{"id":11883,"date":"2016-05-04T06:50:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T12:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=11883"},"modified":"2016-05-04T06:50:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T12:50:00","slug":"local-band-the-henge-takes-inspiration-from-the-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/05\/local-band-the-henge-takes-inspiration-from-the-band\/","title":{"rendered":"Local band the Henge takes inspiration from the Band"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Henge\"<\/a>

Scott Wagers<\/p>

Under the gaze of a canine fan, Austin Schilling, left, Bryan Brooksby and A.J. Sheble of the Henge play before about 60 people at the Yellowstone Valley Brewing Co.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Band brought them together, and the Band is helping to define their sound.<\/p>\n

The Henge, which played an energetic set at the Yellowstone Valley Brewing Co.\u2019s Garage Pub last weekend, had its genesis when Bryan Brooksby heard Austin Schilling play \u201cThe Weight\u201d during an open-mic session at the Garage Pub.<\/p>\n

Brooksby, trying to carve out a Billings musical presence after moving here from Portland, Ore., was waiting to play next when he heard that tune from the Band, which he says is, and always will be, his favorite group.<\/p>\n

He thought, \u201cOh oh, I have to go on after this guy.\u201d So he followed up in what seemed to be the best way possible: He played \u201cOphelia,\u201d another song by the Band.<\/p>\n

The two started talking afterward, and, with the help of Schilling\u2019s longtime friend A.J. Sheble, Henge was born in October.<\/p>\n

At Saturday\u2019s show, Henge played only one tune by the Band, the existential musings of \u201cThe Weight,\u201d with help on vocals from Jessica Lechner. But Brooksby lists the Band as one of Henge\u2019s chief influences, along with Bob Dylan and Van Morrison.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>These ears thought they also detected hints of the Delta blues, Elvis Presley, the Allman Brothers, the Hollies, Texas progressive country and even the Soggy Bottom Boys from the Coen Brothers\u2019 immaculate comedy \u201cO Brother, Where Art Thou?\u201d<\/p>\n

But the band members rely on themselves for most of their inspiration. Saturday\u2019s 20-song set included fewer than a half-dozen covers, with Brooksby and Schilling writing most of the originals. Sheble is the group\u2019s George Harrison, Brooksby said, quiet but bursting with talent.<\/p>\n

Most of the band\u2019s shows have been heavily acoustic, Brooksby said, but for Saturday\u2019s concert they added two musicians from Satsang\u2014Keller Paulson on drums and Karl Roth on bass\u2014and adopted more of a rock \u2019n\u2019 roll sound.<\/p>\n

With all three of the band\u2019s main players on guitar, and with a relentlessly upbeat tempo, the danger that redundancy would set in had to be deftly avoided. The band did it by offering sophisticated vocal arrangements that kept the sound fresh.<\/p>\n

\"Sheble\"<\/a>

Scott Wagers<\/p>

A.J. Sheble grew up in Cut Bank with fellow band member Austin Schilling, where they both sang in the high school choir.<\/p><\/div>\n

For that, Brooksby credited Sheble and Schilling, who grew up together in Cut Bank and sang in the high school choir.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve both really helped me a lot with my singing,\u201d Brooksby said.<\/p>\n

Brooksby\u2019s own interest in music began at a young age and was encouraged by his parents. He was part of a band called the Sorry Devils that formed in 2012 and was invited to play \u201cThe Weight\u201d at a Portland tribute concert that recreated the Band\u2019s famous \u201cLast Waltz\u201d show, which became an iconic concert film directed by Martin Scorsese.<\/p>\n

Brooksby moved to Billings because of a girl and to study music at Rocky Mountain College (full disclosure: He was in this writer\u2019s freshmen composition class at Rocky). But now he is devoting full time to his music.<\/p>\n

He was part of GretschLove, an acoustic duo, for a while but wanted a fuller band. Then along came Schilling and Sheble.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely encourage each other musically,\u201d Brooksby said.<\/p>\n

\"Henge\"<\/a>

Scott Wagers<\/p>

Bryan Brooksby moved to Billings from Portland, Ore., and helped form the Henge last fall.<\/p><\/div>\n

Schilling has been playing for only about five years, but he writes a couple of songs a week. On Saturday, frontman Brooksby introduced one of them this way: \u201cWe wrote this one yesterday. Do you guys want to hear it?\u201d<\/p>\n

At that, Schilling, who sang lead vocals on most of the songs, launched into a lively tune with repeated lines that sounded like, \u201cHe stole my money, he stole my shoes, and I ain\u2019t never felt more alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

After an earlier original, \u201cFool for You,\u201d Brooksby told the crowd of about 60 people, \u201cThat was the fast, dirty blues. This is that slow, sexy blues,\u201d then launched into another original.<\/p>\n

Only on song No. 8 did Brooksby announce, \u201cWe\u2019re going to venture into the land of cover songs,\u201d introducing Texas songwriter Hayes Carll\u2019s \u201cBad Liver and a Broken Heart.\u201d Other covers also drew heavily on Texas influences, including Ray Wylie Hubbard\u2019s \u201cSnake Farm\u201d and ZZ Top\u2019s \u201cGimme Me All Your Lovin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strictly cover Texas artists,\u201d Brooksby said before the band played a couple of non-Texas songs. Henge was joined by opening act Reid Perry on Tom Petty\u2019s \u201cListen to Her Heart,\u201d then by Lechner for \u201cThe Weight,\u201d the one song that didn\u2019t fit seamlessly into the set. But the Henge played and sang it with such spirit and skill that it seemed the perfect tribute before closing with two more originals.<\/p>\n

Only six months into the band\u2019s career, and with Schilling missing for student teaching for much of the semester, the Henge hasn\u2019t yet worked out all of the kinks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a few missteps,\u201d Brooksby admitted. \u201cBut we had our poker faces on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Austin\"<\/a>

Scott Wagers<\/p>

Austin Schilling takes a harmonica break.<\/p><\/div>\n

The busy summer ahead could allow plenty of time to work out those kinks. The band has shows scheduled in Great Falls, Helena and Choteau and is working on shows in Seattle in August.<\/p>\n

Locally, the band plays at 7 p.m. Friday at Yellowstone Cellars and Winery and at 8 p.m. May 21 at MoAV Coffee at the old Carlin Hotel.<\/p>\n

For Brooksby, who has been playing music seriously since 2010, it\u2019s all part of the therapeutic value of playing live music.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just one of those things that you can\u2019t recreate with anything else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Indeed, his other musical projects include playing with Lechner in Double Barreled Daisy. And he hopes that the Henge will have a recording out by July. So far, he has no regrets about leaving Portland and college behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super happy up here in Billings, and super proud of our band,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Band brought them together, and the Band is helping to define their sound. The Henge, which played an energetic set at the Yellowstone Valley Brewing Co.\u2019s Garage Pub last weekend, had its genesis when Bryan Brooksby heard Austin Schilling play \u201cThe Weight\u201d during an open-mic session at the Garage Pub.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[4281,4280,1108,4282,4283,4278,4279,4284,202],"class_list":["post-11883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-a-j-sheble","tag-austin-schilling","tag-bob-dylan","tag-bryan-brooksby","tag-jessica-lechner","tag-the-band","tag-the-henge","tag-van-morrison","tag-yellowstone-valley-brewing-co","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}