Lots of number combinations have connotations. Think 411, 9/11, 4/20, 12/7, and don't forget old 812. Say what? Is it a date or is it a code? Here in the Wood River Valley, 812 is all of those things, as well as being one of the longest running bands in the valley's history.
The rockin' sextet plays at Whiskey Jacques' at 10 p.m. tonight for the final show of the Ketchum saloon's winter music season.
812 has been together in some guise or other since 1983. The band consists of lead and rhythm guitarist Mic Terra, bassist Woody Graham, keyboard and harp player Tim East, drummer Cliff Gobles, lead guitarist Pete Gaillard and Will Caldwell on percussion. Tonight's show will welcome a few guests as well. Since East is out of town, Ewald Grahber, an Austrian friend, will sit in with them on harmonica.
"Everybody in the band is really different," Terra said. "There was a bunch of us that knew each other and used to jam together. It was Pete and Woody and I, and we went through several drummers. We'd always told Tim if he ever got a piano and amp to come. That was a neat thing to add in. Pete was with another couple of bands for awhile and then came back to play with us 10 years ago, it's been awhile.
"Cliff joined up nine years ago, and around the same time we met Ewald who's been sitting in with us, as he will on Friday. Will has been sitting in on congas for a couple years now. He has great energy and is positive and enjoys what he's doing."
The band has released two CDs: "Your Light Shining" in 1998, and "New Neighbors in 2002." They are now "messing around with another new one," possibly with live tracks, Terra said.
The band is without a doubt rock oriented with none of the ska, trip-hop, funk pretensions so many bands claim.
"I'd sum us up as a classic rock-style band that plays a lot of originals," Gobles said.
"We're nothing but trouble," Terra laughed. "We play such a wide variety of stuff. Some quiet acoustic, as well as stuff that's guaranteed to drive the grandparents out of the room."
And the band has not gone unnoticed.
"We have opened for Norton Buffalo in Boise, in Montana and a few times here in town, once at nexStage. We also opened for No Notice Otis, (the headliner wasn't going to make it there and never let the promoter know until we were on stage)," he quipped. "We appeared several times at the Northern Rockies Folk Festival, the Smiley Creek Music Festival, Hagerman Fossil Days, Ketchum Arts Festival, Ketch'em Alive, Spud Back Alley Parties and headlined the first annual Spudapalooza, (Sept. 11, 2004)."
In fact, the band is considered to be the family band by the Back Alley Party promoters and performs more than once at the Wicked Spud's weekly summer shows.
"Those are a lot of fun. They really allow us room to stretch," Terra said. "At Whiskey's we shorten the jams a bit and do a higher number of tunes and different stuff."
Often 812 can be found lending their talents acoustically for various events and fundraisers. In particular they play at Ketchum Art Gallery Walks at the Will Caldwell Gallery in Ketchum.
This summer, besides many other shows they are booked at the Wicked Spud and are opening for singer/songwriter Maria Muldaur at Ketch'em Alive, Tuesday, July 19. They are also the regular entertainment on July Fourth at Viva Taqueria immediately after the annual parade.
"So what's with the name, can you comment on the genesis of it?"
"No," Terra said flatly and then chuckled. "It's part of our mystic. Say that it refers to a mystic set of numbers that came to somebody in a dream if you want. We make up so much stuff. Whenever we found the number we draw it into our web of explanations, it goes on and on."
So, in a way, it is code because they are still the only ones that know, which frankly takes nothing away from their music.
812, from left to right, Woody Graham, Will Caldwell, Ewald Grabher, Pete Gaillard, Cliff Gobles and Mic Terra, take five in their longtime band house during rehearsals. Missing is Tim East. Express photo by Dana DuGan
