Hoquiam High School’s class of 1998 is going to see what guitarist and singer Rullen Neifert is made of Saturday night and it sounds like Neifert is ready.
The 31-year-old Neifert, a talented lead guitarist with a strong voice, is bringing a couple speakers to amplify his nimble guitar work so the partiers can celebrate in style at Red Cedar — 1941 Riverside Ave., in Hoquiam.
“I’ve never played here obviously,” said Neifert, who last played live on the Harbor on July 8 at Mount Olympus Brewing, in Aberdeen. “New venues are always fun. And it’s a high school reunion, so that’s gonna be pretty badass too.”
And what should work well for the audience is Neifert plays a wide range of music. Playing multiple genres should give everyone something to enjoy as the longtime Grizzly graduates kick back with cold, local and regional beers and wine. His set, which starts at 6 p.m., will go on for at least a couple hours.
“It’s gonna be all over the place,” Neifert said of his set. “It’ll be a lot of, well not a lot of anything. It’s folk, some bluegrass, 90s alternative, 90s grunge as you heard last time with Alice in Chains, a little bit of modern pop/pop-folk stuff like The Lumineers and some lesser known names like Gregory Alan Isakov.”
And the forecast for Saturday shows peak summer time Grays Harbor weather — sunny with a high near 77, according to the National Weather Service.
Nancy Dudley, who owns and runs Red Cedar with her husband, said they expect about 30 people to show up for the reunion, so it will be a public event. She had the sign posted out in front of Vasa Hall Tuesday evening when Neifert was there and it made him pretty happy to see his name on the sign.
Neifert, a Grays Harbor College student who plans on building up his educational resume to a master’s degree in psychology, explained a little bit of how he got started.
“My brother,” Neifert said. “I must have been in like seventh grade. He got an electric guitar for his birthday or Christmas. I thought it was cool so I asked my mom to get me one and so she got me one too. It was a little crappy Rogue acoustic. From there I just played and played. I’d stay up all night some nights just playing guitar.”
While his roots are in the metal genre — his favorite band is Megadeth and the first song he mastered was the band’s famous “Hangar 18” — it’s the emotional aspect that music brings that he loves about the medium.
“I just love music, so it’s … I guess it’s kind of an emotional thing, when someone reacts emotionally to music,” Neifert said. “There’s this old couple who followed me to every show I played because I played a song called “Dress Blues,” by Jason Isbell. It’s about a kid he went to high school with who deployed and died overseas. And so he wrote that song for him. I played it at one show and this old couple was crying. They were so happy I played that song because their son died overseas. It was nice to see that it brought them joy. They cried happy tears. They would come to every show and they would stay there until I played that song. And then they would leave. I used to play at Tipsy Piano Bar in Olympia when it was there.”
Appearing to remember the couple fondly as he smiled, Neifert continued his memories about the couple.
“They’d come and listen to (the song) and then they’d head out,” Neifert said. “I’d always BS with them a little bit. ‘You guys sticking around for a little bit or you waiting for the song?’ Depending on what they said I’d be like ‘I’ll play it. I’ll let you guys get out of here.’”
Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.
