Many times when we see that a band has more than five members, we predict certain combinations of instruments. But Gestures isn't your ordinary band, so they haven't tripled up on guitar players. They don't even have one guitar player. With two drummers (including Mark Cisneros from Medications), one clarinet, one trombone, one saxophone, and one tuba, Gestures has all the elements of a jazz band or a classical ensemble. Yet the driving rhythms and melodies clearly draw as much from punk rock as they do from jazz or classical music. You won't hear any vocals, but it's just as easy to imagine a guitar playing some of the parts that are instead played by trombonist Bob Chapman or saxophonist Kriston Capps (who is also DCist's weekend editor, so he did not participate in this interview). In fact, it's easy to hear some of the same psychedelia that permeates albums like Sookie Jump by The Rude Staircase (a band in which tuba player Jon Lebovitz was a member.) Yet, for the large variety of influences and their occasional tendency to go completely unhinged, all of their songs are actual songs, not extended jam sessions. Which is why we're eagerly anticipating their upcoming EP. more ›