Vermont band Twiddle rises to new heights

Friday's show at Waterfront Park represents one of the most high-profile gigs Twiddle has had in its home state in the band's decade-long career.

It's been a slow build for a band that spent years performing in small clubs but could play in front of as many as 4,000 fans as part of the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival. To some extent, though, Twiddle seemed destined for larger crowds almost from the start.

Keyboard player Ryan Dempsey remembers that the foursome that began at Castleton State College in 2004 had a gig within its first year opening for Gin Blossoms, the pop-rock band that sold millions of albums in the 1990s. "It was huge," Dempsey said. "We just started writing, writing, writing music. We said, 'Let's try to make this our career.'"

Three or four years ago, Dempsey said, the band members stopped working outside jobs and now work full-time as musicians. Twiddle, whose music fits loosely in the improvisational jam-rock vein, recently played the (literally) cavernous Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. When Dempsey spoke to the Burlington Free Press by phone last week, he was on a tour bus heading to a Twiddle gig at the huge Gathering of the Vibes festival in Connecticut.

Twiddle began even before Dempsey and fellow founding member Mihali Savoulidis, the band's guitarist/vocalist, started classes at Castleton. The two met at orientation, Dempsey said, and immediately began talking music. They vowed to start jamming when they got back to Castleton, and once they did Dempsey said things clicked right away.

The two joined with drummer Brook Jordan and bass player Billy Comstock. Dempsey said he and Savoulidis began writing songs in the college dorms, and the band started playing in gigs in Castleton and Rutland. Comstock left Twiddle to study at the Berklee College of Music, and the band now employs Zdenek Gubb on bass. With the exception of Jordan, who lives in Burlington, Dempsey said the rest of the band lives not far from Castleton on Lake Bomoseen.

Dempsey said Twiddle really began its climb after hiring managers to help book more shows out of state. Twiddle crossed into New Hampshire and then the rest of New England as well as New York.

"We started expanding our horizons, so to speak," Dempsey said.

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at 660-1844 or bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.

Lake Champlain Maritime Festival highlights

These are some of the highlights of the ninth-annual Lake Champlain Maritime Festival. Events at Waterfront Park in Burlington are free unless otherwise noted:

• 8 tonight, Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," $53-$63.

• 3 p.m. Friday, Big Heavy World's "Rocket Shop" showcase, presented by the Burlington Free Press and featuring music from Deep River Saints and Ida Mae Specker.

• 6:30 p.m. Friday, music from Twiddle and opening act Soule Monde, $25-$29, or $44 for combined ticket for Twiddle's show Saturday at Higher Ground.

• 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, the Antique and Classic Boat Show includes exhibits and demonstrations, followed by a boat parade; $40 for participants to register, free for spectators.

• 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, the seventh-annual Stand Up for the Lake and Sports Expo includes standup paddle-boarding demonstrations and gear vendors.

• 11 a.m. Saturday, volunteers from the King Street Youth Center and the Boys and Girls Club join artist Clark Derbes to paint a mural on a lake-facing wall of the Moran Plant.

• Noon Saturday, an afternoon of music includes Steve Hartmann, The Beerworth Sisters, Claudia Varona, Tiffany Pfeiffer & the Discarnate Band and Mike Colbourn with Hovey Otis.

• 6 p.m. Saturday, jam-rockers moe. are joined by Cabinet; $33-$37, or $59 for combined ticket for moe.'s show Friday at Higher Ground.

• 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, a Water Works Fair offers hands-on educational activities related to Lake Champlain.

• Noon Sunday, another afternoon of music features the Aaron Flinn Band and Crazyhearse bookending a showcase of artists from Colchester-based Malletts Bay Music with Bow Thayer, Phil Henry, Steve Hartmann, Casey Dubie, Emily Nyman, Adlai Waxman, Sam Creigh and Christine Malcolm.

• 7 p.m. Sunday, the festival concludes with music from guitarist Warren Haynes featuring Railroad Earth; $38 in advance, $42 day of show.

MORE INFO: 482-3313, www.lcmfestival.com