Touring the main priority of local pop band
I want to be friends with Nick Vombrack.
Not just because the Crystal Lake-based drummer tends to tell writers that his band, Dr. Manhattan, met and formed on a pirate ship of the same name (on which the four-piece pop group was held hostage, no less). And not just because he explains to me with deadpan sarcasm that the four Wauconda friends met at the hands of their parents' incessant toddler-rock playgroups, during which instruments were strapped to their strollers.
No, my hopeful friendship with Vombrack began somewhere near the middle of our phone conversation, when he apologized for doing two other things while talking to me. I didn't really notice, but it turns out he was shopping: trying on shirts and buying new shoes for his girlfriend's 21st birthday that weekend.
"Two or more things at once" is a necessary evil for Dr. Manhattan, who signed to Vagrant Records about a year ago and who released their raucously well-formed, self-titled debut in March. Touring is Priority 1 for the band these days and starting today at the ELB in Rockford and Saturday at Sideouts in Island Lake, they're on tour for most of the summer. In fact, once they join Warped Tour in July, they won't be home again until August.
During off-tour "downtime," they cram in as much work, family/girlfriend time and no-bus partying as possible. Right now, Vombrack just got off of work (no, Dr. Manhattan doesn't see any rock-star cash just yet), and he sounds exhausted but OK with it. Vombrack says the band just had its first "wedding song" practice for their friends' September wedding, and he's excited to report that Dr. Manhattan shall perform oldies but goodies such as "Twist and Shout."
"It is what it is," Vombrack says of hectic touring and too-short home time. "Our families are really supportive. We're very fortunate to have the people that we do in our lives. All of them are influential in who we are."
As well-known as he is for pirate stories and general tall-tale shenanigans (he told me the band is morally opposed to cursing and then went off on a creative swearing tirade himself), Vombrack is unabashedly sincere about Dr. Manhattan's local fan base -- the Wauconda-based support system that backed the pop band from the beginning -- and their countrywide fans in general.
Dr. Manhattan is in a good place, Vombrack told me: big enough to be considered for Warped Tour and unknown enough to be the act that nobody's actually heard of before. As they continue to grow, the band members (singer Matt Engers, bassist and Matt's brother Adam Engers and keyboardist Andrew Morrison) want to share the experience.
One of Dr. Manhattan's most important milestones to date took place upon returning to the McHenry roller rink they've played so many times before, when they drew more people than the other three bands combined.
"I can't think of anyone who wouldn't be excited to have 400 kids come to the Just for Fun Roller Rink in McHenry, Ill., and know all the words to their songs," Vombrack says.
Those moments are his favorite. Like when Dr. Manhattan is on tour and seemingly nobody knows their music, and then two kids come up to their merch table after the show and profess their fandom -- he loves that stuff.
This isn't to say Vombrack and the rest of the group aren't undyingly grateful to be a part of the Vagrant fam and have a label stamp of approval on their new record, which they recorded themselves, on a super strict budget, before even the idea of being signed came into play. They're definitely grateful and happy. They're also pretty tired, and for Vombrack's part, he can't wait for the whirlwind to die down so he can look back on it all and really appreciate it.
"It's not like we're taking it for granted," he says. "It never really hits you."
They notice the little things, of course. Things like having gas money and not needing to worry about whether their paycheck for the night will cover their meal.
"The things that used to be stressful for us aren't as stressful," he says.
But aside from that, things haven't changed. Dr. Manhattan's live shows continue to be as dog-maul crazy and hilariously brilliant as they always have ("It's not like we go onstage and pretend to be other people," Vombrack says), and their songs … well, their songs have clicked since the beginning.
Though their album's keys-laden anthem opener, "Big Chomper, Big Chomper," ended up evolving into stand-out status and will be featured in NHL '09's video-game soundtrack, track six, called "The Party's Opinion," remains the band's most impressive -- if only because it's the first song they wrote together three years ago. That's when they knew they'd do all right together and that melding two bands under the Dr. Manhattan name might prove to be something bigger than the hometown they've vowed never to abandon no matter what success they see.
And that's pretty much when it happened. After Vombrack finished telling me about the band's first practice and our phone chat died down, he didn't want to hang up. He told me more about his family and friends and how excited he is to play local shows like the one at Sideouts. I expected him to suddenly end the whole think with a Vombrack-esque, "This conversation is over!" But he didn't. Instead he said: "I like meeting new people."
Turns out I have a new friend after all.