Suburban natives land gig on big national stage

Even they don't quite know how it came about, but a Denver-area band featuring two natives of Chicago's suburbs takes the nation's biggest stage today: performing at Invesco Field before Barack Obama gives his acceptance speech.

David Johnston, who grew up in Aurora, and Jeff Austin, from Arlington Heights, met at the University of Illinois, where they played together in a band.

Musical pursuits eventually led Johnston, a banjo player, and Austin, who plays the mandolin, to Colorado. There, they met bass player Ben Kaufmann and guitarist Adam Aijala and formed Yonder Mountain String Band.

Every band has its own sound, of course, but Johnston describes his band's music, for those who haven't heard them, as a cross between Led Zeppelin and Rascal Flatts, maybe with a twist of Earl Scruggs thrown in.

"It's all kind of a mystery to me," Johnston said of how YMSB landed today's show. "We just heard about it a couple of weeks ago. They were trying to decide whether they wanted us and then decided they did."

With a capacity crowd of 70,000 guaranteed to hear Obama, this will be by far the group's largest audience, which, Johnston said, does not faze the band member.

"I think that the energy is really going to be over the top, very intense and electric," said Johnston, whose band has booked an Oct. 18 date to perform at Congress Theater in Chicago.