Going On Instinct

Poker and rock 'n' roll have plenty in common, and it's not just an abundance of dudes plying their trade in sunglasses.

Both necessitate certain attributes, namely: confidence, a bit of daring at just the right moment and, most importantly, the ability to read the faces around you.

Even though he's only been at it for a year or so, it doesn't really come as a surprise when Jason Stollsteimer, frontman for garage rock spark plugs The Von Bondies, expounds upon his growing love of the card game.

"I'll play a hand without even looking at my cards. I just watch peoples' faces," he says, noting how fronting a band has helped him become a better player. "There's clubs I'll walk into, and no matter how good we think we're playing, we can't win over this crowd. It's the same when you get to a table where there's a guy you just can't beat. It's interesting."

Stollsteimer has gotten so passionate about poker of late that's he actually contemplating a run as a pro player at some point.

"I'm definitely working on it," he says. "I've done the bigger tournaments and come in third or fourth place and won a few thousand here and there. My family actually supports me in trying to do it."

Stollsteimer's an instinctual kind of guy, which tends to translate well at the poker table. He played lots of sports as a kid, which taught him to think on his feet, and even his introduction to a career in music was done on a whim.

"I didn't pick up my first guitar or bass until I was 19. I didn't start singing until I was 20, 21, so I had no intentions of being a musician," the Michigan native says while having lunch at a tour stop in Thunder Bay, Ontario. "I had probably gone to 20 concerts before I was in my own band. I didn't play an instrument, but my friends wanted to start a band and said, 'Well, just play bass.' And then after about a year of that, all of a sudden, I was the lead singer."

This makes sense, as Stollsteimer is one of those take-charge types not very well suited for being in the background of anything. In The Von Bondies, he writes the songs, plays everything but the drums in the studio and serves as the band's de facto leader.

"We tried to be a total democratic band for the first two years, and every time that happened, whatever our decision was, it was half-assed, half-cocked. So now, I make all the decisions," Stollsteimer says. "Like right now, I pay for the van, I pay for all the gas, I pay for all the hotels personally. If I'm going to be investing in all this, I'm not going to leave it up to somebody else. I need it on my shoulders. I need to have the pressure."

Live, that pressure drives Stollsteimer to practically self-combust onstage, scorched by an overheated energy that powers The Von Bondies' by turns comely and concussive rock 'n' roll.

The coed quartet comes with a streamlined, fat-free crunch weened in the Detroit underground and then ripened with enough hooks to find a home on the fringes of mainstream rock radio. The band has scored a top 25 hit with the two-minute firebomb "C'mon C'mon" off its 2004 sophomore LP, "Pawn Shoppe Heart," and The Von Bondies straddle the line between scruffy indie austerity and arena rock bluster. Stollsteimer knows these two realms well.

After debuting on uber indie Sympathy for the Record in 2001 with "Lack of Communication," the band signed with major label Sire for its next disc, much to Stollsteimer's eventual chagrin.

"I was stuck on Sire for four years against my will," he says of his discontent with the company. "They wouldn't drop us. I had to pay to get off it, because we were making money for them. We were a very cost-efficient band."

On some levels, The Von Bondies have been defined by their business savvy. Though they don't rack up huge record sales, they have successfully licensed their songs to TV shows, movies, commercials and video games. "C'mon C'mon," for instance, is the theme song for the hit FX series "Rescue Me."

"If I didn't license that stuff, we would have had to stop touring five years ago," Stollsteimer says. "(Touring) doesn't pay for itself all the time. And even when the shows are sold out, we're trying to put on the best show possible, and so it costs a little bit more than just showing up with your guitar amps."

These days, The Von Bondies have returned to the indie ranks with their latest disc, "Love, Hate and Then There's You," a fun, fierce and cathartic call to arms that sounds like a series of battle cries.

"We are the underground," Stollsteimer growls on the album-opening "This Is Our Perfect Crime," and he sounds like a man bent on keeping it that way, living on the road, pointedly playing smaller clubs where the band can practically bounce off the walls.

They've be on tour most of the year and will remain so until fall, seldom slowing down, seldom ever wanting to.

"We gotta keep busy," Stollsteimer says. "I don't want to become a professional poker player just yet."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.