Boomshack rock

ROCKING AT THE DOME: Boomshack plays sounds from the 50s and 60s, and takes it in another direction, in Gisborne on Sunday. Picture supplied

TWELVE years ago a bunch of session musicians from various bands got together for a jam. From that jam session evolved Boomshack, a band that rocks out to sounds from the 50s and 60s.

“We played sessions together but didn’t perform live together,” says Gisborne’s Band School founder Ricky Boyd.

And then they did, and Boomshack was born.

The nature of a band made up of session musicians means co-founders Ricky Boyd and Conan and the Moccasins bass player, Dan Fulton, are the band’s only original members.

“Boomshack was an excuse for top musicians to get together and have a jam once a week,” says Boyd.

“The band has always evolved. Musicians from The Phoenix Foundation, Odessa, a funk band, Conan from Conan and the Moccasins, Marlon Williams and half of the Black Seeds have all been in the band. Liam Finn has played in it.

“It was really about getting friends involved. Music from 1950s and early 1960s rock’n’roll ties us together. We take the music in a different direction but it is very accessible and danceable.”

The band has performed in Te Papa museum’s multi-coloured, Rongomaraeroa and at the The Hobbit cast and crew’s after-party function.

When Boomshack comes to Gisborne to play at the Dome on Sunday, along with Boyd and Fulton, the band will include Holly Smith session musician, guitarist/singer Tyson Smith, and guitarist Fabian Hunter.

“Fabian is in the middle of the Melbourne scene,” says Boyd.

“He’s a young, cool dude. I don’t know who he’s played with there, he’s so cool.”