Tone Def redux

Two years ago one of Cape's best-loved party bands called it quits -- the immortal Tone Def All-Stars.

To this day you can still see their name on stickers at Breakaways -- "I Sure Do Miss the Tone Def All-Stars".

Some of the band members have moved away, some have just gotten older, making it harder to imbibe shot after shot of Jagermeister on a regular basis. But at the River City Musical Festival this year (formerly the City of Roses) the boys will get back together old-school style, reviving the rollicking on-stage party that brought them a large local following.

Tone Def members Patrick Koetting (bass) and Ron Ruppel (drums) recently talked to OFF about the reunion in between helping customers at the bike store where they both work.

OFF: So what happened to the band?

KOETTING: Stale.

RUPPEL: You ever blended anything with the top off? Pretty much just like that.

OFF: Where do the other members live now?

KOETTING: Darrel (Chad, guitar and vocals) is in Texas.

RUPPEL: Darren's (Burgfeld, vocals and trombone) in St. Charles.

KOETTING: It's really gonna be bring back the old fat guys.

When I started doing to the Mike Renick thing, I played with Mike Renick for a while and had a wonderful time, but I've got two kids now ... for '07 I've done three shows, where in the past I've been averaging anywhere from 30 to 90 shows a year. Then when we had our second child there was just no way to do it. There wasn't a way to do it with the first child, I don't know how I did it. I definitely sacrificed a lot of family time and I thoroughly regret most of it. I was working in the music business and you see so many people get old and retire, and it's so easy to step away.

The first 12 years of playing music in bars was so fun, it was a blast. It's still fun, but there's drunks, smoke ... everything. I just got tired of it. And when I was with Mike Renick, we did a lot of outdoor shows, we did some really fun daytime stuff, but it's a whole different thing. Mike Renick is something you could play for your mom. The Tone Def All-Stars, whew, I wouldn't play it for your mom.

OFF: What have you been up to Ron?

RUPPEL: After the Rock Solid business, which was fun, it got to the point where I was in a band that didn't practice except for when we played. So I was tired of that, so I said to the guys, I've been working at this new job I got, I'm out, I'm sorry, I'm out.

Since then I think I've sat in twice on an Intention show for about two songs. I was terrible both times, so nothing's changed. And I haven't been doing any music, like I can't remember the last time I played drums.

I'm getting married in three months, and I'm going to have my own little family we want to start. Once again, Pat's got it right, once you retire it's really easy to be retired.

I do miss a little bit of it. There's times when I'm like, "God, I used to do that, that's a good time." But I'm cool with it.

OFF: So you'll be going into this show ...

RUPPEL: Cold. Cold.

I imagine the first half-hour will be rough, so if you want to see some stuff, show up early. I believe we still break for Jagermeister, so that will be interesting ... because I don't drink any Jager anymore. Once you've had so many bottles of it, you kind of shy away.

OFF: Now that you guys are old, are you going to be able to do the Tone Def party spirit justice?

RUPPEL: Darren is still very much a performing, he'll always be a performer at heart. Darren's had a lot of stage time with his new job ... been on tour many places ... so he'll probably be at the top of his game. Whereas myself, I'll be at the bottom of my game. At least the tempos will be a little slower.

OFF: So you'll have a rhythm section that will be a little behind.

RUPPEL: That's all right. Darrel got his guitar out of pawn, Pat, I think he dusted off the old bass, I still need to get my drums out of storage at an undisclosed location.

OFF: How many City of Roses festivals did you play?

RUPPEL: I played the first City of Roses -- I've played most of the City of Roses. I got barred from a main stage due to certain events that shall remain nameless. But, yeah, I tried to help out with most of the City of Roses. When I was working at Shivelbine's I worked as a setup/tear down technician, a.k.a. Ape. Yeah, I've played a few shows.

KOETTING: Almost all. The problem with me was I've always been in more than one band. I've been in every one of them I've been in town for.

There was one year that I think I played six shows in one night ... because I was in three bands, playing the main stage, then I'm in a bar, then I'm back on the main stage, and worked at Shivelbine's and helped do the sound and drove the truck.

RUPPEL: He just used that as an excuse so he doesn't have to tear down.

KOETTING: We were in 50 Cent Buddha together, and the night that 50 Cent Buddha, Tone Def All-Stars and Funky Donkey Cheese played, both on the main stage and in the bars, my six shows in a night, and those involved costume changes. Obviously, it's not a show unless I'm in the right clothes. You try getting a skirt, some hot pants and a wig on in five minutes. I don't keep these legs shaved for nothing.

It was a lot of fun. I always overdid everything. That's the point where it was such a big relief to be away from it. And I haven't gotten the extremely bad urge to want to play. But my first paid gig, I was 15. Even when I was in St. Louis and I wasn't in a band, I stilled played once in a while. I was working in a guitar shop, so I was playing every day. You would assume that would mean I'd be very good, but I'm not. It's all smoke and mirrors, man.

This is the longest I've gone without a gig.

OFF: So is this it for you and the City of Roses, or River City Festival?

KOETTING: No. There are things in the works. I've just been brought into a band that's kind of, could be something huge, who knows?

RUPPEL: This may not even be the last time Tone Def plays. Maybe.

KOETTING: I'm indifferent. I mean, the nights of doing 17 Jager shots are gone. I can't do it anymore. Not because, I mean, I can throw down and get drunk with the best of them.

RUPPEL: Yeah, we can throw down and throw up.

KOETTING: But it's different now. My priorities are way different. I'm in the bicycle business, I sell bikes, I try to ride bikes every day, but even that's suffered since I've gotten two kids.

Playing in the bars, it's no big deal. I'm not really bouncing off the walls excited right now, but I'm not a person who sees something that far away and gets excited about it. You know, I'm trying to dig out what outfit I'm going to wear. That's it. I'm sure it will be fun, it'll be cool. We'll do our best to let everybody down. I think if someone turns a sober eye to us, we could turn out to suck.

RUPPEL: Drink early, drink often.

KOETTING: That was our motto in the Tone Def All-Stars. When I go back now and listen to the recordings of our shows, the night you fell into your drum set, Ron passed out into his drum set ...

Ruppel: That was a good time. I got back up.

KOETTING: Barely. We tried to do one of our hip-hop, rap tunes and it was horrible. My dad's a professional musician, I come from a family of musicians, and I've never said, "Hey dad, here's what I've done with seven years of my life. Listen to this."

Not only is it a train wreck, it's a train wreck full of obscenities. Chipmunks make better noises. But that wasn't the purpose of the band. When I wanted to do something technically proficient and really neat and really musical, Tone Def wasn't really the avenue for it. Tone Def was a party ... everywhere we went there was a party around us.

RUPPEL: If the regular bands were work, Tone Def was the weekend. Does that make any sense?

KOETTING: Kind of. That's a really lame metaphor.