Microbus

*** Alabaster Brown is my new project, at Alabasterbrown.com , I'm still doing occasional Microbus gigs, but it's time to get serious about playing my own music and seeing the world, thanks for all the great memories with Microbus and keep looking for the occasional gig*** I'm Sean from Microbus, a professional band that plays in the ST Louis area every week. Please check out our audio samples at the bottom of this huge page and visit our picture gallery and the ON TOUR link to see where we'll be this week. If you're looking to book the band, I'll provide you with some compelling stats from the last few years. Microbus is currently playing about 40 clubs within 100 miles of St Louis, including the largest and best! We opened for Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth when they played Riverport Ampitheater, The Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute band, set attendance records in Lesterville MO, broke more than attendance records at Fat Tuesdays during Mardi Gras (ask me later), landed the St Jacob IL Homecoming Picnic gig for LIFE, played the ST Louis Ad Council's Christmas Party, and many other great gigs that we were honored to play. We offer top-notch musicians, a huge song list, and can play the biggest variety of music of any area band. No person will feel left out when Microbus plays. There are several "only's" with Microbus! We are the only band to have 5 incredible singer/musicians in St Louis... 5 part harmonies if you can believe it! The only band that plays our patented "Time Machine" set, in which we play songs from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and from the new millenium. And the Only band to be together and gigging constantly for over 10 YEARS! 1000's of gigs played, and none of us know the first thing about Saturday Night Live!

Microbus formed in the Summer of '93 as a 3 piece band and over the years we grew in size and reputation. We now have some of the best players in St Louis, featuring ex-members of the Well-Hungarians, Vitamen A, Big Fat Love, and Dear Mom. Everyone in Microbus is gifted singer as well as multi-instrumentalist. Sometimes in the middle of a set (or even in the middle of a song) we will all rotate one instrument to the left. Pretty cool trick, eh?

We got to Open for Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth, we played at Bush Stadium about 20 times, and were introduced by the late great Jack Buck, but the most fun has always been Lesterville MO.

We all grew up with KSHE radio and KSHE classics, and know more about St Louis Classic Rock than any other band. We play the largest variety of any local band, spanning the 50's to the present day. We can play a whole night of New Rock, Classic Rock, Blues, Oldies... we even hire ourselves out to Elvis impersonators every once in a while. We always endeavor to play the best songs for everyone, walking the line between commercial and eclectic. We Play enjoyable songs with musical integrity. We know there is a such thing as too loud and too soft, and we often look for older songs that have been updated by a cool new group, such as "Is She Really Going Out With Him" a great Sugar Ray Cover of a Joe Jackson song. We also incorporate into our performances influences of the Grateful Dead, Curt Cobain and even Johnny Cash. There is a lot of great music out there and Microbus proves that you can make nearly everone happy with intelligent song choices.

Microbus is totally state-of-the-art in every way. We have our own self-contained PA system, and each member has their own speciality. HEMO: A great lead singer, lead harmonica, percussion and witty banter. Sean: A mean lead vocal, and plays the lead guitar AKA OMNI-Strat, which is a hybridized electric guitar that enables him to get simultaneous guitar / synth / acoustic sounds. The Omnistrat is made possible with over 35 seperate discreet systems, encorporating midi-conversion, piezo-electric pickups, and many many analogue stomp boxes. And in the end, it all sounds great! Chris Buckley: The MONSTER bassist of St Louis, Chris keeps the band free to play the entire song list of nearly 300 (!) songs and knows several 1000 more. He sings backups and also interjects the odd comment. Mike Halfhill: Mike is a killer drummer and vocalist. He is another comedian as well, often cracking wise in the middle of songs, causing chaos on stage and the dance floor as people stop singing / dancing to laugh and whipe their eyes. He uses triggered analogue drums with a sampler and other recorded sounds. Mike Bequette: Maybe the funniest guy in the group! ANOTHER lead vocalist and excellent guitarist. Both he and Sean use active volume control for complete control over tone and volume level.