Local band Danagas to break up

Breaking up is hard to do. But the members of the Bloomington band Danagas realized it's time to go their separate ways. The band will play its last show May 3 at Second Story Nightclub, 201 S. College Ave.\nDavid Barajas, bass and vocals, said all the band members knew the band's breakup was inevitable. \n"There was too much thirst in Danagas," Barajas said. "We all wanted to do different things and go different places."\nThe band formed in the fall of 1998 when Ryan Lott, now a senior and the band's keyboardist/songwriter, met saxophonist Glen Cavanagh in a jazz improvisation class. Cavanagh asked Lott to jam with him, high school friend Barajas and roommates Ryan Fitch and Bill Hauser, who were in the process of forming what became Danagas. In the middle of the group's first recording project vocalist Iam Beck, also now a senior, joined the band.\nAfter graduation May 5, all six members will be finished with school, something drummer Ryan Fitch said contributed to the group's parting ways. Fitch also said the big break that would have formed a fan base outside of Bloomington never came through for the band. \n"Bloomington only has so much it can offer, and I think we milked it for all it's worth," Fitch said. "It's more or less like if some kind of miracle happened then it would keep the band together, but if nothing huge happened then we would go our merry ways. Unfortunately, it was like putting us against odds of winning the lottery. So nothing has happened, and we're throwing in the towel."\nTo grow musically, Lott said the group realized it had to part ways.\n"Each of us has abilities that cannot be brought into full fruition if we remain together," Lott said. "However, there is no question that those very abilities which pull us each onto other things were cultivated and nourished by this experience… I have learned more than I can summarize from these people and the experience of this band."\nChemistry between the six band members and their audiences is the thing Barajas will miss most about Danagas.\n"When we play live, it's like this telepathic, psychopathic, a coat not a jacket, infiltrating, misbehaving, nastiness that not even we can explain, and, yes, we super size it every time," Barajas said. "And right up there with all that nonsense, I'll miss the guys and girls that came out to dance and smile with us."\nRelationships between the band members are also coming full circle as the group nears the end, Hauser said.\n"When this band first started, nobody really knew each other as well as we do now," Hauser said. "The acquaintance process was really something of trial and error; a couple people in the group were so complex that it took a lot of time to get it."\nHauser said his interactions with individual band members have been complex and sometimes difficult. \n"I will miss my roommate Fitch, who I have lived, played, worked and run this band with for the last three years," he said. "He was the glue of this group, and his selflessness made up for much of the selfishness and unprofessionalism displayed by a few of the other members. Fitch is 100 percent heart, and he will go a long ways in this business."\nDespite any problems the band has experienced, Hauser said he would miss playing with a group that possesses the "uncanny sense of power" Danagas has when together.\n"It's not like there's any one standout from gig to gig in this band," he said. "Each member stands out equally in their own personal way, and that is what I love so much -- having the freedom to express yourself comfortably while appreciating what others have to say in their own ways."\nSecond Story was the choice for the group's last show because of the sound and the atmosphere, Barajas said. Although he said he is nervous for the first time in seven years, he has faith the show will be a success.\n"I want to make sure, like always, that people get 100 percent of what they expected," Barajas said. "This being our last show, it's going to take every little bit of energy in my tiny bones to do that." \nPeople coming to Second Story Tuesday will see a "P-Funk style blowout," with several guests sitting in with the band, Hauser said. After what he hopes will be a long show, Hauser expects to feel emotionally and physically spent.\n"This show will be like being involved in a long night of hot, sadistic and emotionally charged sex," he said. "You'll be sore from the whole thing afterwards, but strangely satisfied, until that next hungering for the funk arises."\nAll of the emotion involved will make for a bittersweet evening for the members of Danagas, Hauser said.\n"But more bitter than sweet for those of us who have to spend eternity all over again hoping to find another musical experience as satisfying as this," he said.