RG Music: The Concussions

Ordinarily, The Concussions make due as a faceless, voiceless crew. Masked and musical, the surf-rock instrumental group is something wholly unique on the West Michigan music scene, a vintage inspired sound with a garage band attitude and thoroughly modern theatrics.

“When you wear a mask you act different. You get wilder and crazier,” says drummer Billy Vits. “We like wearing them because they make us act ridiculous — but if you drop your pick in the dark, good luck finding it.”

Front man Dick Chiclet points out the band on the cover of its latest album. There are four cartoon-like skeletons where you’d expect to see photos of band members. On the inside the performers are listed mostly by aliases, all ambiguous and ageless. There is Tommy Schichtel, known on stage as Dick Chiclet, with his bother Chris, who we know as Matt Mason, on bass. Then there is Claude Nine (Dave Stanton) on lead guitar and the drummer Vits, the only member to use his given name.

On stage, they bring the characters with them, donning rubber skeleton masks, scuba gear, Zorro masks and other disguises. “Sometimes it’s good to be anonymous,” says Vits. “They judge you by the music.”

“And it adds mystery to the album,” explains Chiclet. “Who are these guys? Then they’re Googling you.”

With some notable exceptions (the Beach Boys), surf rock is generally instrumental with a rhythm guitar or saxophone fronting the group. The genre developed parallel to rock and roll in the 1950s, spawning mainstream hits such as “Wipe Out” and the theme song from “Pulp Fiction,” the definitive example of the surf-rock genre. The Concussions cite Link Wray and The Ventures as surf-rock influences. And three-out-of-four say they listen to The Beatles for inspiration. On their most recent album they included a cover of “And I Love Her.” They also have a Beatles-esque mentality when it comes to performing … to enjoy doing it.

“If we got up there and took ourselves seriously, that would be the day that no one would like us,” said Chiclet. “You can’t have a big ego on stage and play this stuff. You have to act as if you’re having more fun than the people that are listening. It’s a recipe for any good band. The Beatles. That was a schematic band. Write great songs, and act like you don’t care that they’re great. Have fun and have that sense of humor. People will love you forever.”

The band members explain that surf-rock is a kind of underground cult-niche that extends well past our backyards in West Michigan, even beyond North America, to Argentina and Spain. Their music is already reaching fans beyond U.S. borders, thanks to the influx of digital music sales. But Vits says the band’s immediate goal is to be heard and appreciated here at home, where it all started, with a vision that included ‘60s music and vintage gear.

Nine chimes in. “What makes us stand out is that we play older guitars, amplifiers, drums than anyone I’ve ever seen. You don’t see bands playing amplifiers from 1956, or guitars from 1960, [but] it’s important for the sound. Most people don’t take their old equipment out on stage because it can be pretty valuable.” He jokingly adds, “Some bands have female groupies. Some bands have male groupies. We have gear groupies.”

Getting started

For band members with such jovial flair, it’s surprising to learn that they joined forces under sad circumstances. Chiclet and Mason are brothers, were raised in West Michigan, and have performed together since the ‘90s. Their drummer from a previous band passed away of Leukemia, so to honor the memory of their friend, they decided to perform at a Leukemia benefit in December of 2002 at St. George’s Hall. The brothers recruited Nine, a friend and fellow musician from Ann Arbor. And Vits, who has been a drummer with the Grand Rapids Symphony for nearly 30 years, sent Chiclet an e-mail to see if he could try something different. That event was going to be their first and final gig together, but they decided to keep it going. They’ve been performing at local venues and private parties ever since.

“When we do our gigs, we tell our people [local fans], and so our people show up,” said Vits. “But if you just stuck us in one of the bars downtown without any advance warning, in some ways I think we’d be a fish out of water. A lot of young folks have no idea where we’re coming from. They don’t even know what to make of a band that doesn’t sing. They’ve never even seen a rock band that doesn’t sing. I think we are somewhat of an acquired taste.”

That acquired taste is far more palatable than modesty allows them to believe. They performed at HopCat this past September for their CD release party to a packed house of The Concussions enthusiasts danced just a few feet from the stage.

In 2004 they won a WYCE Jammie Award for “Best New Local Artist.” “For the kind of music we play, we’ve had a lot of support in the area,” says Chiclet. “I think it’s because we’re all just nice guys.”

Chiclet is the self-described “mad scientist” of the group. He dissected and reassembled the band’s latest album, 2008’s Magic Fingers at the Goon Lagoon, his analog recording studio in Grand Rapids. The songs were recorded in real time with the full band, similar to how a band would record an album in the ‘60s, with a few zippy organ and trumpet sounds added for spice. Magic Fingers is accessible because it’s danceable, with songs that range from peppy surf to ballads to more obscure contemporary.

Producing songs that were less than three minutes long was a conscious effort to keep locals tuned-in to the radio friendly tracks. “I just care about us getting played on the radio,” says Vits. He then shares his long-term music goal, to have a 50th anniversary with the Grand Rapids Symphony, and to do an international tour with The Concussions.

Listen to the concussions here:

Think Pink

Last Regrets

I Love Her