The Scope

Photo by Chris Hibbs

Really, the name says it all. Begun during some experimental winter plucking between Matt Grant and Jon Montes, they put out a call for members via Facebook. Playing both traditional and original songs, they’re typically at least five members strong, and are always looking for new blood.

Answers by Matt Grant

How and when did the group get together?
The group got together in the winter of 2009, when Jamie discovered Jon and Matt were picking away at the ukulele. Jamie suggested we all get together and harness our power into one ultimate, voltron-like ukulele club. Membership hovered around a handful until we put it up on Facebook. That’s when it blew up.

How would you describe your sound?
Twangy.

What happens at a typical show?
Depends on the budget. During small budget shows, Matt just yells at Jon for an hour and a half. For the big shows we have a Jamie dress up in a suit of armour while Emilie throws Swiss cheese at him. Matt talks about the great stories a well-positioned interloper can hear at a confessional booth as an 18-foot hand of God descends towards the stage. Jon usually bites the hand, sending an enormous spurt of blood across the stage (the hydraulic system we set up for the blood is fantastic!) Chrissy gets crushed flat as a pancake, and Chris’ face gets covered in scorpions. Jordan ends the show with the line: ““The Virgin! Ah, that’s what he was looking for.”
The Epic show has all of that but we play ukulele while doing it.

What makes the group stand out in the local scene?
Being the only Ukulele Orchestra in town helps.

Where does the name come from?
We’re too lazy to memorize our own music so we wanted to use music stands. We figured if we called ourselves an orchestra nobody would call us on it.

Plans for the future?
We’ll continue to build our street cred for the time being. We’re thinking of recording some of our songs, so we may even have an album come out sometime soon.