Punk in a kilt: The members of Flatfoot 56 are, from left, Justin Bawinkel, Brandon Good, Eric McMahon, Kyle Bawinkel and Tobin Bawinkel.KALAMAZOO — It’s loud, abrasive and was once used to put fear in enemies’ hearts in wartime — what could be more punk rock
than bagpipes?
Flatfoot 56 proves it is true Celtic punk
with the pipes, even though they have some drawbacks. “There is this
thing called
phantom pipes,” Flatfoot founder Tobin Bawinkel said during a
phone interview from his home in Chicago. After spending a day
rehearsing next
to bagpiper Eric McMahon, “you start hearing them all over the place, all the time.”
The band started in 2000 when Bawinkel convinced his mother that he and his younger
home-schooled brothers Justin (drums) and Kyle (bass) should start a “music class” where they’d just jam on the punk rock.
It didn’t seem to go anywhere until they invited a friend “who we always laughed at” to try out for the band.
Josh Robieson, the original bagpiper, not only played the pipes but he also wore a kilt. The members realized that “AC/DC
did it,” and the pipes just fit. After 2007, Robieson left for married life, so they found the next piper, McMahon.
In 2006, Flatfoot 56 got a deal with a sub-label of Sony. That year Bawinkel graduated from college; he jumped into a van,
“cap and gown still on” to start a life of touring that hasn’t stopped, he said.
The band has toured Europe four times, and are about to leave for a fifth turn. The first time the members hit Scotland they
were worried how the Scots would take Americans messing with bagpipes. “They were really stoked about it, and went crazy,”
Bawinkel said. They’ve also hit Asia. “To play Celtic punk in Japan is a real treat.”
Inspirations include The Pogues, Stiff Little Fingers and the “Oi!” style of working-class British punks. But with the pipes
plus the addition of Brandon Good on mandolin, Flatfoot 56 has brought in other world music sounds that are reminiscent of
gypsy-punkers Gogol Bordello.
If you go
Flatfoot 56
with Almanac Shouters, Ackley Kid
What:
Celtic punk
When:
9 p.m. Friday
Where:
The Strutt, 773 W. Michigan Ave.
Cost:
$8, all ages
Contact:
269-492-7200,
Connect
The band’s music has attitudes picked up
from its old “blue collar, working class” Chi-town neighborhood. The
members are
inspired by traditional Celtic lyrics that help one “to sing
through your trials as a working class person,” he said. It may
be punk, but it’s just like it was centuries ago in where “you’d
go to your local pub at night and sing songs of local life
and how you’ve got to stay positive in some of the tough
situations you find yourself in,” Bawinkel said.
The band’s latest, “Black Thorn” (Old Shoe Records, 2010), cracked the Billboard Top 200, and also hit 11 on the Christian
Albums chart.
“We’re all Christians,” Bawinkel confessed. “The punk rock is not scene as very welcoming to Christianity in general.”
Some punk websites showed a suspicion —
Punknews.org wrote of their 2007 album “Jungle of the Midwest Sea,”
“Despite initial
negativity, Flatfoot 56 has easily become one of my favorite
Christian bands, if for nothing more than the energy and vigor
in their music.”
The band’s message is positive, but the members don’t preach, and keep the live show “a big rowdy mess of crazy, fun-loving
stuff. But it’s usually very positive,” Bawinkel said.