Kellen Coffis
- Dec 28, 2017
- 4 min read

99 For 2017

At the beginning of this year I told you that one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to write more posts on our website. I forgot what all of my other resolutions were, but 17 posts later and here we are in December with the most posts we’ve ever done in a year, which is fitting for a year in which we played more shows than we’ve ever played before. So much happened in 2017 that it’s hard to know where to start, but perhaps we should start with what we spent most of our time doing this year. That’s right, sitting in our van in traffic. I mean playing shows. Playing music in front of people is what we spent a lot of our time doing in 2017.

At midnight on December 31st we will have played our 99th show of the year. 99? For real? Can we just round up and call it 100? Let’s call it 100. Wow, we played 100 shows this year! That’s quite a milestone. We returned to some of our favorite venues and festivals like the Great American Music Hall, Sweetwater Music Hall, Crystal Bay Casino, Hopmonk Tavern, the Independent, the Torch Club, the Frog & Peach, Fernwood, and Oyster Ridge Music Festival. We played some great venues for the first time like the Folktale Winery, Healdsburg Plaza, Twin Oaks Roadhouse, Freight & Salvage, The Saint, OP Rockwell, Newpark Town Center, the Downtown Artery, the Siren, and the Whale Rock Music Festival. We had some of our most memorable hometown shows back at familiar venues like Don Quixote’s, Moe’s Alley, the Catalyst, KPIG Swine Soiree, and the Redwood Mountain Faire. We even played in some places in Santa Cruz that we had never played before like Shanty Shack, Michael’s On Main, and Humble Sea Brewing Co. who opened their doors in March of this year. (Congratulations, dudes!)

Somewhere in the middle of all the traveling and playing there was a lot else that happened this year. We played against some pre-teens in paintball (and lost), a Coffis brother became a DJ at KPIG radio (Jamie, to be exact), we played sets on the Brew Cruz and the KPIG trailer, we went to a Colorado Rockies game in Denver, Aidan ate his first Krispy Kreme Donut and his first turkey leg (the donut was better), we were named Nexties Band of the Year, we celebrated our parent’s 70th birthdays, we said goodbye to Henry and hello to Sam, and we released our third album, Roll With It; and through all of that our trusty van, Gretschen (The White Falcon) ran like a champ. (Although there was a strange whistle sound coming from the engine today. You think that’s bad? Should probably get that checked out.) That’s a lot of things in just one year. We don’t mean to gloss over some of those rather big happenings though, like Aidan eating a whole turkey leg, so we want to stop and acknowledge a few people and moments in particular.

Henry Chadwick, our drummer of seven years, played his final shows with us in 2017. Henry is one of our closest friends and was our first drummer, and we had as much fun playing those last shows with Henry as we ever had playing. (If you miss seeing Henry go see his band, Henry Chadwick & Battlesnake on January 5th at the Crepe Place.) http://www.coffisbrothers.com/heck-just-read-this-one-henry-chadwick/

No two people have been more important in the band’s existence than the Coffis parents, Jim and Vicki Coffis, and in March of this year we celebrated their 70th birthdays with a rock and roll birthday party. They even got their favorite band to play at the party. Can you guess who it was? Next time you’re at a show of ours and you see them go say hi.

Sam Kellerman is another person who has had a rather big role in the Coffis Brother’s 2017. As Henry was departing, Sam arrived and his introduction to the band was seamless. Whether it was his sports fanaticism, his ability to sleep anywhere on anything, or his fondness for a cocktail at anytime, Sam has fit into the group without a hitch. Also, he’s a damn good drummer. http://www.coffisbrothers.com/one-on-one-with-sam-kellerman/

Lastly, we’d like to acknowledge our hero, Tom Petty. We all went and saw Tom and the Heartbreakers in August so we certainly didn’t expect that in 2017 we would say goodbye to Tom. Three weeks after Tom’s passing we released Roll With It and there isn’t a song on that album that doesn’t have at least a little bit of Tom’s mark on it. We don’t have any plans to do a tribute show to Tom in 2018 but everything we do musically will be some sort of tribute to Tom Petty and we hope that in some small way we can help carry his torch. http://www.coffisbrothers.com/tom-petty/

Usually in December we’re saying we can’t believe the year is already over, but 2017 doesn’t feel that way. 2017 felt like a full year and then some. We traveled more miles than we ever have, we played more shows than we ever have, and we slept a lot less than we ever have. For those of you who were with us before 2017 and for those who joined us in 2017, we hope you have a great end of the year and we can’t wait to make some music for you in 2018. Here’s a look at some memorable moments in 2017. See ya.