Long-hailed opening act finally gets to perform last

Limbeck is one of those mysterious opening bands; the kind that you didn't come to see, but leaves you with the impression you have experienced something awesome.

In other words, Limbeck is the Steve Buscemi of the alternative music world.

I've lived here a year and a half, and in this time span, the band has managed to pop up twice, opening for two different bands. Both times, it managed to lure in the usually ambivalent crowd with its folksy brand of pop rock.

Limbeck has been touring nonstop for about a year now and even plans to go to Australia in the future. Touring gives them a lot of great exposure, but it can be taxing at times.

"It's good and it's bad and it's kind of all of the above," said vocalist and guitarist Patrick Carrie. "It's rough being on the road and not making a lot of money and sleeping in a van. But it's also pretty inspiring to travel around and meet new people and see new things and visit old friends."

For its last album, Limbeck attempted to recreate the sound of its tour by recording everything live. The result was a more down-to-earth and candid sound, but not necessarily crisp and polished.

"When you really pay attention on the recording, you're making sure each drum sounds the way you want it to sound and your guitar is where you want it to be," Carrie said.

Limbeck is gradually moving toward a more quality, intricate sound, which means more work in the recording studio. In fact, the musicians have been working on creating volume knobs for their recording headphones so they can adjust each individual volume. This helps with fights, Carrie says said with a laugh.

With the increase of folksy rock bands like Rilo Kiley on the scene, new recording techniques will also help Limbeck stand out from the crowd. The band is very appreciative of its contemporaries, however.

"I guess there's a point when all of us had lost faith in anything that was new, which helped us discover a lot of really good old records," Carrie said. "It's kind of a fresh, nice thing for them to do to pull back from those old records and take those influences and make them into something new that is appreciative of the past yet turning a new page."

Carrie is also appreciative yet again of the Tucson scene, especially the chips and salsa at Club Congress. He does admit, however, that Martin's Mexican restaurant downtown has a nice selection as well.

"Congress is, with all of its history with Dillinger, a really badass old fixture of Tucson. It kind of represents as much as you're gonna get to a feeling of the old West," Carrie said.

Maybe it's the historic landscape the club creates, or maybe just the chips; either way, Limbeck has come back again and again despite facing audiences that don't know who they are.

"Every night you don't know what to expect," Carrie said. "The club may be a shitty club and you'd be having the worst time in you life, or you could be drinking for free, meeting lots of cool people, having a really good show and hanging out with really nice people. Maybe it's the mystery of it that's kind of nice."

Like I said, mysterious.

Limbeck will play tomorrow at 9 p.m. at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St. The show is $5 and unfortunately, you have to be 21.