Music

Little Rock punk rockers from '90s reunite

The crowd swirls during a 1991 Trusty show at Vino’s. Trusty and another ’90s-era Little Rock band, Ashtray Babyhead, have reunited for two shows, including one tonight at White Water Tavern.
The crowd swirls during a 1991 Trusty show at Vino’s. Trusty and another ’90s-era Little Rock band, Ashtray Babyhead, have reunited for two shows, including one tonight at White Water Tavern.

Fans of the Little Rock '90s punk rock scene will be moshing down memory lane tonight as beloved local bands Trusty and Ashtray Babyhead reunite and split a bill at White Water Tavern.

"Right now we're just doing our homework," Trusty singer-guitarist Bobby Matthews, 50, said last week. "We've got a set list and we've been working on our own, but we're going to get together and we might have two practices before the [first] show. Hopefully they will be long practices."

Trusty, Ashtray Babyhead

8 p.m. today, Whitewater Tavern, 2500 W. Seventh St., Little Rock

Admission: $10

(501) 375-8400

whitewatertavern.com

Trusty was formed in 1989 by Matthews and singer-guitarist James Brady, a pair of punk-loving friends who had known each other since fifth grade and who were later joined by bassist Paul Bowling and drummer Michael "Bircho" Birch. They were the first band from outside the Washington area to be signed by the fiercely independent punk label Dischord, started by Ian MacKaye of the band Fugazi. Dischord released two Trusty albums, 1995's Goodbye, Dr. Fate and 1996's The Fourth Wise Man.

With Matthews and Brady writing songs, the band was prolific, churning out albums, singles and EPs filled with speedy, catchy, punk.

There have been periodic, one-off reunions, although this will be the first time Trusty has regrouped since a show about 10 years ago around the release of Towncraft, the documentary directed by Richard Matson that chronicled the Little Rock underground scene.

There was a time, though, when it didn't look like another Trusty get-together would happen.

"This was surprising because Paul said we shouldn't do anymore reunions," says Matthews, who now performs with his wife, Virginia Ralph, in the fun-loving, Eureka Springs-based children's group Momandpop. "I agreed. This is hardcore, it's a young man's music. We shouldn't do it because we'll look like fools."

Any objections have been overruled, though, and tonight's show was added after an initial reunion set for Dec, 23 featuring the two bands and local group R.I.O.T.S quickly sold out.

"We're just excited because everybody else is so excited," says Bircho, 46, who works as a barber at The Parlor Tattoo in North Little Rock.

Ashtray Babyhead -- Scott Cook, guitar, vocals; Jeff Matika, guitar, vocals; Jason Tedford, bass; Ryan Scott, drums -- whose hook-filled pop punk was captured on albums like on 1997's O-Rama and Radio from 2000, has also gotten together for the occasional reunion gig over the years.

For these two shows, co-founder Matika, back home in Little Rock from his duties as a touring member of Green Day, says the timing was too good to pass up.

"I knew all four of us were going to be here, so we booked a Christmas show about three months ago," he says.

When they discovered that Trusty was also looking at a gig the same night, a double bill was proposed and, boom, punk rock nostalgia in one room over two evenings.

It has been a bit since the Babyhead bunch has shared a stage.

"We got busy and, you know, seven years or so goes by and here we are doing it again," says Tedford, who now produces music at his Wolfman Studios in Little Rock.

Still, the songs come pretty easily when the four are together.

"It's like riding a bike," Tedford, 47, says. "We're so familiar with each other. We still have that chemistry we had 20 years ago, which is surprising. It often makes you think, 'Why aren't we doing this together anymore'?"

Matika, 46, concurs: "Scott popped off with a new riff the other night and we all just sort of jumped on it and five minutes later, we're like, 'Are we writing a new song?'"

Beyond the tunes, the camaraderie and gathering of participants from the old scene are big elements of what makes these shows special, Matika says.

"It's not even really about the music. It's just about the people I'm around while we're playing the music."

Not living the hand-to-mouth existence of a working band also helps.

"As I've gotten older, I've enjoyed playing music more because the pressure's off," Bircho says. "I'm not looking to tour, I'm not looking at selling a bunch of units. I'm looking at playing music with and in front of my friends."

Oddly, the two bands never overlapped in their respective primes. Trusty had left for Washington by the time the Babyheads were getting off the ground around 1996.

Brady, 50, works for Greenpeace in Washington, where he has lived since Trusty moved there in 1992.

"It takes you back, playing with the same people you've been friends with for 30 years," he says of these shows, which finds him playing White Water for the first time. "And that there are people that still want to come see you play those songs is a good feeling."

Bircho says there is a sense of finality this go-around.

"This could be the last reunion show we ever do," the drummer muses. "[The other members] think this could be the last reunion show, but between you and me, I want to hit them up when we're 60 and say, 'C'mon, guys, let's do it.'"

Style on 12/26/2017

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