F5-Wichita, Kansas
Sugar Free Allstars finally tasting sweets
April 22, 2004

When Sugar Free Allstars vocalist/Hammond B3 player Chris Wiser left Mike Hosty’s Hosty Trio, he knew he was in for a challenge.
“It was weird,” the musician said, “because we were pretty popular, in the trio. We played a lot of packed shows in this area, then I left, formed this band and found myself playing to empty rooms again.”
The experience, along with the end of one romance and general observations from life in the music scene inspired “Cover Band Boyfriend,” from the duo’s new disc Dos Machos. While the songs present offer up laughs and keen observations, it was not, Wiser said, an easy album to make. The band’s original drummer bailed in 2001 after some scratch tracks had been recorded, the equipment broke down and the hastily assembled stretch in which the band recorded the entire album over the course of a single weekend sounded exactly like that.
Wiser and his mates decided instead to record at apace that would allow them to get things right. When it came time for the singer to record his vocal tracks, he found that he’d developed sinus problems, which further delayed thins. Just as he started to mend, guitarist Mike Satawake exited, leaving Wiser and new drummer Rob Martin with not only an album to complete but a string of weekend shows to perform.
“(Mike) left on Monday and we had some gigs up in Kansas scheduled for the following weekend. These were places we hadn’t played before. We said, ‘Well, let’s just play the gigs. We’ll worry about a guitar player later.’ People flipped out. They said ‘Wow, man! I can’t freakin’ believe you’re just two guys!’ We said, ‘ Well, we weren’t until Monday.’ On the way back from that trip we said, ‘Screw it, let’s do a two-piece.’”
The pair felt newly energized by the experience and prepared to finally lock in, get the album done and go about promoting it. But fate had a different idea.
“We’d been driving around in my 1996 Nissan Quest minivan for three years and my mechanic said, ‘Dude, you cannot take this thing on trips anymore.’ Rob bought a Suburban, which we’d taken out to Tulsa a couple of times but the third time out….It was New Year’s night,” Wiser said, “we were coming home from the gig and about halfway home, I said, ‘Man, do you smell smoke? Something smells like it’s on fire.’”
Martin insisted that he couldn’t. Then he could. Both men saw smoke curling up from the rear of the vehicle. When they pulled over, Wiser opened his door, only to see smoke coming from directly beneath him. Martin was able to get most of his drums out but Wiser lost a vintage keyboard and saxophone in the process. As the fire spread toward the cab, the pair made an important realization: If flames overtook the trailer which housed Wiser’s Hammond B3 organ, the band would be over.
Luckily, firefighters got there in time. Wiser’s B3 was saved and Martin’s mother later pitched in to help him buy a new drum kit. The band had to endure only one more accident (involving a patch of ice and a concrete median) before things started going more to its liking.
“Now all of that makes for good stories,” Wiser said. “At the time it wasn’t all that funny.”
So how is material from the new record (the band’s second) going down since it was the light of day roughly two weeks ago?
“We’re getting a lot of response to ‘Buddhist In A Beemer,’” Wiser said of one of the album’s more infectious tracks. “It’s interesting. There are a lot of college-aged kids who dress like hippies but drive around in SUVs. I’ve known a couple of girls like that. They like the hippie skirts but have to have Nine West shoes. We see that at shows. It’s an interesting contradiction.”
Catch the Hammond B3 action at John Barleycorn’s Saturday night with the Sugar Free Allstars.

-Jedd Beaudoin