Earlier this summer, we covered the east coast tour announcement of psychobilly rockers The Limit Club. As they came through Boston, MA guest blogger, Kristen Nolan caught up with the band. Full of charm, edge and talent, The Limit Club are on a roll this year…
“. . . a Rock’N’Roll outfit with high energy and a dark side. . .”
SBN / Kristen Nolan: Briefly describe your sound to new readers, but as if you were speaking to a 100 year old who hasn’t listened to music since the phonograph!
Monty O’Blivion: “Oh, let’s see. We’ve got a big-band swing, but we’re mostly Post-Classical, AKA Rock’N’Roll” *laughs*
NickDave: “It’s like a train. It’s fast and then it’s slow.”
Monty O’Blivion: “I see the Limit Club as a Rock’N’Roll outfit with high energy and a dark side.”
NickDave: “Did they have Rock’N’Roll during the phonograph era? Imagine flapper girls dancing really, really fast.”
Nick Feratu: “And smoking cigarettes. You know what? We’re listening to a phonograph [Louis Jordan & the Tympani Five on the record player] right now.”
Juan Carlos: “Oh, I thought you said “photograph!” Phonograph, not photograph.”
KN: You can’t hear a photograph!
Juan Carlos: *laughs* “Yeah, that’s fine. We have the big-band swing, but we have guitars. And a lot of attitude.”
KN: You’re celebrating your 10th Anniversary this year. How have your sound and influences changed over the years?
NickDave: “Monty joined the band, and that changed our sound. Since he joined it’s expanded our range.”
Nick Feratu: “Our next record is going to be different. We’re working on new songs. We’re in the writing process now. There should be a lot of new sounds, new rhythmic ideas, guitars doing interesting stuff. As far as the way our sound has changed, that’s hard to say because I haven’t been paying attention to that really. We’ve just been doing what’s natural.”
Juan Carlos: “You can’t ever tell when you’re growing up with a person if they’ve grown from one day to the next, but if you step away from a family member for a few years, the next time you see them you’ll be surprised how much they’ve changed. I feel like that’s the same with us from our first album until now. When I listen to the first Limit Club album now, I think to myself, ‘Whoa, that’s different’.”
Nick Feratu: “Definitely. Who are these people?”
Juan Carlos: “So like anything, we’ve evolved. But we don’t notice it until we look at things in hindsight.”
KN: You have a tour coming up. You’re going to Europe, which is pretty exciting. Let’s say every night on tour, at different venues, you have to swap out a band member each night of tour, who would you use to replace them living or dead? So, say for Nick [Feratu] – I know you’re a fan of the Damned so you could swap for Dave Vanian [of the Damned].
Nick Feratu: “Well I don’t know if he’s a guitarist!” *laughs*
Juan Carlos: “It’s a trade-off, so we’ll just have Dave do vocals.”
Nick Feratu: “Now you’re talking. I like your style!”
Juan Carlos: “This is a rough one.”
Nick Feratu: “Yeah, that’s true. Everyone in this band has a very unique set of skills that they bring. Like NickDave, he plays upright bass, but he also sings lead on a lot of songs. Monty plays sax and guitar and sings, Juan Carlos stands and plays drums and sings better than I do. I basically just roll around on the floor a lot. So everyone except me has this unique thing going on and would be real hard to replace.”
NickDave: “I’d like to see what would happen if I was replaced with Charles Mingus. I think that would be kinda fun.”
Nick Feratu: “I would get Willie Dixon [for upright bass]. If he wasn’t available I would call Lee Rocker [formerly of Stray Cats].
Juan Carlos: “For me it would be Willie Dixon, because his way of playing was so amazing.”
Nick Feratu: “The man was a master. If you watch his hands, it was amazing. He was so casual on the upright bass.”
Juan Carlos: “He played full-size, thick steel strings on his bass too. So for bass, it would be Willie Dixon. For sax it would be the guy that recorded “Mellow Saxophone” *laughs*
Monty O’Blivion: “Is that the only sax player you know?”
Juan Carlos: “No, I just really like that sound! But I don’t know who that is either. I just know it’s the guy that did “Mellow Saxophone”.”
Nick Feratu: “Oh, Lee Allen. He was in the Blasters, but he also played for Little Richard back in the day. That guy was a honker. He could really play the sax.”
Juan Carlos: “We could get both guys from the Kings of Nuthin’ to sit in on sax one night.”
Nick Feratu: “I think this is just evolving into us designing our dream band lineup here. So let’s go wild, y’know? We’ll get a full horn section, Kim Nekroman [Nekromantix] on upright bass…” *laughs*
Nick Feratu: “… Buddy Rich on drums.”
*laughs*
Monty O’Blivion: “Let’s get Bill Clinton on the sax.”
Nick Feratu: “Captain Sensible [the Damned] AND Brian Setzer [Stray Cats] on guitar.”
Juan Carlos: “That’d be insane.”
