Snake Doctor Story

Audience members were electrified on Saturday, March 14 when Snake Doctor paid a visit to The Room Upstairs at the Riff Raff Arts Collective in Princeton.

Native to West Virginia, Snake Doctor is a rock and roll band that features guitarist and songwriter Gyasi Heus and drummer Ben Hunt. Nathaniel Altare also performed Saturday night, recently joining the group as bass player. Together they combined the sounds of 70's rock-and-roll and country blues with a hint of vaudeville theater, glam rock, and gypsy jazz, a perfect recipe for creating electric and dynamic music that is entirely their own.

The concert brought in a large audience, nearly reducing the venue to standing room only. Audience members paid 10 dollars at the door to get in and were served light refreshments in accompaniment with the show.

This band not only delivers in the music department, but in performance as well. Snake Doctor gave the audience an energetic and lively performance filled with highs and lows, catchy riffs, and funky dance moves to die for. By the end of the show the audience was still just as lively as the start, and chanted for “one more song!” until Gyasi, Ben, and Nathaniel obliged with three more tunes. Gyasi even slithered around on stage like a snake accompanied by hissing sounds as the concert began to wind down.

The band’s biography describes their performance as “[…] a dynamic and electrifying live show, making whatever venue they play into a place alive in that moment, uniting people in the shared experience of a show that is different every night.” The boys delivered a unique performance – from Gyasi removing his tops layer by layer until he was down to his leather jacket with chest exposed to his dancing on a wooden box during an improvisational drum piece. Scott Bennett was in attendance for the show and says that he really enjoyed the bands percussion pieces and that Nathaniel “surprised everyone” when he brought out the trumpet to show off his skills.

Overall, everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. Bennett says, “They had a few of us dancing like crazy by the end of the set, which I must say was pretty awesome – dancing around the front of the room with two pretty ladies!”

Putting on a show this good is not easy, and it takes a lot of work, preparation, and experience. Gyasi and Ben have been playing music together since they were nine or ten years old and started their first real band a of couple years after that. They said that back then they were very Led Zeppelin based, and Ben says that their drummer, John Bonham, was a big inspiration to him.

Since then, Gyasi and Ben have gone through many different “incarnations” of bands. However, when Gyasi left the small town of Hinton for Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, the two friends had to take a break from their music for a while. Ben continued his music and stayed behind to work as a jazz session drummer.

When asked what it was like leaving his small town and pursuing bigger dreams Gyasi said, “Pretty freeing and great. Definitely, at the time I got out of high school, I had to get out [of Hinton].” He explained he was just “different” from the people there. Although, he also mentioned that after he left Appalachia he had a bigger appreciation for the culture here and that he incorporates his heritage into the music they play.

On Gyasi’s visits back home, he and Ben would get together to play music, but it quickly became apparent that the time apart had no effect on their chemistry. “When you play that long with somebody, you grow up, you just develop that sort of telecommunication,” Gyasi explained.

For them, the best part of playing music is the performance and being able to connect with an audience. They say that is what makes the show, along with practice and preparation. Gyasi says being in the moment and developing a connection with the audience is “the closest thing to magic.”

The name of the band is, perhaps, just as interesting as their performances – Snake Doctor. Gyasi’s dad came up with the name. It ties in to Appalachia and Appalachian folklore. Gyasi explained that "snake doctor" is an old Appalachian term for a dragonfly. Ben also mentioned that people most likely called dragonflies snake doctors because they tend to the wounds on snakes. In fact there is an old myth that says if there is a dragonfly present to look out for snakes because “snake doctors” follow snakes around. With the connection to Appalachia and Gyasi and Ben’s love of snakes, everyone agreed that the name was the perfect fit for the band.

When asked to describe Snake Doctor in one word both Gyasi and Ben came up with words like “electric,” “powerful,” and “dynamic.” None of those seemed to encompass the entirety of the band. Ben fixed the problem by creating a word of his own – “powerdynamoelectrification” – a word that encompassed what Snake Doctor is all about, and the experience of coming to one of their shows.

As of now, there is no band website or Facebook, but both are in the process of being created. The band does not plan on sticking around West Virginia, but they hope to find a base close by so that they may easily come back for visits.

For information on future concerts and other events happening in The Room Upstairs visit the Riff Raff Arts Collective’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/RiffRaffArts or their website www.theriffraff.net.

Photos by Bridgette Morris.