Skip to main contentFor down-'n'-out tastes, nothing tops Gail's Dirty Duck. Stuck in some weird-ass time warp--it looks like the joint where Jodie Foster got gang-raped in The Accused--this dusty, moth-eaten queer dive is devoted to the goings-on of Oregon's large community of lumbering, Levi-loving, fuzzy-wuzzies affectionately known as "bears."
Lately, though, this big boy den of iniquity at the west end of the Steel Bridge has been adopted by a group of young misfits clad in black hoodies and flannel. They come here for the cheap pool and beer. Or maybe it's for the band. Yes, the band.
Unlike queer bars that bore you to tears with off-key piano bantering or drain your soul with disco, the double D offers another type of experience on Sunday nights, thanks to a musical trio that calls itself Sneakin' Out.
The night I caught the act, the band kicked off the first set with its version of Abba's "Dancing Queen" on mandolin, bass and glockenspiel.
That's right, glockenspiel--an instrument best suited for the inside of jewelry cases, not chub clubs.
With the earnestness all three musicians lovingly devote to their oddball instruments, it's hard to tell if they are playing it straight or just putting on some weird act--like back when Bette Midler played a New York bathhouse. The irony was not lost on the audience--which included homo-heavyweight music promoters and Pink Martini's very own Thomas Lauderdale. In fact, Lauderdale told me Sneakin' Out was his favorite new band.
Now combine the homo hillbilly covers with the band members' fake names--D. Louis Henson Blankenship on percussion, Dave Daluka from Denmark on mandolin and Mike Cheddar on bass--and you've got one hell of a show.
Talking to Cheddar, 37, and Blankenship, 42, a few days after the show (their real names are Mike Schmidt and Don Henson), I asked this longtime couple if their music is for real or just another novelty act.
"We take all types of music and have fun with it," says Cheddar about the band's approach to faves such as Pink Floyd's "Money" and Michael Jackson's "Beat It." "We call it acoustic insanity."
Call it whatever you want, Sneakin' Out has become increasingly busy since it formed last June. This trio uses the Duck as its practice space but also plays at venues as diverse as McMinnville brewpubs and Pearl District cafes.
"The whole focus is to be serious about our music, but not play serious music," Henson says between sets. "This is all we do."
But Sneakin' Out--a trio of professionals with more than three decades of musicianship under their belts--almost didn't happen.
"We were part of an ill-fated band in Nashville," Henson says. "Dave Daluka [Dave Gerow, who once toured with Clay Walker] had a vision that we could somehow form a band. It was a fluke that we all ended up together."
But glockenspiel? "I call it glock-and-roll," says Henson, who plans to add a xylophone to the mix. "It offers a countermelody to Dave's mandolin."
It also offers a new reason to go out Sunday night--to listen to music. At the Dirty Duck?
Who knew?
WWeek 2015