KN: So basically, you guys aren’t going on tour anymore with all these people. *laughs*
Nick Feratu: “Yeah, you know. The whole thing was booked, but somehow funds ran short, we couldn’t get Setzer to agree to some of our songs, or any of them actually. Except for Shake. He liked that one.”
KN: On the topic of touring, aside from travel necessities, toothbrush and deodorant, instruments obviously. What other ‘must haves’ are there?
Nick Feratu: “Sunglasses.”
Monty O’Blivion: “Ear plugs.”
NickDave: “A light coat.” *laughs*
Juan Carlos: “Ear plugs definitely. They work for playing, sleeping…”
Nick Feratu: “Yeah, we stayed with a friend on tour recently. He was very hospitable and put us up for the night. We hung out, played records, talked about music, drank some beers. He’s such a great guy. It was fantastic. His place was this nice apartment in the big city. The only downside was, it was directly under the railroad tracks. The only way you could sleep at night was to wear ear plugs unless you got real comfortable with the sound of the train going by one-hundred percent of the time.”
Juan Carlos: “Real comfortable with the sound of the train going by one-hundred percent of the time.”
Monty O’Blivion: “Real comfortable with the sound of the train going by…”
Juan Carlos and Monty O’Blivion in unison: “ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT OF THE TIME.”
NickDave: “REAL comfortable.”*laughs*
Nick Feratu: “So, ear plugs are a necessity.”
Monty O’Blivion: “A clean, dry towel. Although I left mine at someone’s house.”
Nick Feratu: “I didn’t bring a towel and I never had a problem.”
KN: You always need a towel. It’s the first thing you pack!
Juan Carlos: “You know what? Baby wipes. Those are really important.”
Whole band: “Yeah!”
The Limit Club – NickDave, Juan Carlos, Nick Feratu, Monty Photo by Katey Bright
KN: Your band is named after a song by the Damned. If you had to switch your band name to any other song title, what would it be? It doesn’t have to be a Damned song.
Nick Feratu: “I have never been good at selecting a band name. That was such a deliberative process for me. It took ages.”
NickDave: “I wouldn’t go with a song title. I’d see if I could come up with something original.”
Monty O’Blivion: “Vicars and Tutus.”
NickDave: “Boots and Cats.”
Nick Feratu: “I don’t know, but the bands that are popular these days, you can tell it has nothing to do with the band’s name. You see some abstract shit sometimes, like fifteen word band names.”
Juan Carlos: “There’s a band called Milky Chance. What does that even mean?”
Nick Feratu: “On the other hand, that can be one of the things that initially attracts you to a band. Someone like The Damned, you think, ‘Wait, they’re just called The Damned?'”
Juan Carlos: “When I first heard of The Fall, I thought that was the coolest band name.”
Nick Feratu: “The Cure was another one. I think all the great one-word band names are all taken at this point. It’s like securing your web address. You think of a good one and look it up, then you find out some guy in Minnesota has taken it already.”
Juan Carlos: “I heard of a band called The Editors. I thought that sounded cool, so I looked them up and they SUCK.” *laughs*
Nick Feratu: “It doesn’t always work out. A good band name doesn’t guarantee the band will be any good. It goes the other way for bad band names. I avoided Echo and the Bunnymen for a long time because I thought that name was terrible. Turns out I was wrong and they’re fucking great.”
Monty O’Blivion: “Really? As soon as I heard their name, I thought they were cool and I had to check them out.”
The Limit Club Live in NYC by Sailors Grave Photography
Photo By Elaine Thomas Campbell
KN: Last question – Nick, you already mentioned that you’re working on new stuff. Is there anything else up next?
Nick Feratu: “The European Tour is going to be a huge endeavor and we’re very excited, but we do have stuff booked already for October. Some really great stuff that we can’t announce yet. We have booked gigs here in Phoenix, Arizona and California for October.”
The Limit Club European Tour Dates
Sept 3 – Rock’n’Roll Bar, Ludwigsburg, Germany
Sept 4 – Tattoo Convention, Eishalle, Reutlingen, Germany
Sept 5 – Drive In de l’Impossible, Axone, Montbéliard France
Sept 9 – Sonic Ballroom, Köln, Germany
Sept 11 – Yesterday Club, Bremerhaven, Germany
Sept 12 – Billy Bob’s @ Disney, Paris, France (with Furious)
Sept 14 – Willemeen, Arnheim, Netherlands (with Nekromantix)
Sept 15 – Private, B-Day, Dornbirn, Austria
Sept 17 – Anziehbar, Dornbirn, Austria
Sept 18 – Kulturcafé Schlachthaus, Dornbirn, Austria
Sept 19 – Piston Riot @ V8 Club, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Sept 21 – Utopia Bisztro, Budapest, Hungary
Sept 22 – Clash Club, Subotica, Serbia
Sept 23 – TamTam, Timisoara, Romania
Sept 25 – Hard Place, Zagreb, Croatia
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