KCMETROPOLIS.org
Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

One of them is in Blue Man Group. Other bandmates have won awards and received grants.  All of them are members of successful, thought-provoking bands.  But as members of Mongol Beach Party, they just want to make you dance.

Reunited last December for an off-the-cuff weekend stint at the recordBar, the band is prepping for another round of shows. But this time, the stakes have changed.

"We're writing new music," reveals Christian Hankel (lead vocals).  "This time, it's about a band rather than an event. With the reunion, there was a built-in crowd.  This time, you gotta work for it."

He and the other Mongols know about hard work.  Hankel and Kyle Dahlquist (trombone) are both members of Alacartoona, which received an Inspiration Grant from the ArtsKC Fund and used it to create their Night is the Mirror feature film in late May.

Mark Southerland (saxophone) won a 2008 CSF Generative Performing Artist award for his avant-garde jazz/performance artwork.  Scott Easterday (bass) fronts Expassionates, one of Kansas City's favorite Americana bands.  Bill Belzer (drums) is a member of The New Amsterdams and Jeff Freling (guitar), who moved to Chicago in 1994, is a member of that city's Blue Man Group.

All of them are doing well on their own.  Getting the ol' band back together wasn't really necessary for the Mongols.  So what's the appeal of wedging more band practices into six already hectic lives?

Anyone who's ever been in a band can tell you.  Just like your high school sweetheart or the one that got away, your first band is forever burned into your personal mythos.

Hankel and Freling began writing songs together in high school.  "Jeff had a Casio keyboard," Hankel boasts.  The self-professed dorks and student council members penned a ditty with lyrics about "StuCo spirit" and "StuCo glow."

Best friends Dahlquist and Southerland played in jazz band together.  Dahlquist even worked in Southerland's mother's shoe store.  Belzer was studying for the priesthood at high school seminary when he met the others and opted for musical salvation instead.

"It was a social outlet, as bands are for young men.  We were very ambitious.  It kept me out of-and got me into-a lot of trouble," says Belzer.

"Our songs were assembled together," Easterday explains.  "Everyone bringing in separate ideas.  Rarely fully-formed songs.  It was silly.  It was all over the map."

Mongol Beach Party became a fun mix of eclectic and unique influences incorporating intelligent pop, country, ska, funk, punk, world and jazz.  They appealed to smart, quirky kids who appreciated excellent musicianship and wanted to party.

But as the band's popularity grew, so did each member's personal ambitions.  What began as an organic, collaborative unit of young friends became a group of confident musicians who feared that their own growth was being constrained.

"I wanted to do my own project.  I didn't understand then that I could have done both," admits Easterday.

Your first band is a marker of how far you've come.  You grudgingly admit that your musical maturity and personal maturity were probably at opposite ends of the spectrum.  You reminisce about the in-fighting, the egos, the close calls and the big break that never quite came.

But what if nearly two decades pass and all of you stayed passionate about music and found your own successes?  What if you were all older, wiser and more comfortable in your own skins?  What if your erstwhile drummer booked a show without really telling anybody?

Belzer did just that and set off a raucous musical family reunion.  Old fans and friends flocked to see the boys again.  "There were people flying back to KC from all over the place," said Dahlquist.  "They couldn't pass up the opportunity (to see everyone again).  It's fun knowing we started in a common place."

"There's this whole John Hughes generation of dorks, outsiders, and geeks who are still around and enjoy fraternity at our shows," adds Belzer.  He believes the time away has only made the band stronger and more vital.  "It's bullshit that people think your peak creative energy is only in your 20's.  There's a lot of great writing between the six of us.  It's a total blast."

"There's a modern sense of creative style," Southerland says of the new material.  "It fits in the canon but it's fresh to us.  It's really great to sit down and play with these guys.  They're still passionate."

The romance begins anew for the Mongol men.

Like running into your high school sweetheart and finding out she still has the hots for you.  Hankel giggles mischievously at the prospect.  "But then you get back and you feel like sexing up your wife because you feel like a stud.  (Mongol Beach Party) are an influence that hadn't been there for a while and (now that they're back) it's affected my songwriting, even for Alacartoona.  This is the most prolific period I've ever had."

Southerland frames the old flame metaphor in a less lascivious light: "You're madly in love but too crazy to stay married to each other.  And you have a kid and you don't want to mess up the kid.  So you split.  You move on to more functional relationships that suit you more.  But you still love the kid-the music-you helped create together."

For Dalhquist, it was a return to youthful camaraderie.  "What's kind of funny about it is we're older and wiser, yet at the same time, it's like a visit to your parents.  You fall back into being a kid.  What bugged you fifteen years ago bugs you today."

And what brought you together remains as well.

"We were living together in a house off Tracy by Rockhurst.  They were gonna rip it down and give it to the University," says Hankel.

"It was one of those days where we cleaned the house from head to foot," Southerland recalls.  And then, for some reason, we ripped the arm off the couch, like 'we can't have this cleanliness and structure!"

Hankel laughs.  "We started bowling with the furniture until it broke.  The sofa, the dresser.  We danced around wearing the arm of the sofa as a hat.  And now Mark wears moo-moos and funny hats in Wee Snuff Jazz and I jump around stage scaring people."

While they've moved on to more mature and sophisticated musical ventures, it's clear that their present-day successes have deep roots tracing back to their first band.  And it's clear why, given the chance, they're relishing the opportunity to recapture the spirit that taught them how to be themselves, to abandon themselves to the chaotic song and dance of the moment.

"With Mongol Beach Party, we just want to share the experience of joy in music.  That's what I've always wanted people to feel," says Hankel.  "There are places for politics and places for deep emotion.  And there are places for joy."

Who's Who in the Party

Christian Hankel (lead vocals)
Alias: Providence Forge
Group Affiliation: Alacartoona
Mutant Superpower: Mind control via whistling
Weaknesses: Heavy fog (it mutes the whistling)

Jeff Freling (guitar)
Group Affiliation: Jeff Freling & The Rock Squad, Chicago Blue Man Group, Tributosaurus, The Gentlemen's Club
Mutant Superpower: The ability to make music come out of any object or transmorph any object into an existing musical instrument. 

Scott Easterday (bass)
Group Affiliation: Expassionates, Howard Iceberg & The Titanics, Easterday w/Elaine McMilian
Superhero Nickname: The Executive.  The serious, all-business bald guy in the suit.
Battles Fought: 1023 (893 Wins, 97 Loss, 33 Draws)

Bill Belzer (drums)
Aliases: Mr. Cellophane (I'm just Bill.  Just glad to be noticed.)
Group Affiliation: The New Amsterdams, Mary Fortune, The Sleazebeats
Mutant Superpower: Pragmatism
Achilles' Heel: According to Hankel, "his inner dork is his outer dork."

Kyle Dahlquist (trombone)
Alias: Overton Woolridge
Group Affiliation: Alacartoona
Mutant Superpower: The ability to pack anything into a van in five minutes or less.
Achilles Heel: Soft instrument cases.

Mark Southerland (saxophone)
Group Affiliation: Snuff Jazz, Wee Snuff Urban Noise Camp, Malachy Papers w/Mike Dillon
Mutant Superpower: Artistic violence.
Solicited dork quote: "Bizarro, I love you.  Bizarro, I love you."

Mongol Beach Party will be performing on Aug. 21 at Crosstown Station with The ACB's and on Aug. 22 at the Trails West! Music Festival in St. Joseph, MO.  Other Kansas City acts at the Festival include Alacartoona and Expassionates.
For more information, visit www.mongolbeachparty.com

By Vi Tran

theSTEADY and Jazz Contributor (Past writer)

More Featured Articles