{"id":2446761,"date":"2019-07-25T09:28:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T15:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/black-pistol-fire-celebrates-aspens-sam-coffey-at-belly-up\/"},"modified":"2019-07-25T09:28:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T15:28:00","slug":"black-pistol-fire-celebrates-aspens-sam-coffey-at-belly-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/black-pistol-fire-celebrates-aspens-sam-coffey-at-belly-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Pistol Fire celebrates Aspen\u2019s Sam Coffey at Belly Up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Singer\/guitarist Kevin KcKeown, of Black Pistol FIre, photographed at Belly Up in 2017. The band will headline the club on Friday night in a celebration of the life of Aspen’s Sam Coffey.<\/strong>
Aspen TImes file<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Black Pistol Fire has played in Aspen many times. Usually at Belly Up, whose owners also manage the band, for a tour stop or perhaps at a charity event like Ascendigo\u2019s Light It Blue. The Austin-by-way-of-Toronto rock duo also has shown up at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience and gone acoustic in a gondola car on Aspen Mountain.<\/p>\n

However, their latest local stop is a little bit different and a lot of bit special. They\u2019re still going to bring their thrilling, exhausting, aggressive, distortion-filled live show to Belly Up on Friday, but it also will be a celebration of local Sam Coffey, who died on vacation in Mexico in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wiley Maple, a good friend of Coffey and member of his ski gang, the Freaks, reached out to David and Danny Goldberg, owners of Belly Up and managers of Black Pistol Fire, and related how much their gang enjoyed Black Pistol Fire\u2019s music and what the band\u2019s Aspen appearances meant to them.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The Freaks) were big fans of ours and they kind of came to every show and Sam in particular,\u201d recalled drummer Eric Owen, who makes up Black Pistol Fire along with singer\/guitarist Kevin McKeown, speaking from the road just outside San Francisco.. \u201cI think it was something they really bonded over and, you know, something they really all did together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coffey and the Freaks had long been part of the band\u2019s fervent local fanbase.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to the Belly Up and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll shows in general is a huge part of Sam\u2019s and all of our lives,\u201d Baker Boyd, also a good friend of Coffey\u2019s and member of the Freaks, said on Wednesday via text.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we found out he passed, a couple of the Freaks reached out to \u2026 our management and kind of told us,\u201d Owen said of how the idea and offer came about, which the band happily accepted. \u201cAnything we can do to kind of help remember the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often compared to the Black Keys, the duo delivers a similar sound on Spotify but a faster and grungier version live \u2013 especially at Belly Up.<\/p>\n

Known for improvisation-heavy shows that feature McKeown playing everywhere from in the crowd to the top of Owen\u2019s bass drum, the band leaves the audience almost as sweaty as themselves.<\/p>\n

The headbang-inducing \u201cAlabama Coldcock\u201d sounds exactly as the name implies: a confrontationally loud guitar with louder drums. \u201cRun Rabbit Run\u201d begins with a pulsating bass drum and only gets more frenetic when guitar and vocals come in.<\/p>\n

However, their catalog is more diverse and can be overshadowed by the sheer volume of their live show.<\/p>\n

\u201cBombs and Bruises\u201d sounds like it was written for an acoustic guitar, when listened to on the aforementioned \u201cGondola Sessions.\u201d. One of their newest releases, \u201cTemper Temper,\u201d features an infectious, almost funk feel that Owen called more \u201cgroovy\u201d and \u201cpsychedelic\u201d with a Tame Impala and alt-J vibe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always kind of listened to everything and then you just get inspired by different types of music,\u201d Owen said. \u201cYou know we\u2019re never going to sound those bands. It\u2019s like how can we take little elements that they do that we like and make them work for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Owen said fans have been happy with the new music and are cool with Black Pistol Fire trying different sounds because \u201cthey don\u2019t want to hear the same thing all the time.. \u2026 It\u2019s always going to sound like us.\u201d Just maybe with different \u201celements\u201d or \u201cpersonalities.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the band hasn\u2019t come out with a full album since 2017, they\u2019ve been releasing songs as they\u2019ve become ready, citing the months it takes to get an album mastered, get the vinyl ready and do press. \u201cTemper Temper,\u201d released in May, is one such song that was debuted outside of the traditional album format.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you have songs ready to go. Instead of waiting a year and a half, maybe you can just release them when you\u2019re ready so it\u2019s fresh with you and fresh with your audience,\u201d Owen said.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re still going to make albums, but Owen said it is \u201ca weird thing when you record a song and two years later it comes out on an album.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owen said they\u2019re going to play some of Coffey\u2019s favorite songs, to do a deep-dive in the catalog, play some new stuff and possibly a cover or two, as well, but otherwise there were no concrete plans for honoring Coffey on-stage at press time.<\/p>\n

Though they didn\u2019t know him personally, Owen said the band just wants to show people a good time and help them remember a good guy who \u201cwill be there in spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

sbeckwith@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Singer\/guitarist Kevin KcKeown, of Black Pistol FIre, photographed at Belly Up in 2017. The band will headline the club on Friday night in a celebration of the life of Aspen’s Sam Coffey.Aspen TImes file Black Pistol Fire has played in Aspen many times. Usually at Belly Up, whose owners also manage the band, for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 23:46:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}