Buke and Gase are non-standard fare for the Acoustic Hodgepodge blog, but their unique sound and instrumentation drew me in.
Buke and Gase (formerly Buke and Gass) are named after their unique instruments. Buke (as played by Arone Dyer) stands for ??? Best I can tell its a similar form factor to a metal terz guitar, guitalele or tenor dobro (sans resonator) with a new neck to hold six strings. The tuning is some form of open chord that I am not 100% sure what it is. Gase (as played by Aron Sanchez) is a guitar bass hybrid. It appears to have the 4 strings of a bass and the two lowest strings of a guitar. Typically when you see 5/6 string base guitars they are going lower rather than higher. Gase was formally referred to in type as Gass but I suspect too many people mispronounced it.
The combination of the two is a fantastic energetic sound, that layers well. At least, I suppose it does live based on youtube clips I've heard. There was a big sound flaw that delayed their set over half an hour. While this was going on, Dyer came out and played a wonderful solo number, but admittedly was uncomfortable continuing without her gase. That, unfortunately, was the only song I heard clearly for the rest of the night.
Arone Dyer
Something the reader might now know about the Acoustic Hodgepodge is that I work in audio. I've recorded and mixed bands, worked in live sound and done various things in the pro/consumer audio world for over a decade. So when the sound is bad or something is wrong I have to fight the urge not to step in to help debug. When Sanchez started having sound issues, they really should have stepped back and taken the logical approach to subbing cables/ microphones and jacks. It would have saved a lot of time. In the end they ran a cable from backstage. From that point the change in sound setup resulted in the gase overwhelming everything else. The vox and buke were just gone. There was even one song that all you could hear was the gase DRONING ON ONE FUCKING NOTE.
Aron Sanchez
At the end of the night I decided to be fair and give the sound engineers a chance. I took out my hearing protection (very flat just a few dB down above 5-6kHz relative to the low end) and walked to the back near where they were. The mix was a bit better, and you could hear the buke and vox more, but the gase was still overpowering. I realized that part of their issue was that the gase was just too fucking loud on stage. Even Dyer said she didn't want to hear Sanchez at all in her monitors. But enough about sound...
I stuck around for most of the set because I really wanted to see these guys and because, well they're fun to watch. The two clearly play off each other. Exchanging glances, making faces and expressing how they think they're doing. Clearly two friends making happy noise. Their sound is quite frenetic. The kick drum that Sanchez plays agressively drives sound. Combine that with the tambourine Dyer stomps on to fill in the cymbals/snare and they don't even really need a drummer (which is good because they don't have one). There's an intensity in the vox and plenty of effects I'd like to talk about, but I really couldn't hear her very well where I was.
To summarize, very intriguing band but a sideways show resulted in disappointment. I get it, it happens, but hopefully the next time I catch them their sound will be locked down.
