally split, Jackson said, quite earnestly, "Well, that was a very interesting conversation. I got some very good perspective." This is the mark of an up and coming band. The Sounds, Kill Hannah and Ima Robot were in town at the same time Bob Dylan played shows at the Pageant. Nobody had seen Dylan or could get close to him during his three-day stint here. Meanwhile, these three bands were out bowling with their fans. In the end, it probably didn't matter what the scores of the bowling matches were, because both fans and bands were winners. HANGING OUT WITH ... BOWLING ROCKERS Reporter Daniel P. Finney E-mail: dfinney@post-dispatch.com Phone: 314-340-8373 PHOTO | Photos by DAWN MAJORS / POST-DISPATCH (1) Color Photo - Guitarists Timmy "the Terror" Anderson (left) and Oliver Goldstein of Ima Robot sign posters after a bowling competition among bands at Pin-Up Bowl. (2) Photo - Maja Ivarsson, lead singer for the Sounds, talks with friends during a bowling competition among bands at Pin-Up, a bowling alley-bar-restaurant in the Delmar Loop.

Excellent article, Phobes. Thanks for the post.

Second place, eh? Somehow I think that Scott's presence might have made a difference.