By John Pluntze (SVO's local music scene "Harmonic Convergence" columnist)

Although it's normally closed on Sundays, the Fresshies restaurant and bar in Hailey (122 South Main Street) will be opening its doors this coming Sunday evening, Feb. 21, for a special, free all-ages-welcome 8-10pm concert featuring Wood RIver Valley band fave, FINN RIGGINS (Valley band, Live Nudes, will open for them).

Comprised of Lisa Simpson (electric and acoustic guitars, keys, drums, vocals), Eric Gilbert (keys, synth, organ, accordion, sampler, guitars, vocals) and Cameron Bouiss (drums, steel drum, drum pad, washboard, vocals), this Boise-based, increasingly-popular, three-piece experimental indie-rock band  ( www.finnriggins.com ) is about to kick off a three-month tour that will encompass some 40 states in all four corners of the country -- from Seattle to San Diego, and from Miami to Montpelier.

Finn Riggins, which enjoyed a very successful concert at Whiskey's back in early January, has had a whirlwind few years, both on the road and in Boise, and has pretty much permanently eliminated whatever lingering doubts may've existed that they could carve out a sizable (and lasting) niche for themselves in the indie music scene. In fact, their last album ("Vs. Wilderness"), which was recorded, engineered and co-produced (with Jared Mees -- founder of the Portland, Oregon-based Tender Loving Empire, Finn Riggins' record label) by the band in May 2009 at the Audio Lab Studio (an arm of Garden City's Visual Arts Collective/VAC -- a non-profit gallery, theater, and creative space that FInn Riggins has become heavily involved with and supportive of since relocating to Boise, from Hailey, in January 2009), was the top-selling CD in 2009 at The Record Exchange in Boise.

This upcoming three-month U.S. tour, which officially starts Feb. 25 in Seattle, is easily among the most ambitious and venue-filled of anything that the band has been involved with so far, a band that only just formed in 2006.

'We're extremely excited about this tour," SImpson told me last month, when she and fellow bandmates Eric Gilbert and Cameron Bouiss joined me for coffee at Tully's early one Sunday morning (after their latenight gig the night before at Whiskey's). "In a very real sense, I guess, it's further validation for all of us that we REALLY ARE a band with legs, and one with very loyal and incredibly supportive fans across the country now."

SImpson, who has two superb solo Molly Venter-like (acoustic-folk) albums to her credit --"Taken Lightly" and "Steeping Orion," both of which, like the band's various bestselling albums, will be for sale during their Sunday evening Fresshies show -- seems very humbled, still, by the response the band has received over the years ... a band which first took shape in the Moscow, Idaho (when all three were students there at the University of Idaho) and then, later, in Wood RIver Valley back August 2006, after which they soon found a loving, creative home with Portland, Oregon's Tender Loving Empire label, and began their very first tour in 2007.

"Jared (Mees -- Tender Loving Empire's founder) has always been super cool and very open and honest with us," Gilbert said, while acknowledging that the band's boldly, sometimes even defiantly original sound often been a bit hard to define and otherwise easily categorize and market by the record company.

"I think some people out there, with a less visionary and longterm outlook, might've been sorta afraid of our sound," Gilbert said. "But Jared's a musician himself, and he's very aware of what it takes for bands to succeed, and what they need from a label. We pretty much started out together (with Tender Loving Empire) when they were just getting started themselves, and we've grown together over the years, which has been really great for all of us, I think."

Gilbert, Simpson and Bouiss all met at music school while at the University of Idaho, and they think that being friends before they became bandmates is one of the many reasons why their ongong success hasn't gone to their heads or otherwise suddenly made them ego-driven.

"Academia teaches you to think under pressure," Bouiss said, "which is very valuable when you're on the road, especially, touring in a band. And THAT keeps you grounded in reality."

Simpson, who is married to Gilbert, met him in 1998. He worked on both her acclaimed acoustic-folk solo albums and is very keenly aware that her powerful, beautiful and lilting voice is as much an integral and appealing part of the band as her stellar guitar work is. "We do a lot of GROUP writing, and it's never all 'just about me'."

Which is something Simpson seems to genuinely relish. "It's sooooo great NOT being the center of attention anymore," Simpson laughed, referring to her work for a number of years as a solo artist in the Wood RIver Valley and elsewhere, before joining Finn Riggins. "I mean I've always loved singing and performing -- I've been doing it, in one form or another, since I was ten -- but being a part of a BAND gives you a cushion and a support system that you just don't have when you're by yourself."

Touring some 245 days in 2008 -- and not much less in 2009 -- doesn't always allow the band much chance to rest, but they do genuinely love and interact with the unabashedly-eclectic and ever-expanding music scene in Boise. "The Visual Arts Collective is so super cool and supportive of the indie music scene," Simpson said. "It's a wonderfully diverse space where artists can interact with each other and find a friendly environment in which to work. I'm always very inspired by other people's artistic endeavors, and being around OTHER inspired artists in the Boise area (including Built To Spill member Dave Martsch) is an incredibly terrific place to be."

For the first three weeks or so of the upcoming three-month Finn Riggins U.S. tour, the band will be touring with Boys Eats Drum Machine (aka, Portland singer, producer, songwriter, visual artist and multi-instrumentalist Jon Ragel: www.boyseatsdrummachine.com ), who shares their Tender Loving Empire label and whose presence on the tour is a further thrill for the band. "Jon's got a verrry cool and verrry original sound that definitely compliments ours," Gilbert said.

The Finn Riggins tour will include stops at the South By Southwest Music Festival (in Austin, TX), Neon Reverb in Las Vegas, and the Feedback Ring Festival (in Raleigh, NC).

And as far as what their legions of unceasingly loyal and supportive Wood River Valley fans will hear Sunday night at Fresshies? "It'll be a little more raw, a little more in-your-face," Gilbert said, adding that "We always have A LOT of fun there!!"

For more info on the Sunday Feb. 21 8-10pm free Finn Riggins concert there, call Fressies at 788-3621.
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Comments or questions regarding this recurring local music scene-oriented SVO "Harmonic Convergence" column can be sent to John at: WriteStuffIdaho@gmail.com And to read any of John's previous "HC" columns -- which include raves on local faves Maria Laura Bustamante and Alejandro Rivas, Sheryll Mae Grace (and her FREEHAND band), Art Wallace, Cow Says Mooo, Gayle Chapman, and Bruce Innes -- simply type "John Pluntze" into the SVO search engine here.