Just one month after not only the band’s first live performance ever but headlining at Neumos in Seattle, Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band played a show (the band’s third) with Man Man and the Walkmen, in Vancouver, B.C. last week. The path this Seattle band has taken is unconventional in many ways, some say backwards even. Regardless, it seems to be working. The band opened the show last Thursday at Richard’s on Richards, quietly taking the stage, playing songs from the Weepy EP, focused only on the music. The crowd was full of heads bopping and feet tapping along to the MSHVB’s music; someone screamed, “Who are you?” The guitars drifted from surf rock to some metal riffs while keeping a pop tempo as Benjamin Verdoe delivered his light vocals. Thirteen-year-old drummer Marshall Verdoe owned the show, once again, hammering out drum lines, with more skill than many twice his age. Sound sat down with the Vietnam Band (all five of them, including Benjamin, wife Tracy Verdoes, Marshall, Matt Dammer and Jared Price) to chat about the Vancouver show and the origins of the young band.

Sound: How did everything go last night?
Benjamin Verdoes: I had a lot of fun. I thought we were really locked in. It was cool. The night before [in Portland] was really fun and we played our best, but it didn’t feel the same. The sound was really good last night and I think everyone was playing really incredibly and I thought that we had a lot of fun.

Jared Price: I was surprised.

Tracy Verdoes: And it was cool, more than one person was like, “What’s your name?” And that was really fun. And I think it’s fair to say that both for the Neumos show and the show last night and continually, but my expectations are really low, so when we get a really great response it’s just really sweet and it really surprises me. And it’s good. Or maybe I just don’t have any expectations.

BV: We just don’t have a sense of entitlement. Like, we try to put ourselves in a good position, but we just try to do our best and have a lot of fun and enjoy each other. And so I think we’re really pleased that people can embrace that. And in Portland it looked like there were some people that were reluctant, but by the end of the set, even if they didn’t really want to get into it, they did.

Sound: How much playing have you done since the Neumos show?
BV: We were recording, so we got in some really interesting practices–stripped down and using equipment and other things we wouldn’t normally use–and just tried to run through the set as much as possible, while recording the songs.

Sound: How was your first show headlining Neumos? What was that like?
BV: It was great and really fun. It’s one of those things, when you try to set up something and you kind of have this idea that it might go well and there’s always something that goes wrong, but with that Neumos show, we were so focused on that one thing and so many of our friends and people that we’ve met and engaged with along the way were there. It was really our night and it went really, really well and we had a really good time. And it was fun, with all the people we knew just hanging out with, before and after. It’s kind of funny because it’s almost like it was our last show.

TV: And it was cool to just feel so supported by so many people that we’ve met, people we went to university with, met in college, and it’s really nice to be like ‘Oh, these are our friends,’ and especially for Marshall, to support him and what he’s doing.

Sound: How did it all work out, getting on the bill with two solid bands like Man Man and the Walkmen?
TV: I’ve been friends with Man Man for a few years, and when they would come through Seattle, they would stay at my house and we just developed a really good friendship and just kept in touch. Like whenever I went through Philadelphia, I would stay with them and whenever they came over here, they would stay with me. And then we started this band, and I just called them and said if they ever went through Seattle playing a show, we’d love to play with you guys, and it just sort of worked out.

JP: And I guess most of them didn’t know we were playing Vancouver, so we’re not really sure how that worked out.

TV: For the Portland show they requested us.

BV: The Vancouver show ended up being my favorite of the two, and just a really special, great, great night, so it was cool that it ended up working out.

Sound: It’s interesting to go from having your own big night at Neumos then going back to where most bands start, being the first band to play a show.
TV: And I was telling Benjamin last night when we were driving home that it’s cool, because at Neumos we had a great response from a lot of our friends and family, but it’s really cool to play for an audience that may have not ever heard of us and still get a really warm response.

Sound: What’s the story behind you guys all playing together?
BV: Matt and I were in In Praise of Folly and Jared, too, for like a year and a half. And I was just playing with Marshall all the time. It was kind of our own band. He started getting good at drums and he liked coming to shows, and it was like, if you work hard, we’ll get you to be a good drummer, we’ll practice and we’ll play a few shows. And then he just got super good. And not only that, it was just really fun, and I was kind of done with taking everything super seriously and I was enjoying myself and I was like, I think this is what it should be like. And then everyone started to play with us and even though it was really rough around the edges, it just started to click and make sense.

JP: I never really expected this, I just really enjoyed playing with them, playing with Marshall is really fun.

TV: It’s like your charity.

JP: It was for me, actually. I needed to play music and this is how it’s supposed to be.

BV: Marshall’s lack of pretensions and expectations and his own sense of musicality, I don’t know how to word it, but there’s something really pure about playing with someone who doesn’t bring all those years along, it was really cool place to start from. And just watching him write parts, I think for all of us it’s enjoyable to watch someone in the learning process, but who’s also so tremendously gifted. He’s writing really interesting parts for any drummer, let alone someone who’s super young. It’s really fun to watch.

JP: It’s been fun to watch him get better and better. He’ll just be playing and he’ll do something and we’ll be like “Holy shit,” and he’ll just turn around and smile.

Sound: And so you guys (Benjamin and Marshall) are brothers?
BV: I’m like a guardian. He was adopted when he was one.

Marshall Verdoes: And a half.

BV: I was always there when my mom was raising him and it just made sense for him to come on with me at a certain point and with Tracy too. So I’ve pretty much been there for his whole life.

MV: Well, kind of.

BV: Except for in utero.

MV: And he didn’t want to change my diapers.

BV: Because I was like 14. And we tried to adopt Matt, too, but that didn’t work out.

Sound: So you guys are recording a full-length right now? When should people look for it?
BV: Well we’re hoping for spring. That would be our best hope, and depending on if someone puts it out for us, then it would work into it too.

Sound: Are there any prospects with finding a label?
BV: It’s flattering to even have people talking about offering. We know that people know that we exist. I think we’ll find out in the next couple months how feasible or how interested people are.

MV: We’re like Mt. St. Helen’s, we exploded.

BV: It’s still in the very beginning process.

Sound: How is all this for you, Marshall? Playing these live shows and being thrown into playing live shows?
MV: I guess it’s kind of interesting and too much to handle. But I guess it’s mediocre.

BV: Marshall is the kind of guy who will, at the beginning of the show, say he’s not nervous. I’ll ask if he’s excited and he’ll give a typical 13-year-old answer, like “Oh, whatever” but then the day of the show, he’ll be beaming and talking all day and then finally he’ll be like, “I’m kind of nervous.” Don’t let his hard exterior shell fool you.

TV: You have to break through his cold exterior.

Catch Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band’s next show on Sept. 26 at Healthy Times Fun Club in Seattle with Pattern Is Movement and the Terrordactyls. For more on the band, check out its MySpace.