Strange lights in the sky
Focusing telescopes on Denver indie rockers Constellations
by Meg Shaeffer & Cory Casciato
The Metropolitan
Brandon Weaver's drumstick split with a loud crack, his finger ripped open by the pieces as they flew through the air.
As the song finished, the rest of the band looked back, concerned.
"Don't worry, just keep going," Weaver yelled, and returned to pounding his drums, now decorated with his blood and sweat.
In a basement dimly illuminated with strings of red lights and decorated with primitive finger paintings, Constellations throw themselves into practice with an energy and enthusiasm most bands reserve for the stage. Expose them to an excited crowd and they threaten to explode off the stage, charged up to a new level of intensity.
"We love people who freak out!" bass player Mark Weaver said.
"We really feed off the energy," added singer Zak Brown. "I hate it when people pay more attention to their beer than to the music."
With Constellations on stage, that would be hard to do. Brown is a riveting presence, his wild-eyed intensity the perfect face for the band's high-energy, oddball dance-punk. Complementing that sound is a seriously warped lyrical vision.
"Usually the songs are about animals, or men and women in an apocalyptic setting questioning their love for one another," explains Brown. "Except 'Fancy Panthers,' that song is about panthers who are scholars."
Foregoing the ever popular hearts-on-sleeves formula for the lyrics leaves that space free for them to display their indie credibility instead. Leaping into the corporate world of major labels is not in the plans. Their recently recorded five-song EP will be probably be self- released, but the possibility of signing with the right label is not completely ruled out.
"Any label that's more like a community and less like a corporation," Brown said.
In the same vein, Constellations feel at home in smaller, D.I.Y. venues. Seemingly uninterested in rocking the mall punks on Warped tour, Constellations have more modest ambitions.
"We would really like to play Monkey Mania, be sure you write that down," said guitarist Dave Hart.
The band also has a decidedly off-kilter approach to their merchandising plans, dumpster diving for raw material to create art and selling it at their shows. Not exactly the typical blueprint, but it seems to work.
"For the Rock Island show we found a picture of Jesus looking over Vatican City and we glued a picture of Usher's head on it from a Teen Beat magazine we found, also in the dumpster," said Brown. The sale netted them a cool $10.
In between bouts of dumpster diving, frenetic practices and dreaming up bizarre lyrics, Constellations claim to enjoy a fairly unusual set of hobbies.
"We love to ride our bikes, along with the occasional fencing match, and any southwestern art show," explained Brandon Weaver, a sentiment the entire band echoed.
With their mesmerizing performances, unique style and dedication to music for its own sake, Constellations have built a solid foundation for themselves. Give them a little time to sand off the rough edges and apply a bit of polish here and there and they could become a force to be reckoned with in the Denver scene.
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