Durango remains a second home for Steve Raskin of Fort Knox Five. That second home comes after performing a number of shows locally over the last 20 years, and making friends and hanging with said friends post show into the wee hours. It’s something most touring bands look for in cities where they may perform.
If you go
WHAT: Electronic music with Skii Tour, Fort Knox Five, Spark Madden.
WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday, March 22.
WHERE: Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive.
TICKETS: $35/$40.
MORE INFORMATION: www.animascitytheatre.com.
The electronic music, funk-based outfit is a varying collective; sometimes they’re a DJ joined by a band, other times they’re DJ only. One constant, however, is the music, a hip mix of old-school, 1970s-era funk dosed with a blast of 21st century, funk-heavy electronic music.
Fort Knox Five – who are for this show Steve Raskin – will return to Durango on Saturday with a performance at Animas City Theatre. Fort Knox Five’s set will be sandwiched between an opening set from Spark Madden and headliners Skii Tour.
“Durango is one of those places that from the very first time that we ever played way back when, it was instant family. Especially for the people who appreciate the kind of eclectic funky music that Fort Knox Five does,” Raskin said. “And Durango is a bit of a funky town, and it’s always a pleasure to come back and see all the friends and play a good show.”
While Fort Knox Five has at times used a number of musicians along with DJs in their live shows, which included a celebratory performance last year at the Kennedy Center in the band’s hometown of Washington, D.C., along with a similar show in Canada, currently, it’s a one-person operation in Raskin. This lone musician’s approach is done out of simplicity, as taking a full band out on the road, which FK5 did many times early in their career, is in Raskin’s words, a “big production.”
Raskin has plenty of band experience from time spent playing guitar in D.C. post-hardcore band Edsel, and he approaches his DJ sets with a full-band and jam-band mentality. Loaded with plenty of individual sounds via his equipment, he can build full songs on the fly. That, coupled with samples from thousands of familiar songs, he’s got a full band at his fingertips, and what Raskin plays is dictated by venue and audience.
“My sets are designed based off the time and place I’m playing. If I’m playing at a festival, it might be a really high-energy set. If I’m playing a club, I might take it on a journey. It really depends,” he said. “I know usually the first five songs, and the last five songs. The rest is the journey that we’re all going on together. In the end, it always about me reacting to the crowd, because in the end I want to enjoy the music as if I was in the crowd too.”
You will find Raskin in that crowd both before and after his set at Animas City Theatre, as he’s a fan of the scene. Here’s your small world moment: the headliners for Saturday’s show are the British Columbia-based duo Skii Tour. After they had been booked, Gene Salaz from Animas City Theatre reached out to Raskin to see if he’d come perform as well. Raskin, who is now based in British Columbia, gave a hearty yes, as he’s not only fan of the groove- and good-time-heavy Skii Tour, he’s also their friend and neighbor.
While Raskin has played plenty of shows as a headliner, he remains quite happy as an opener.
“I really enjoy the direct support slots, which is to say that I get to play, I get to be me and I get to rock the party,” he said. “Then afterwards, I get to enjoy the party with everybody else.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
