Story by Cam Giblin
Photos by Nick Cote
It’s dark inside the Campbell Club. An old radio glows faintly in the middle of the set, the back of which has been hollowed out to fit the band’ s synthesizer and keyboard. This is Adventure Galley, and they’re promoting the release of their new EP, The Right Place to Be. The night’s lineup includes performances by Ethos’ Bandest of the Band winner Sea Bell and runners-up On the Tundra, both of whom are no strangers to Adventure Galley.
Imagine if Arcade Fire played the synthesizer and joined up with the Killers and the Clash, and you’ll get a better idea of Adventure Galley’s unique sound. The Eugene-based band recorded their full length EP with Brandon Eggleston, whose previous clients range from indie moguls Modest Mouse to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.
However, things haven’t always run so smoothly for Adventure Galley.
“We’ve had our equipment stolen, twice,” drummer Brock Grenfell says. “Then our van caught on fire.”
It was at the start of Adventure Galley’s spring break tour of California that smoke began billowing from the van. After several unsuccessful stops to cool the engine, the band piled out of the cream-colored van, dubbed the Cream Dream, and doused the front end with water bottles.
“We joked that we’d get a flat on the second day and our transmission would blow up on the third,” Grenfell says. “Unfortunately we didn’t know our jokes would come true.”
Eventually, the band shelled out the cash to have the van fixed only to have the engine completely die the day after. So Adventure Galley bid farewell to the Cream Dream and took a U-Haul back to Eugene.
Despite these setbacks, things are looking up for the Galley boys. The band’s sold over 250 CDs since their release party on May 7, which will release on iTunes later this week. The band plans to play at the UO on May 26 and at WOW Hall on May 27. Plans are also in the works for buying a new, copper-colored van to make the trip. Its tentative name: the Rusty Bullet.
Adventure Galley’s latest EP is on sale at House of Records. Read more about fellow bands Sea Bell and On the Tundra.
