Watchers, Eternals, the Jai-Alai Savant
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Six years in, Guarrine and D’Ercole are the only members left from the band’s original lineup. They’re on their third drummer, Jess Birch (percussionist and keyboardist Damien Thompson joined to replace Jamie Levinson, who’d switched roles to take over from the band’s first drummer), and now their second bassist. So far they’ve lost a member shortly after finishing three of their four releases–the kind of thing that makes the customary promotional tour a giant pain in the ass. It can’t be easy to integrate a new person into the Watchers on short notice: they play an electric mix of punk, funk, and neo-no wave, and their live shows are famously tight. But when I say maybe they should stop making records, they think I’m kidding.
Hurst, it turns out, has fit in fine so far, according to Guarrine, and he says he’s willing to become a permanent member. But the Watchers’ recent tour was a fiasco. For the first time ever, they canceled shows. After a gig in Brooklyn on the 18th, Guarrine looked at the rest of the schedule–a nine-day loop down to Atlanta and back to Illinois with only five shows–and reckoned it’d cost $700 in gas to cover the miles. The shows weren’t going to make them nearly that much, and on the days off they’d be spending money just to eat. (Guarrine says they’ve since fired their booking agent.) Already in the red, the band decided to pull the plug and head straight home. They went back out to play Indianapolis and Cincinnati, but ended up dropping three dates–almost a quarter of their tour.
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