White Ghost Shivers haunt Sherman Hall
Ian Davis
Issue date: 10/28/09 Section: The Edge
John "The Duchess" Doyle is the last member, but by no means the least. Playing two instruments, the clarinet and saxophone, he creates melodies and sounds that shouldn't even be possible.
The band's history is as eclectic as their stage names.
"It was really by chance. We all moved to Austin around 1999, and for some reason or another met. We realized we all shared the same love of this '20s and '30s style jazz and swing music, and decided to play it for a living," Borghesi said.
The band has a large library of material, almost double what they actually play in any given show.
"Really, though, we have a lot more. We practice enough that in addition to all the traditional style we play our songs in, we can also do all of them as punk-rock songs or heavy metal," Borghesi added.
The band has had quite some time to garner a large following, and have actually toured multiple places all over, from New York to Berlin.
They also play at universities fairly often, but unfortunately their shows are much more subdued there, which hinders the high energy, danceable nature of their material.
They also go back home to Austin to put on a gala Halloween bash each year.
While the Halloween theme is part of their reputation now, it didn't really start that way.
"We never really intended for the Halloween stuff to happen at all," Borghesi said. "We all like the minor key jazz, and would play it a lot. With the way that sounds though, all of the spooky themes we're associated with now just kind of fell into place over the years."
After the show, a few members of the audience thanked the band for coming and performing for the school. Their answer describes the band completely and fully, better than anything else.
"Thank you, we had a great time playing for you guys, and we hope that we can come back next year and play here again."
The band's history is as eclectic as their stage names.
"It was really by chance. We all moved to Austin around 1999, and for some reason or another met. We realized we all shared the same love of this '20s and '30s style jazz and swing music, and decided to play it for a living," Borghesi said.
The band has a large library of material, almost double what they actually play in any given show.
"Really, though, we have a lot more. We practice enough that in addition to all the traditional style we play our songs in, we can also do all of them as punk-rock songs or heavy metal," Borghesi added.
The band has had quite some time to garner a large following, and have actually toured multiple places all over, from New York to Berlin.
They also play at universities fairly often, but unfortunately their shows are much more subdued there, which hinders the high energy, danceable nature of their material.
They also go back home to Austin to put on a gala Halloween bash each year.
While the Halloween theme is part of their reputation now, it didn't really start that way.
"We never really intended for the Halloween stuff to happen at all," Borghesi said. "We all like the minor key jazz, and would play it a lot. With the way that sounds though, all of the spooky themes we're associated with now just kind of fell into place over the years."
After the show, a few members of the audience thanked the band for coming and performing for the school. Their answer describes the band completely and fully, better than anything else.
"Thank you, we had a great time playing for you guys, and we hope that we can come back next year and play here again."
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