Recommended: FoCoMX and Six Degrees of Justin Maul

Tim Van Schmidt | New SCENE

In honor of the big FoCoMX weekend coming up, let’s play “Six Degrees of Justin Maul”.

The game is a spinoff of the concept of “six degrees of separation” — and “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” — which supposes that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart. But in this game, let’s play with Colorado bands and band mates — past and present.

Maul has been in quite a few NOCO bands over the years and he is an excellent candidate to play this game with. He is a guitarist and bassist and at the FoCoMX festival scheduled for April 28-29 in venues all over Fort Collins, Maul will be playing in two bands, A.M. Pleasure Assassins and Senorita Sometimes. Let’s start there.

A.M. Pleasure Assassins play FoCoMX at Illegal Pete’s, on April 29 at 5:00. Maul’s bandmates in this band connect him to two other bands playing FoCoMX: The Sickly Hecks (Aggie Theatre, April 28, 11:59) and Sketches (Art Lab, April 29, 4:00).

Senorita Sometimes is on the FoCoMX scheduled for April 29 at The Whisk(e)y at 10:30 and Maul’s bandmates there connect him to Knife Knife (830 North, April 29, 5:00).

Maul has also recently been playing with Bevin Luna. Though that band is not on the festival schedule, Maul’s connections there tie him to quite a few more FoCoMX bands, including: 

Graham Good & The Painters (Aggie Theatre, April 29, 7:00)

Musketeer Gripweed (The Coast, April 29, 10:00)

The Patti Fiasco (The Lyric/The Mothership, April 29, 11:15) with connections to Alysia Kraft (Washington’s, April 28, 11:15)

West Side Joe & the Men of Soul (Avo’s, April 29, 8:00)

Robert Shredford (Tony’s, April 28, 8:30)

Those are just the 2023 FoCoMX bands. I first saw Maul in 2006 playing in the band Ghosts of Verona. Over the years I have seen him playing in others including Nautical Mile.

Maul’s band list also includes Milhouse, Cure for Madeline, The Norads, The Frecktic Machine, Mimic, and The Great Aerodrome.

His bandmates in those bands connect Maul to 8 OM, Rad Vibes, Elway, Peace Officer, Sour Boy Bitter Girl, Until We Wake, Crow, Umlaut, Boner, Straight to Denim, Serpentfoot, Sugar Britches, Wire Faces, Bill the Welder, and Fear the Vacuum.

You see where this is going. So far, at about “Three Degrees”, we have connected Maul to at least 35 bands, not even counting London Calling 2022, a NOCO Clash cover super-group.

That special group connects Maul to many more 2023 FoCoMX bands:

Plasma Canvas (Aggie, April 29, 11:59)

HOSS (The Whisk(e)y), April 29, 6:45)

Hospital Socks (Aggie, April 29, 11:00)

Jesus Christ Taxi Driver (Aggie, April 28, 11:00)

12 Cents for Marvin (Odell Brewing, April 29, 6:30)

Erik Lunde (Moe’s Original BBQ, April 28, 7:15)

There are probably a lot more too. 

Can you take it further? That’s the challenge — no matter what bands you are going to see during FoCoMX — and there are some 400 of them — can you trace them back to Justin Maul? Go ahead and try to fill in your own bracket.

What all of this is meant to show is just how interconnected the NOCO music scene is — and there is no better chance to see that in all its glory than during FoCoMX. Visit focoma.org/focomx for full information.

Maul is what I would call a “lifer” in the NOCO scene. We’re lucky to have him — and his many, many friends.

Check out “Time Capsules by Tim Van Schmidt” on YouTube.