Burnside Flashers return to Downtown Live After 5

The Burnside Flashers make their third appearance onstage at Houma’s Downtown Live After 5 April 25.

And rhythm guitarist/vocalist Tommy LeBouef, a Houma native, couldn’t be happier to be coming home.

“Houma is our favorite place to play,” he said. “The crowds are great and they really know how to have a good time.

“They come out in droves and cheer for us,” LeBouef added. “We feed off of that. When the crowd really gets into it, it encourages us to really get into it even more.”

The 1986 graduate of Terrebonne High School said he talks up Houma to people everywhere the band plays. “I’m always trying to get people to go and enjoy the restaurants in the Downtown Houma area,” LeBouef said. “There’s great food, good people and Downtown Live is just great fun.”

Burnside Flashers’ six-member band got its start nearly three years ago, in April 2005.

The band was actually formed on a whim to help raise money for the American Cancer Society. Lead vocalist Duane Hunts became passionate about helping prevent cancer after his grandfather died at the very hospital at which he worked, East Jefferson Medical Center in Metairie.

“Every year, the hospital adopts a different cause,” Hunts recalled. “That particular year, they’d adopted the American Cancer Society.”

Knowing a couple of his co-workers in the hospital’s Information Technology Department also had musical chops, Hunts tossed out the offer to start a band.

“With over 3,000 workers at the hospital, I just figured the odds had to be in our favor that someone there played a musical instrument and would be willing to join,” he said.

With co-IT staffers – Lea Kottman (bass guitar), Chuck Cosby (lead guitar), LeBouef and Hunts – and x-ray technician Toby Savoie (lead vocals/percussion), the band was set. [The only turnover the Burnside Flashers have experienced has been on the drums. The original drummer moved out of the area after Hurricane Katrina. Steve Tulino, the lone non-hospital employee, has that duty.]

“It was going to be a one-time thing,” Kottman said. “We’d play this one gig and that was it. It was like, ‘Hey honey, don’t worry about it. We’re only doing this one time and it’s not going to become a regular thing.'”

Nearly three years later, the band’s still going strong.

With only a week to prepare for the benefit concert, the members put a list together of all the songs they could play and cross-referenced the tunes to create a play list. No one remembers how many songs were on the initial list, but agree they had three hours worth of music drawing from each member’s tastes.

“We had a good variety of stuff,” Hunts said. “We played Brown-Eyed Girl to Stevie Ray Vaughn and Styx and all that kind of stuff.”

The plan was to charge a $5 cover at the door, with all the money going to the American Cancer Society.

What no one in the band counted on was the tremendous reception in store for them. Playing before a standing-room-only crowd, they raised $800 for the cause that night.

“When you walked down the hall the next day, with a couple of hundred people there the previous night, which was so unexpected, and that Monday everybody asking when you’re going to play again … it was all so unexpected,” Hunts said.

“The smiles in the hallway were what affected our decision the most,” LeBouef added. “People had such a good time. They may have initially come to laugh at us and walked away saying, ‘You guys really rocked.’ The night was so magical almost.”

The Burnside Flashers’ one-time deal suddenly became a regular hobby.

They’ve toured the region playing once or twice a month. They’ve had gigs at the New Orleans Rock’n’Bowl, Downtown Live After 5 and similar venues across south Louisiana. Recently, they even played their first wedding.

“We’re not just a garage band,” LeBouef said. “We’re definitely contending with the big bands.”

The Burnside Flashers continue to build their song selection, drawing from hits of the ’70s through today’s music.

“The challenge in venues such as Houma is to entertain every end of the spectrum, every age range,” Hunts said.

It’s not unusual to hear a Peter Frampton or Pat Benatar hit followed by a Daughtry, Kelly Clarkson or Green Day song, he explained.

“A lot of us have kids that are into Hannah Montana,” Hunts said, “so we kind of know what’s going on out there on the younger teen scene. We’re going to do something to entertain them too.”

In fact, last year at the band’s Downtown Live show, instead of taking a break, LeBeouf invited all the younger concert-goers to go up on stage and he led them in an acoustic version of a Hannah Montana song.

“It was great to have all the moms and the kids up there,” he said. “It was fun, and that’s what we do. We try to please the crowd.

“We’re not so broad that we’re going to play a country song and then we’re going to play a rock’n’roll song and people can’t get a feel for us,” LeBouef said. “We try to play a segment of an era and we’ll move from one segment of an era to another. It’s not so diverse that you can’t enjoy the show.”

And with such a wide spectrum, Hunts noted, everyone’s sure to hear something they really like.

With the reception the Burnside Flashers have gotten and the fun they’re having, the band is looking forward to showing Houma how much its grown since just last year.

“This is still a hobby,” Kottman said. “But we love it. We plan on doing the Metamucil tour before it’s over.”

“We’re having fun; we’re not in it for the business,” LeBouef added. “We make a little fun money here and there. More important to us is to make good music, have a good crowd to play for and everybody has a good time.”