Film School joins Tiny Whales and Mosfet at Bourbon’s

When The Wire first caught up with Film School guitarist Dave Dupuis last week, he was in Baton Rouge, where he had been snacking on alligator meat prior to a show at a club called Spanish Moon. The next day, he and his four band mates were packed into their E350 Ford Super Duty van, on their way to New Orleans for another gig at a place called One Eyed Jacks. It was business as usual for Dupuis, who has been gigging and touring with various bands since the late 1990s. But this tour has a special twist: it will allow Dupuis to play a live show in his native New Hampshire for the first time in about 12 years. Film School will be at Bourbon’s in Portsmouth on Tuesday, April 29, along with local bands Mosfet and Tiny Whales.  

Dupuis grew up in Dover and attended the University of New Hampshire, graduating in 1996. Toward the end of his college years, he formed a band called Blackout Fighter Pilots, which gigged regularly at venues like The Elvis Room and The Muddy River. He moved to Boston in ’97 but managed to keep the band together until the West Coast unexpectedly beckoned.

“I had this job and I wasn’t really into it, and I had this girlfriend that was crazy, so I had to break up with her and I had to get the hell out of town. So, I moved to Seattle and I started playing with Unbunny,” Dupuis said.
The collaboration with fellow New Hampshire native Jared del Deo, a.k.a. Unbunny, lasted for a couple of years. Dupuis next moved to Austin, before relocating again, this time to Oakland. It was in California that he met Greg Bertens, founder and lead singer of Film School.

Film School formed in the early 2000s. Initially, the band consisted solely of Bertens collaborating with various members of other indie-rock groups (including Scott Kannberg, former guitarist for Pavement). The band gained cohesion and signed with Beggars Banquet in 2005, releasing its self-titled debut with the label early in 2006.

Dupuis tagged along with Film School for a couple of tours as a sound technician. He later served as sound man for Silversun Pickups, joining the group on a tour with Wolfmother. During a break, he returned to Los Angeles and met up with Bertens, who played him some fresh demos of new Film School material.

“I was like, ‘Dude, these are awesome man. Let me help you record these,’” Dupuis said. Film School was going through some lineup changes at the time, and Dupuis’ involvement in the new album quickly expanded. “It turned into me joining the band and getting my friend James (Smith) from Seattle to join the band,” he said.
Smith, another former member of Unbunny, filled in on drums, rounding out Film School’s current lineup, also consisting of Lorelie Plotczyk on bass and Jason Ruck on keyboards. The band’s latest release, “Hideout,” came out in September 2007. The disc features a hypnotic and atmospheric swell of reverb-heavy guitar rock, reflecting influences that include Pink Floyd, Sonic Youth, Stereolab and My Bloody Valentine. Dupuis, who described the Film School sound as driving, ethereal and psychedelic, found that his musical proclivities blended easily with his new band’s style.

“It was simple man. This is the kind of music that I’m definitely into, like, going back to Blackout Fighter Pilot days,” he said.

Since “Hideout” hit stores, Film School has been engaged in almost nonstop touring. “We’ve been balls out since the record came out, pretty much,” Dupuis said. During the first leg of the current tour, Film School accompanied UK band British Sea Power. It takes over headlining duties as it heads to the Northeast for gigs in Boston and Portsmouth, then hits Philadelphia and New York before making its way west. In late May, the band has a spree of West Coast gigs in support of long dormant alternative rock band Swervedriver, “which is one of my favorite fucking bands of all goddamn time,” Dupuis said. “Landing those tours is like a dream. I’m getting chills right now just thinking about the fact that I get to play with Swervedriver.”

But Dupuis is equally excited about playing one of his former haunts in Portsmouth. His parents still live in New Hampshire, and he travels to the Seacoast a couple of times each year to visit family and friends, including members of both Tiny Whales and Mosfet. But he has not performed in the Granite State for well over a decade.

“I’m more psyched about that show and those shows surrounding that than most of the tour,” he said.
A band known for the intensity of its live performances, Film School should pack a heavy punch at Bourbon’s. The band has mostly been playing songs from “Hideout,” but the instrumentalists find inventive ways to mutate the melodies for each audience.

“We’re just kind of thrashing around and just making a good show. We’re just having fun with the songs,” Dupuis said. “Live, we can just take drumsticks and beat our guitars and throw our guitars around and have fun, you know?”