Dec. 8: Space Bacon looks to sizzle The Stone Church Dec. 8 with greasy jams

When a band performs and a show gets elevated to an experience, it becomes something a bit different than usual. Everything gets taken to a new level ranging from the lights on stage, the vibe resonating from the band and the music being absorbed by the audience. Brooklyn-based jam band Space Bacon has a knack for pulling this off whenever they perform live – which will be happening Dec. 8, when they land at The Stone Church Music Club in Newmarket.

Boston rock dynamos Leon Trout will be starting the night off at 8 p.m.

I caught up with Space Bacon bassist Kevin LeGall ahead of the show about the band being very interactive with their fan base, a unique annual gig they have happening next month and what’s ahead for 2024.

Rob Duguay: You guys have a very interactive approach with your live music with a bunch of recordings of shows being posted online and full videos of your performances being posted on social media. Who initially had the idea to market and promote yourselves in this fashion where you’re using the internet and all of its capabilities to your advantage?

Kevin LeGall: Space Bacon is a jam band that goes through a variety of different genres and we strive on our improvisation, these are jams that happen in the moment and will never be replicated again. It’s very important that we capture each show. To the best of my knowledge, if you go back the genesis of the genre, the Grateful Dead are the creators of not only the concept of jam bands, but of this particular culture of recording each show. Since then other artists have followed, making it the standard for everyone from Phish, the Disco Biscuits, Lotus, etc. The band started in 2013, but it wasn’t until 2015 when we started recording shows at our hometown venue at the time, Garcia’s in Port Chester, New York, which is next to the Capitol Theatre.

That’s when we started recording our concerts and posting them online on the platform, Bandcamp. In terms of content, I’ve worked for news sites and another member of the band works in digital advertising, so through years of working in our fields, we’ve grown to learn that content is king. People want content and they want more music, so we think that it’s imperative for us to make sure we capture every moment. We want fans to catch the shows they’ve missed or relive an event they were at. Whether it’s through soundboard audio or through a video on YouTube, we just want to have people experience our music via the medium of their choice.

RD: Very cool, I think it’s great. When it comes to the live recordings, how do you go about choosing which shows to post online?

KL: We like to put the cream of the crop of shows on Spotify. We understand that Bandcamp is a very niche platform and everyone has either Spotify, Apple Music, etc, so we want to make our music more readily accessible, to appreciate our music in a live capacity. We are currently working on getting more live performances onto more appropriate streaming platforms.

RD: How do you go about filming these performances? Do you have a video crew that goes on tour with you guys?

KL:  I think the main crux of Space Bacon is having a DIY mindset. The videos are handled by our keyboardist Chris Gironda. Not only does he set up the cameras around the stage, he also edits the footage. Our guitarist Fred Rylands, who originally joined as a sound engineer in 2017, handles the mixing and mastering of each soundboard. Our newest crew member, Jesse Stocker, comes on the road to make sure that we sound great live and to capture the recordings of each show. Everything is done in-house and it takes a lot of time and effort from everyone, but it’s worth putting out great content for our fans to enjoy.

RD: From what I’ve seen, the quality looks pretty good. On January 27, Space Bacon is going to be putting on their fifth annual “Snow Bacon” at The Snow Barn within the Mount Snow Ski Resort in West Dover, VT, featuring a bunch of ’80s throwback songs. What inspired this central theme for the show? Has each edition of “Snow Bacon” abided by a certain format and you guys just go along with it?

KL: Every “Snow Bacon” happens at Mount Snow, and our first one in 2017 featured a setlist of only original music. As time progressed, we understood that the crowd coming to see us aren’t necessarily Space Bacon fans. Some people are just showing up to see live music after a long day of skiing, they just want to have a couple drinks and dance. We realized that we should throw in some covers and stuff from the ‘80s is what we originally went for because it fits the whole ski resort setting. For this upcoming show, we just wanted to make it a full ‘80s thing just to get more people in the door and for them to understand what we’re about.

In terms of what we’re going to do, we have a list of songs that we’re working on. We’re not sure if we’re going to incorporate any originals, but we know that we’re going to interweave these 80s songs with what we do best, dance improvisation. It’s going to be a memorable night.

RD: That sounds awesome. Along with “Snow Bacon” kicking off the year, what are some other plans for Space Bacon in 2024?

KL: We are going to announce more shows for 2024, besides “Snow Bacon” we are happy to be a part of the inaugural “Cave Jam” at the Caverns in Tennessee, that will be happening during Memorial Day weekend. Last year we focused more on the East Coast, driving down to Virginia, Ohio and other places closer to our home base in New York. In 2024 we want to build upon last year and go back to cities we love like Denver, Chicago, and Baltimore. We have a great team at Pivotal [Agency] that does all the booking and they’re working very hard to fulfill these target dates for next year. I don’t want to give away too much, but stay tuned, we have a lot of exciting stuff to announce in the coming weeks and we cannot wait to make 2024 the best year yet for not only the band, but the fans.