The Forty Twenty train has left the station.
After more than seven years of entertaining audiences across the globe, the band has decided once and for all to call it a day.
Maybe. Perhaps not. Time will tell.
In any case, the band will make one last trip to Omaha for a show at
The Waiting Room Lounge, at 6212 Maple St., billed as “Forty Twenty’s
Final Show.”
“It is billed as our last show,” said lead singer David Wilson. “But
I would be utterly shocked if we don’t ever play again. I mean if you
think about it, we haven’t played since September, so in my mind this
is actually one of our first reunion shows.”
The band performed this past weekend at the Zoo Bar, at 136 N. 14th St., to a capacity crowd.
Zoo Bar co-owner Pete Watters said he’ll be sad to see the band go.
“The show went great. It was well attended, and the guys were as funny and energetic as they always are,” Watters said.
“They were unique in how they mixed country and punk in a way not many bands can do. I hate to see them go.”
The band’s roster has varied over the years, but two of the
mainstays have included David Wilson on the fiddle and Lerne Tilton,
who adds his personal touch on vocals as well as on the stand-up bass.
As Tilton makes the career move of relocating to California for work
as an artist, a good chunk of the band’s core will essentially have
left the building.
But that doesn’t mean the band’s members are calling it a day when it comes to playing their respective instruments.
Wilson has already wrapped up a six-song EP with a new band called
The Cowboy Dave Band. Drummer J.J. King has been jamming with some
friends interested in music more in the realm of hardcore, and
guitarist Jon Bradley jumped on board with Sheila Greenland performing
Top-40 country cover songs.
If Forty Twenty does indeed stay disbanded, the group will leave us
with two full albums to its credit – “Lowdown and Dirty” and “Sober and
Stupid” – as well as a concert chronology that spans several states.
The band made several trips down to Oklahoma and Texas, and even
fostered a friendship with Jason Boland (of Jason Boland & The
Stragglers), a circumstance that brought to mind one of Wilson’s
favorite Forty Twenty moments.
“He took us under his wings,” he said.
“We played at maybe the biggest event hall I’ve ever seen and it was
a sold-out show. We played our set and that was great, but then Boland
told me he was out a fiddle player for the night so I’d need to play
with him. Now that’s cool.”
Wilson also recalled a show last year in Omaha at Memorial Park when the band played to perhaps its biggest audience ever.
“It was the Fourth of July and there had to have been at least
20,000 people in the crowd,” he said. “I mean the stage was far enough
away from anyone that we felt like we were playing to ourselves, but it
made it that much easier to have fun.”
On the flip side, Wilson mentioned one of the band’s first out of town gigs as one of the band’s Debbie Downer moments.
A little venue in Des Moines called the Twisted Parrot took the band
up on a request to head out for a show. After the club owner offered up
some pizza and beer to the band members, they played their set to a
nonplussed crowd and loaded up before checking to see what the night’s
paycheck would be.
“We’re waiting to collect our pay and the bar owner comes over and
explains how many people came and what our pay was,” Wilson recollected.
“Then he explained what our bar and our food tab was and told us we owed him 30 bucks.”
Needless to say, life as a Forty Twenty member had its ups and downs.
In any case, fans can grasp for one last breath of fresh Forty
Twenty when the band takes the stage April 3, after performances by
Black Squirrels and Gerald Lee Jr. with Josh Dunwoody.
And while the show is billed as Forty Twenty’s last, perhaps the stars will align again someday.
“We wanted to come out with a new album and reinvent ourselves,” Wilson said.
“It’s about 75 percent done. We just never finished it... yet. I can’t say it won’t happen.”