Boba Fett And The Americans combine guerilla tactics with a brass section

It should come as no surprise that the idea for Boba Fett And The Americans—a flash-mob, guerilla-style marching band led by a dude in a bounty hunter’s space helmet—was hatched after tossing back a few cocktails. What does surprise, however, is how well it works: Crashing events whenever they please, the group draws on everything from classic hip-hop staples (Run-D.M.C.’s “It’s Tricky”) to big-band classics (the Hartford Whalers’ “Brass Bonanza” ice music), with bandleader Boba Fett spewing lyrics into a megaphone, almost always erupting the crowd into a dance party.

Because the band’s shows are largely unplanned and generally unannounced, catching Boba Fett And The Americans in action requires a stroke of luck more than anything else. (Insider tip: A stop at Moe’s Original Bar B Que is slated for this Friday around the Kissing Party/Fingers Of The Sun/Don’ts And Be Carefuls show.) Getting a hold of the enigmatic marching band reveals a web of deceit worthy of a true guerilla movement, with multiple e-mail forwards and hush-hush secrecy (though when Boba Fett doesn’t answer his phone, it rings to Ethan Andrews’ voicemail). But persistence pays off, and The A.V. Club finally caught up Andrews to talk about life in one of Denver’s most mysterious musical outfits.

The A.V. Club: The element of surprise seems to be your band’s best weapon. Does that make it hard to cultivate any fans?

Boba Fett: We try to only tell people where we are going to play hours before, at most. Sometimes we don’t tell them at all. One time, Shawn [King, of DeVotchKa], called a bowling alley and was asking them, “Hey, we’re a band and we’re supposed to play there on Friday, but I don’t remember what time the birthday party is. One more thing, it’s slipped my mind, what is the name of the birthday girl?” [And the bowling alley worker answered,] “Oh, it’s Jessica.” So then we just showed up and played Jessica a birthday party. She had no idea why we were there, 15 guys with horns and drums just playing her birthday songs for like 20 minutes. She was totally shocked. For the first 30 seconds, she was flabbergasted. Then she just started dancing.

AVC: Are there times when you show up and people just don’t understand what’s going on at all?

BF: Oh, yeah. Some guys get really mad too. You’ll look around and you’ll see two girls dancing like crazy, and you’ll look to their left, and the guy they’re with is just giving me the stink eye all night. We’re only there for 20 minutes, but the whole time we’re there, he’s got his arms crossed and he’s giving me dirty looks for dancing with his lady.

AVC: Does surprising people frequently illicit weird responses like that?

BF: It’s out of context for what they’re expecting. A lot of times we play at bars, and you can expect to see live music at bars. One time, we played at a grocery store. If you’re playing a place that there’s not ever in your life the expectation that you’ll see live music and a big, old marching party band drops in, it just freaks people out. Some people love it. Some people, they freak out and don’t like it. Some people don’t know what to think.

AVC: Have you ever had any problems with security officers or the police?

BF: Usually we are gone before they get there. People have called. A guy in his bathrobe was yelling at us on Broadway. We were playing at Indy Ink. A guy came down in a bathrobe and bare feet. He was just screaming at us, “I called the cops! They’re on their way!” We only play for 15 minutes, and it takes the cops half an hour [to respond], so we’re good.

AVC: Is it illegal to be playing in a marching band on the street?

BF: Send the cops! We’ll win them over with our fun-time dance party. I want them to come! I’d like to have a dance-off with a policeman.