Known for their soulful harmonies and improvisational energy, The Pernikoff Brothers invite you to an intimate evening of live music in a speakeasy setting where you will experience more than their music; you’ll hear the life behind the lyrics.
The Pernikoff Brothers is comprised of brothers Tom and Rick Pernikoff and Kevin Bowers, a drummer with a talent to turn anything into a percussion instrument. The group has a history as rich and layered as their music. From recording live at Abbey Road Studios to touring with The Bacon Brothers, the band's music is best expressed through authentic live performance. The band discusses their journey, process, and what to expect at their storyteller concert at Il Buco on Saturday, January 17, at 7:00 pm. “Music is good for the soul,” said Tom.
Q: How does an independent St. Louis band end up recording at Abbey Road?
Tom: Rick and I spent a month working in France. Kevin came over to join us, and we ended up playing open mics around Paris almost every night.
Kevin: I flew in and got to their Airbnb mid-afternoon, and they said, "We're gonna go play an open mic tonight." I didn’t have a drum, so the first night I played on a pizza box.
Tom: He can play anything or nothing…
Kevin: I’ve been caught air-drumming in parking lots.
Tom: The next day, we bought Kevin a hand drum for 20 bucks, and that's what he still plays on at our shows. But the pizza box was funny 'cause when we came back to play at that bar, they were like, "Oh, you got the pizza box?"
Q: How did you go from playing open mic in Paris to recording at Abby Road?
Tom: Kevin and I wanted to go to London to walk across the crosswalk on the Abbey Road album. The Beatles have been our inspiration from the beginning. And then I was like, "Let's see if we can get a tour of their studio." I emailed to ask if we could get a tour. And they said, "No." But then I asked, "Can we book a recording session?" And they said, "Send us a video of your band," because we’ll need one of the house engineers to show interest. So, I sent them a video of us playing in Rick’s basement, and they responded, "We have one day available in studio two,” which is the famous studio where the Beatles recorded all their early songs.
Q: What was your plan?
Rick: We had a meeting to select about 15 songs, and we ended up recording 11. We released 10 of them, including our own version of "Eleanor Rigby."
Kevin: Eleanor Rigby was one take.
Tom: We did the whole session live. No overdubs. We didn’t plan it, but we ended up releasing all the songs as an album titled Ah Londres.
Q: What was it like to tour with The Bacon Brothers this summer?
Tom: Surreal. Years ago, we’d played a show their agent had booked. So when I saw they were touring, I reached out to their agent to see if they needed an opening band. He said, ‘Let me see if I can make it happen,’ and that was it. We played 12 shows with them.
Kevin: We learned a lot- like how to soundcheck very quickly. Also, don’t travel too far to play an outdoor show in the Midwest in the summer.
Tom: It’s gonna rain. And the show might get cancelled.
Kevin: Another thing we learned: stay out of the headliner’s way out of respect. Sometimes there wasn’t a second green room, so we got dressed outside or in a back alley.
Rick: We wanted to be easy to work with. We’re there to support the main act.
Tom: Kevin Bacon would bring us up for the Footloose encore.
Rick: I didn’t know the song. I wrote the lyrics on my hand. Kevin (Bacon) told me, “Can you play the tambourine on the other beat?” In the end, Kevin Bacon taught me how to play tambourine.
Tom: Some nights we didn’t know if he’d call us up.
Rick: One night, he walked by and said, “See you __ there.” We spent 15 minutes debating if he meant up there or out there.
Tom: They were so kind. They told us, “We’re gonna be opening for you guys one day.”
Q: What can people expect from your storytelling concert?
Tom: Stories like these. The Abbey Road story. The pizza box. The Bacon Brothers tour. Opening for Rufus Wainwright. We want people to walk away feeling like they were part of it.
Rick: It’s intimate. Acoustic. Harmony-focused. Some songs you know, some you don’t.
Kevin: It’s us at our most real.
Rick: We’re excited to share how these songs were born — the emotional stuff, the funny stuff, the weird stuff. This is the kind of show you remember.
For show tickets, visit pernikoffbrothers.com/shows