American Princes take bow during two shows

LITTLE ROCK — American Princes took the usual narrative of musicians leaving Little Rock to chase the big time in New York and stood it on its head, as in, these were musicians who left New York and moved to Little Rock to pursue their dreams.

And their dreams were realized, up to a point. In August 2010, bassist Luke Hunsicker died of brain cancer. Other than a tribute show dedicated to him, American Princes has not played since they lost their friend and band member.

“We went on hiatus after Luke passed away, because the loss of a friend that special is just devastating,” says David Slade, who co-founded the band a decade ago with drummer Matthew Quin and bassist John Beachboard, who all left the Big Apple behind and came to Little Rock, where they soon corralled guitarist Collins Kilgore tojoin the band. Beachboard soon left to pursue a different dream - restaurants - and has since opened ZaZa Fine Salad & Wood Oven Pizza Co., Big Orange and Local Lime.

“Collins and I both started law school, him at Vanderbilt, and me at UALR,” Slade, the band’s rhythm guitarist and vocalist, says. “I had Jack, myfirst kid, and we all recognized that with Luke’s passing, it’s hard to get back to playing, but we wanted to do this show, over the holidays,since we figured a lot of our friends would be in town to see their families and we wanted to do these two shows before Collins goes off to ajob with a law firm in Los Angeles, which will mean our opportunities to play will be even more limited.”

Hunsicker, who had been a member of Sugar and the Raw, took over the bass-playing job in 2004 and Will Boyd came along in 2006 to play lead guitar and keyboards.

Local label Max Recordings had released the band’s first two albums, We Are thePeople and Little Spaces, in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Then Yep Roc Records, a North Carolina label, came calling and released the band’s next two albums, Less and Less and Other People, in 2006 and 2008, respectively.

And Other People became the No. 1 CD on Magnet magazine’s Best Albums of 2008 list.

During their years on the road, American Princes opened shows for The Flaming Lips, The Hold Steady, Spoon, Lucero, John Doe, The Apples in Stereo, Big Star and The Roots.

As for the other two members of American Princes, Slade says Quin is a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Boyd mainly plays in the band Adam Faucett and the Tall Grass.

“Filling in for Luke, we have an old friend, Jack Lloyd, a Little Rock guy,” Slade says.

So why did the guys move to Little Rock in the first place, one wonders, when everyone knows New York is the center of the universe?

“It’s a pretty easy place from where you can get to anywhere else, and the rent is cheaper here,” Slade says with a laugh.

American Princes

9:30 p.m. Friday,

Revolution Room, 300

President Clinton Ave.,

Little Rock

Opening act: The See

Admission: $10

(501) 823-0090

revroom.com

10 p.m. Saturday, White

Water Tavern, West

Seventh and Thayer

streets, Little Rock

Opening act: Magic

Mike Casey

Admission: $10

(501) 375-8400

whitewatertavern.com