If one takes a gander at the social media pages for Sonoma County-based band Dirty Cello, they will see a pretty crazy moment that just happened to be captured on video.
Dirty Cello cellist and vocalist Rebecca Roudman is in the midst of a searing version of the Charlie Daniels Band classic, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” when suddenly, as if possessed by Beelzebub himself, the hairs on her bow string completely fall apart.
Roudman explains they “literally exploded, sending the hair flying and a little plug of wood off into the audience.” Ever the professionals, even in the face of a never-seen-before moment, she adds, “My band keeps vamping, which gives me enough time to go backstage and grab another bow. It was wild because I’ve never had a bow fail this way before.” As if this moment was already one for the books, Roudman caps this wild tale by saying, “Just to make things extra weird, the person that rehaired my bow was sitting in the front row.”
While hoping for something weird to happen at a concert is somewhat akin to attending NASCAR and hoping for a wreck, Dirty Cello will be hitting the stage on Saturday, March 7 at HopMonk Sebastopol.
Roudman says this is a show everyone is particularly hyped about. “[This show] is a very special one. There’s a few places we return to year after year, and HopMonk is one of them, but this time, we get to release our new album, called By The Seat of our Pants,” she notes.
When asked what to expect at the show, Roudman says, “We begin the concert with whatever strikes our fancy, and then for the first few songs, we play lots of different styles, from classic rock to blues to lightning-fast bluegrass. Once we see what resonates with the audience, we focus on that genre while still maintaining a lot of variety. There is no set list, and for this show, there is no opener.”
Dirty Cello consists of Roudman, Jason Eckl on guitar, Evan Ceremony on bass and Diego Soto on drums. If some of those names ring a bell, it’s because they also play in an expanded band called Renegade Orchestra, which also prides itself on turning a preconceived notion of a musical style on its proverbial ear.
Roudman says, “Long before Dirty Cello was even a twinkle in my eye, I had a whole career as a classical cellist with the Santa Rosa and Oakland symphonies. I actually moved on from the Santa Rosa Symphony recently. Since early childhood, all I’ve done is play the cello. When it came time to branch out and form a rock band, all my classical training and years and years of practice let me take a non-rock instrument and keep up with shredding guitarists.”
Yet, instruments like the cello aren’t really made to take the sort of onstage beating an artist like Roudman typically renders. Thus, she’s found a few workarounds to make sure the center will hold. That includes a specially made cello. She explains, “A lot of folks ask about my cello—it’s not made of wood, but is instead made of carbon-fiber, a very strong, weather-proof material. For outdoor shows, this is invaluable.”
Before the carbon-fiber, Roudman says she “played on a wooden cello, and that one met its demise when I was coming off stage from playing with the San Francisco Ballet, and I clipped it with my purse and it snapped the neck off. The insurance payout paid for the carbon-fiber cello.”
She has also found some workarounds to keep cables from getting pulled out as well as having a special stand so she can stand up and rock out. “I’ve also discovered that normal cello bridges really don’t stand up to the kind of playing I like to do, so Jason (Eckl, who is also Roudman’s husband) has learned to make cello and violin bridges,” she notes. “After some experimenting, Jason has developed special reinforced bridges that work well for my kind of playing and don’t warp.”
Dirty Cello performs at 8pm, Saturday, March 7, at HopMonk Sebastopol in The Abbey, 230 Petaluma Ave. Tickets start at $25. More info at dirtycello.com.
