Natty Nation skanks at attention

Touring military bases in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia to entertain American troops can transcend and even temporarily defuse the politics of war in the least likely places, at least judging by the fact that both Toby Keith and Henry Rollins have done it. Still, it won't surprise anyone that the boys at the Pentagon don't get a lot of auditions from reggae bands, especially ones from Madison, Wis. But servicemen and women (who don't have the luxury of just nipping out to a show any old night) wanted to hear some reggae anyway, so the Department Of Defense agency Armed Forces Entertainment went looking and found local Natty Nation. Keyboardist Aaron Konkol put it this way: "We're not willing to go out and put our lives on the line for our country, but we definitely appreciate the people who are willing to do that, and what we are willing to do is play music for those people." Last fall the band spent a few weeks strapping in on short-notice troop-transport flights (and probably skipping blatantly pacifist tunes like "Cease Fire," from last year's album Reincarnation) around Africa and Asia to play for grateful military folk in such places as Dubai and Djibouti. Still one of just three acts listed in the "reggae" category on AFE's website, it has volunteered for a second tour that will take them through Japan, Guam, and the Marshall Islands between Oct. 15 and Nov. 2. As the group prepared for the tour (with drummer Frank Martinez and guitarist Louka Patenaude in tow) and a show this Saturday at the High Noon Saloon, Konkol and singer-bassist Jah Boogie sat down with The A.V. Club to share some of the lessons they learned on their first tour of service.

Cease fire
Jah Boogie: This style of music is not known for supporting military situations. We're not supporting a war as much as we're supporting people who are in that situation, for whatever reason. We met people face-to-face, people sitting down eating, just random soldiers telling us stories and getting a feel for how they feel about where they are.... We definitely weren't singing certain songs that were gonna start any kind of issues. We have those kinds of songs because we want to put our foot down about how we feel.
Aaron Konkol: We were going there for a mission. A mission's not to stir up some political controversy, it's to entertain these people.
JB: That was us being conservative, actually.

How to spend a day off on a military base
AK: Sleep, last time.
JB: They took us to downtown Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. That was a slight culture shock, not total. Going in, there were a lot of farms, like you see in Wisconsin, then you get to the city, but the buidlings—it used to be the Soviet Union—are really kinda slummy-looking in places.
AK: When we came in, the military escorts we had were telling us that about how sometimes they'll just randomly stop a car—they're pretty much mob-run—and there'll be a guy in a black Mercedes that's just sitting right outside the city on the main road. And sometimes the guy'll come out and stop the car, and you're supposed to give them a certain amount of money, and he'll let you go. [The escort's] like, "You don't want to know what would happen if you didn't pay that money. Just pay it."

A couple of us got to go off-base in Djibouti. That was the highlight of my trip. We were really just dropped in the middle. We went with two military women, and as soon as we got out of the cab, it was all little kids running up to us, trying to sell us stuff and take us here and get us kat. It was just seeing the people and how happy they were in their poverty, it's great. When you think of poverty, you think of how it is in Madison, the people sitting in Peace Park or whatever. There, because that's how it is, I guess people just are happier about it.
JB: Dubai's a whole different spectrum of rich compared to being in Africa. You get sheiks walking around with the whole white headgear. I was walking through on the way to the gig and one guy got out of a car and went, "Rasta!" Wow. You know? They know what's going on.

At ease, soldier?
AK: Basically, the Navy is a lot less restrictive on drinking. We got onto an Air Force base and they could have, I think, maybe two drinks a day, and it was just beer, and they had special things that they would mark off. I don't remember how they did it, but you could only have two drinks every 24 hours.
The A.V. Club: So how crazy are military people allowed to get at a show?
JB: Depends on the base! One base, the captain is all cool, free-spirited, and everyone else would kind of fall in line to that. But if you're in a spot that's real conservative, then they're not gonna let loose. Each base has its own attitude in terms of that. That first show in Kyrgyzstan, that was a highlight for me. They told us afterward that that was the first time different coalitions troops danced and mingled together. They're kind of segregated. We had troops from Poland, France, and they stayed with their people, but when we started playing they all came together. Breakdancing, some of them.