There’s a whole lotta folk-punk-stompin’ goin’ on

“We have a really tight-knit music community. Bands support and befriend each other. It gives a great foundation to launch a music career,” Rekus said in a phone interview from northern California.

He started out in the community’s punk scene in the late 1990s with a band he led called High Five Drive. Rekus wrote many of its songs. The band stayed together for almost 10 years.

“We all loved the music, but each of us wanted a different approach and all of us are pursuing other projects. I wanted to continue and decided to do a solo act,” he said.

Rekus’ concerts are more than a man and a guitar. He performs on what he described as a “stomp box.” It’s a 4-foot-by-4-foot platform on which stomps his feet while singing. Attached to the front of it are tambourines that jangle when he stomps.

Rekus said he borrowed the idea for the stomp box from a Philadelphia band called Hoots and Hellmouth that he had seen. So he built his act around it.

“There are some elements from the punk scene of the ’90s, but it’s a lot more folky. I usually say what I do is a folk-punk-stomp act,” he said.

	Greg Rekus, Willy J & The Storytellers, and Fart House WHEN: 8:30 tonight WHERE: Burt’s Tiki Lounge, 313 Gold SW HOW MUCH: $5

Though this is his first time performing in New Mexico, he’s toured across Canada several times and in other parts of the United States. He did a solo tour of Europe last spring.

On his first U.S. tour, Rekus did 15 shows. He didn’t make much money, but the purpose was to get name recognition. “It was more of an investment in the future,” he said.

Rekus writes almost all of his own music. He does a few covers, as he put it, just for fun. For the current U.S. tour, he’s doing Herman’s Hermits’ “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am.”

“Part of my act is to get people to participate in a song that everybody knows the chorus and sing along with it,” he said.

At the end of each show, Rekus hauls the platform out of the club and onto his vehicle.

“The tambourines come off and I mount the platform upside down on top of the luggage rack on my minivan. It’s always easy to find my car,” he said.