Six Foot Blonde, a Bloomington-based band consisting of nine members, will perform July 9 for all ages at the HI-FI Annex in Indianapolis. The outdoor show will start at 7 p.m. and doors will open at 6 p.m. Tickets are available for $10 for all ages.
Kaleb Weisenfluh, IU graduate and trumpet player, said the band’s original songs are mainly pop, funk and rock. They cover songs from every genre but Dominick Heyob, rising IU junior and bassist, said they “Six Foot Blonde-ify” them with a soulful blues and pop feeling.
Some of their most common covers are “Electric Love” by Børns and “Ultralight Beam” by Ye. The band will be releasing a project this fall and will be playing their original songs at the HI-FI Annex on Saturday.
Zach Patrick, IU rising junior and guitarist, said the jazz and pop elements come from the instrumentation of the bigger band sound and horns. The band consists of two vocalists, a saxophone player, a trumpet player, two guitarists, a bassists, a keyboard player and a drummer. He said they have the potential for 5-piece harmonies.
Julia Rusyniak, vocalist and IU rising junior, said their blend of genres is a result of them all coming from different music backgrounds with different music tastes. She said they play rap to jazz and rage to pop.
The friends originally met through Bloomington Delta Music Club at IU. Rusyniak said the band formed in April 2021 because vocalist and IU graduate Emma Spartz wanted to get the group of friends together for a COVID-19 friendly performance. The band name was inspired by a Quaff On! Brewing Company sticker that said “Six Foot Blonde.”
“I don't even think we realized that we were naming an official band,” Rusyniak said. “At the time, it was like we were putting a name to a random group that was just going to play one time and then it became something more than that.”
Rusyniak said she considers the Bluebird their home, but their other favorite venues are The Vogue Theatre and the HI-FI Annex in Indianapolis. Elliott Obermaier, IU graduate and guitarist, said they’ve also played at local brewery events and in Fort Wayne.
Each band member’s personality is shown through their music, Obermaier said. He said Rusyniak keeps the group positive and motivated and Weisenfluh brings energy to the stage through his performance.
Six Foot Blonde has a full schedule booked for the summer. They are planning to open for Daughtry on July 30, Dermot Kennedy on August 13 and Rod Tuffcurls and The Bench Press on August 27 at The Clyde Theatre and Club Room. They’ll also open for Huckleberry Funk on August 26 at Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
Rusyniak and Heyob said they have been able to improve themselves by watching other musicians in town and making friends in the environment that the music community in Bloomington has provided them.
“First and foremost, we are friends,” Rusyniak said. “Second of all, we are musicians in a band together, but we put each other's well being, each other's mental health, emotional health, all that stuff before music.”
