May 17, 2007 - Missoulian Entertainer
The Hermans set to stalk America
By JAMIE KELLY of the Missoulian
The Hermans band members Derk Schmidt, Dave Jones, Chris Entz and Bill Pfeiffer, from left, are gearing up for a concert-and-book tour called “Stalking America,” taking them on a road trip to play nine venues in major cities across the Midwest and East Coast.
THE HERMANS tour send-off concert, 9 p.m., The Badlander, featuring The Hermans, Volumen, Black Velvet Elvis, Victory Smokes. Admission is $5 at the door.
If you want to understand a little about the band The Hermans, know first and foremost that their name is a haircut, not unlike The Mullets or The Beehives.
Yet nobody goes into the salon and says, “Gimmee a Herman.” That's because before drummer Derk Schmidt invented the name, the lack-of-hair-do - whose main features are a shaved head with a few stragglers of swooped bang hair left over - didn't have one.
Years ago, Schmidt, who has a degree in creative writing from the University of Montana, was promised a big bunch of hair in the mail by a girlfriend who had her hair done thus. Schmidt had dubbed the hair job a “Herman.”
“I saved my Herman. I'm sending it to you,” she said. (She never did.)
In 2003, when the drum-guitar duo consisting of Schmidt and Dave Jones decided to form a band, they were forced to come up with a name.
“Asswipe - if we are going to play open mic Tuesday @ the Ritz, we had better call ourselves something,” are the exact words scribbled by Schmidt on a piece of torn paper. “Try to think of some band names and we'll go to Flipper's (Casino) later ... ”
Schmidt and Jones did indeed meet at Flipper's - their home bar in a way, because they like drinking there and they used to live near the joint - with a list of names. Eventually they circled “The Hermans.”
Why the hell not? It seemed suitably prosaic for a couple of guys who knew they'd never be rock stars. An unassuming name for a stripped-down garage band looking for gigs in the Garden City.
“It was the best one,” said Jones, a 30-year-old guitarist and songwriter. “The name really says ‘This band is destined for the Elk's Club.'”
Jones smiled when he said that, but in many ways, that's all The Hermans ever wanted.
Re-formed as a four-piece in 2004 - adding the knowledgeable harmonic theory of jazz guitarist Chris Entz, and the bass of Bill Pfeiffer - the band has achieved the status of Regularly Playing Missoula Rock Band, which any musician in this town will tell you is a feat in itself. Overall now, they've whacked out 100 gigs.
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