Brant Bjork Trio Announce New Drummer Mike Amster
The pedigree of drummer Mike Amster is pretty significant at this point. Having been part of Abrams alongside his brother Zach, Mike Amster has drummed for studio and live incarnations of Nebula, Mondo Generator and Blaak Heat Shujaa, and so might be called a ‘journeyman’ if the journey in question was mostly around the Californian desert. A cruiser of said desert, at the very least.
Another impressive line on Amster‘s CV is added as he takes over drum duties for the Brant Bjork Trio, sliding into the rhythm section with bassist Mario Lalli (also Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man, etc.) as Bjork himself handles vocals and guitar. That Amster can hold his own in the material is without question — as a player he’s readily up to the significantly grooving task before him, to be sure — but it’s worth noting he has significant shoes to fill in the role previously held by Ryan Güt, who had been a part of Bjork’s prior solo band and the trio Stöner with bassist/vocalist Nick Oliveri as well.
Stöner is a connection here too, since Oliveri fronts and Amster drums in Mondo Generator, so although Bjork and Amster haven’t been in a band together before so far as I know, everybody’s kind of in the same orbit of each other.
Brant Bjork Trio‘s upcoming 2025 live dates follow. Their post revealing the new lineup was just the photo (which I’ve cropped for sharing purposes), the names and the UK dates. The US shows were announced earlier this month, and if you need to be reminded, the band’s Once Upon a Time in the Desert (review here) was just featured among the best albums of 2024 here, because duh of course it was.
The raw data:
BBT 2025
Brant Bjork, Mario Lalli, Mike Amster
BRANT BJORK TRIO – UK & IRELAND TOUR – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2025
FRI 24 JAN: THE CRAUFURD ARMS, MILTON KEYNES, UK
SAT 25 JAN: REBELLION, MANCHESTER, UK
SUN 26 JAN: THE CLUNY, NEWCASTLE, UK
MON 27 JAN: AUDIO, GLASGOW, UK
WED 29 JAN: GRAND SOCIAL, DUBLIN, IRE
THU 30 JAN: LIMELIGHT 2, BELFAST, N. IRE
FRI 31 JAN: SIN CITY, SWANSEA, UK
SAT 01 FEB: MAMA ROUX’S, BIRMINGHAM, UK
SUN 02 FEB: STRANGE BREW, BRISTOL, UK
MON 03 FEB: BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB, LEEDS, UK
TUE 04 FEB: WATERFRONT STUDIO, NORWICH, UK
WED 05 FEB: THE FORUM, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, UK
THU 06 FEB: THE 1865, SOUTHAMPTON, UK
FRI 07 FEB: THE ARCH, BRIGHTON, UK
SAT 08 FEB: OSLO, LONDON, UK
Stateside Boogie !
Get tix at https://linktr.ee/brantbjorktrio
03.07 Kansas City MO Record Bar
03.08 Minneapolis MN Turf Club
03.09 Milwaukee WI Shank Hall
03.10 Grand Rapids MI Pyramid Scheme
03.11 Columbus OH King of Clubs
03.12 Youngstown OH Westside Bowl
03.13 Baltimore MD Metro Gallery
03.14 New Hope PA John & Peter’s
03.15 Brooklyn NY TV Eye
03.16 Providence RI Alchemy
03.19 Detroit MI Small’s
03.20 Newport KY Southgate House
03.21 Louisville KY Portal+Artportal
03.22 Chicago IL Reggies
The Brant Bjork Trio:
Brant Bjork – guitar/vocals
Mario Lalli – bass
Mike Amster – drums
https://www.facebook.com/BrantBjorkOfficial
https://www.instagram.com/brant_bjork
https://brantbjork.bandcamp.com/
http://www.brantbjork.com
http://www.dunarecords.net/
https://dunarecords.bandcamp.com/
https://duna.indiemerch.com/
So what happened to Güt? I really enjoyed his style and stage presence.
I want to know too! I really liked his tight playing and style