The Rubberband puts a spring into Rexburg’s step
- posted: 12 June 2007
- scrollarts@byui.edu
The crowd cheered and whooped for Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband as they hit the stage in the John W. Hart Building for an energetic concert June 9.
Ryan Shupe and his band of country/bluegrass-playing members played songs for an audience of over 3,000 students and members of the community.
The band is known for its energetic and exciting performances. The band members have fun onstage and off.
“The band boasts 118.6 years of collective music experience,” said Ashley Berry, of the Center Stage board, as she introduced the band. “Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband have a combined height of 29 feet 3 inches (5 inches if Robert has a perm).”
“You will hear a total of 81 strings tonight. The band boasts a total of 2.5 eagle scouts,” Berry continued. “Their favorite animal is the flying buffalo. Often, in band practice, they rehearse using plaster-mold puppets of themselves and have a cumulative I.Q. of 302.”
One of the songs performed, “Dream Big,” made number 28 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. The band also played other crowd favorites, such as “Corndogs” and “The Devil Went down to Georgia,” along with a song from their new album, coming out February 11, 2008.
Besides the songs played from the band’s albums, Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband improvised some of the music that they played on stage.
“I would say that [our show] is about 25 percent improvisation. We have some form, but we try to mix it up between shows so that they’re all different,” said lead singer Ryan Shupe.
The mixing of practiced and improvised music onstage reflects the style of the band. Although the main underlying style of the band is country/bluegrass, the band’s music is a mix of many different styles to create their own unique sound.
“I describe it as cool, awesome, totally rocking—supercalifragilistic. It’s post-hee-haw-funkadelic-hip-hop-newgrass,” Shupe said.
This variation of music styles makes the band able to interest audiences other than just the country crowd.
“For a guy who doesn’t like country, I thought they were good. They knew their stuff and they’re really good performers,” said Walter Gale, a sophomore from Simi Valley, Calif.
One of the band’s original performances was an ironic play with the song “Dueling Banjos.” Colin Botts, the bass player, came out with a banjo strapped around his shoulder, making the ‘bring it on’ motion to the banjo player of the band, Craig Miner. Soon after, Roger Archibald, the drummer, came out with a violin, starting a fiddle-duel with lead singer Ryan Shupe. 
