Avenpitch’s Todd Millenacker likes unity, and an all-for-one mentality, within a band.
“I’m a marathon runner and I’m always saying to the rest of these guys we should run a marathon together – we could be team Avenpitch. But whenever I suggest it, I usually get a ‘maybe not Todd,’” he said, smiling.
The members of Avenpitch won’t be running marathons together anytime soon, but on stage, their unity comes through loud and clear. Millenacker (vocals/guitar/programmer), Sarah France (keyboards), Paul Hudalla (drums) and Darren Siaw (guitar) are a well-oiled machine. With their garage band guitars and melodious keyboards, they create a live show infused with pure punk energy. And they captured that energy on the band’s second CD, “Butterfly Radio,” scheduled for release February 2006 on Omega Point Records, based in Chicago.
“We signed with Omega Point because nobody likes us here,” Siaw said, causing his band mates to laugh.
“Yeah, we’re like the seventh grader who has to get a girlfriend in another town,” Millenacker added.
“Before Avenpitch, I was in a band called the Fleshpeddlers and I got to know Emil, who runs Omega Point,” Millenacker said. “Less than a year later, I broke up the Fleshpeddlers, created Avenpitch and started work on a debut CD. Emil and I had stayed in contact and he asked if we’d release the CD on Omega Point.”
Millenacker had recorded most of the debut CD on keyboards and drum machine, when he decided it was time to put together Avenpitch’s flesh and blood lineup. He’d known Siaw since 2001; David Miller was the Fleshpeddlers keyboard player and soon after, he met Hudalla. Several months later, the band was performing live.
“When we first started playing live, David was the wild man – he was really animated. Everyone would say ‘your keyboard player is crazy.’ I remember thinking, he’s the keyboard player, what’s that all about, I write the songs. So I decided to step up,” Millenacker said. “Next thing I know, I have a wireless mic and I’m 30 feet away from the band, dancing around on a bar.”
Avenpitch embarked on their first tour in the summer of 2005. They’d already played in a number of Minnesota cities and Chicago, but they decided to cover new ground in Toledo, Ohio, Charleston, West Virginia, Traverse City, Michigan and an ‘almost’ show in Chapel Hill, North Carolina – it was cancelled an hour before they arrived.
“To our surprise, there was a line to get in to the Traverse City show and we made enough money that night to cover the rest of the tour,” Millenacker said. “But at another show, we played to the bartender and we might’ve even distracted some patrons from their pool game.”
“The worst show was in West Virginia,” he added. “The night before, we’d been up all night in Toledo. When we took the stage, my voice was completely shot and the PA kept cutting out during the show.”
The tour’s schedule proved grueling in terms of getting between cities.
“We put on 3,100 miles driving home from Lansing straight through to Minneapolis, so we could be back to work on Monday morning,” Millenacker said. “On the way back, the dashboard lights’ fuse blew up. As we’re driving in the middle of the night, we had to turn on the dome light on any time we changed speeds.”
Siaw included a tour recap on the band’s Web site, called “Darren Over America.”
“We also have a lot of pictures from the first half of the tour, but not so many from the second half,” Millenacker said.
“I think it’s because the camera battery ran out, or I got lazy, one of the two,” Hudalla said.
Overall, the band agrees it was a good experience and plans are underway for a 2006 tour.
After they returned home, Avenpitch started work on their second CD, but in October 2005, Miller left the band for personal reasons.
“We had a bunch of shows coming up and we needed someone right away, someone who was energetic, outgoing and who’d feel at home on stage,” Millenacker said. “We immediately thought of Sarah.”
France and Siaw were already friends and she got to know the rest of the band from driving Siaw to Avenpitch shows, as he didn’t own a car at the time.
“Todd found out I was teaching ballet,” France said. “So during one of the band’s sets, he says to the audience, ‘if there are any professional balAAAAY dancers in the audience, this next song is excellent to do balAAAAY to.’ So that night, I did ballet to Avenpitch.”
“We were excited when Sarah agreed to join Avenpitch,” Millenacker said. “She not only had experience as a keyboardist, she also had the enthusiasm that would carry through during a performance.”
Avenpitch’s unity isn’t just lip service: They have an unspoken rule against moonlighting in other bands.
“We’re a monogamous band,” Millenacker said. “If you don’t believe in what we’re doing and if you don’t like the music we make, then don’t be in our band, because it’s not fair to the rest of us.”
“Each of us puts a lot into Avenpitch, but not enough to even think about starting or being part of another project,” Siaw added.
Hudalla agreed. “It’s foolish to commit to another band when there’s always one more thing we can do for Avenpitch, especially since we’re doing 99 percent of the business end ourselves.”
And while Avenpitch is steadily picking up speed, no one in the band is quite ready to give up their day jobs.
“We’d love to do this full time, I think every musician would. But right now, we’re not getting paid enough to do this for anybody but ourselves,” Millenacker said. “If people keep paying attention, great. But no matter what happens, we’re going to make the music we want - and we’re happy right where we are.”
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