Outlaws ready to hit the West

The vocalist for Boulder, Colo.-based rock outfit West Water Outlaws is performing at South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. The band also will play in the Duke City for the first time.

“We get to open for Bob Schneider in Austin and it’s an honor,” Rooker explains from a Boulder studio. “We’re really pumped to be part of the festival and then the tour is taking us to places we’ve never performed in.”

West Water Outlaws is touring in support of its album, “Real Killer,” which was released in August.

The band is comprised of Rooker, Will S. Buck, Vincent Ellwood and Andrew Oakley.

Rooker says the band formed in early 2010 when he hazily walked into the wrong statistics class and ran into Buck, who was a friend from freshman year at the University of Colorado. He says after 15 minutes of talking about forming a band, the duo decided to make it happen.

After a few practices and some spirited writing sessions, the band started playing parties in the basement of Rooker’s house.

	West Water Outlaws With The Breaktone, Snake Oil Spill WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 20 WHERE: Low Spirits Bar & Stage, 2823 Second NW HOW MUCH: $7 at www.holdmyticket.com or 886-1251

“In Boulder, we were a rarity,” he says. “People were hosting house parties and just playing house music. We were a real rock ‘n’ roll band and started to get known around town.”

In that same year, the West Water Outlaws won the university’s battle of the bands contest.

“This was the time that we knew we had something together,” he says. “We started to creating more music and it just became a whole lot more fun.”

Rooker is the primary songwriter and says when he has lyrics, he will take them to the band.

“Then we’ll just jam and see what goes along with those,” he says. “We’ve grown a lot since we made our first EP.”