LIVE MUSIC -- ANCIENT GREECE SHOW

Lawyer-musician turns obsession with Peloponnesian War into CD and show

Charlie Roadman turned a years-long obsession with the historian Thucydides into a CD that actually rocks

By Patrick Beach
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, January 23, 2009

Funny what college does to you. Example:

Charlie Roadman and Erik Sanden (now of the band Buttercup, and not to be confused with the similarly named Erik Sandin of the punk rockers NOFX) are attending Trinity University in San Antonio in 1991. They have a class together in which they're studying Thucydides' history of the Peleponnesian War — one of the great historical texts by one of the greatest historians in all of Western civilization (completed by Xenophon after the aristocrat warrior Thucydides' death) and without question one of the densest. The conflict that began as a "commotion" between Athens and Sparta spanned decades, from 431-401 B.C., involved many hundreds of battles and included about as many people as are currently hanging out on Facebook. The story is one of barbarism and atrocity, heroism, plagues, mountains of corpses, speeches, military overreaching, the suffering of the civilian populations, political skullduggery and what happens when a democracy fails to live up to its ideals. It is not, in other words, a beach read.

All semester long, these two students could and should have been reading the book — Roadman recalls it was probably the Penguin version. But Roadman maintained that they didn't have to tackle it until closer to finals and Sanden, being a year younger and way too trusting, said OK.

Well. As finals loomed, they basically spent 72 solid hours immersing themselves, dividing up chapters and summarizing to one another as they surely plummeted into slumber-deprived delirium and fatigue.

You'd think such a traumatic experience would lead to a lifelong aversion to anything remotely related to ancient Greece, including olives, feta and watching Greco-Roman wrestling when the Olympics come around. But the story got into Roadman's bones, and now, lo these many years later, comes a CD.

No, seriously. Around five years ago Roadman — who's now a criminal-defense lawyer in Austin and who's been in a bunch of bands over the years — decided he'd write one song about the conflict. And eventually what came out, after a gestation that threatened to last nearly as long as the war itself, was "Athens v. Sparta: A History of the Peloponnesian War," an indie rock CD with Roadman's original songs, vocals by his longtime pal Kevin Higginbotham, spoken-word narration by actor Ken Webster and the contributions of, all told, around 20 musicians from Austin and San Antonio. About 10 of those players will attempt to cram themselves onto the stage at the Cactus Café tonight, where they'll play the work in its entirety.

And now you're thinking, "Um, this sounds soooo like a terrible idea, writing pop songs about a war from antiquity" but, quite honestly, these guys have done a first-rate job. The disc is eminently listenable, the production crisp, Higginbotham's vocals outstanding and its fidelity to historical verisimilitude (although scholars still debate whether Thucydides should be read as straight-up history or literature) unimpeachable. Maybe Roadman kept this quote in mind from the man himself: "But, the bravest are surely those who have the dearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out and meet it."

Roadman first wrote just one song, "a particularly ironic one where Pericles is encouraging the Athenians to go to war."

Then he got to thinking: "If you have a dark sense of humor, there are certainly amusing parts to it," he said. "I thought a whole album about the Peloponnesian War would be pretty funny."

For his part, Higginbotham sees themes that still resonate today.

"You kind of see democracy going a little bit crazy," Higginbotham said. "There's something about that that's striking. There's this belief that democracy is foolproof. It's about when democracy becomes polluted and a bit brutish."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Kevin," said Roadman, the more cautious of the two to connect ancient Greece with today's troubled times.

But of course the musicians couldn't help but be struck by the timing. As Higginbotham, a technology consultant, put it, "We were going through eight years of a pretty undefined war."

"It was cathartic, for sure," Roadman said.

Partly because of the size of the band, tonight's performance may well be a one-time deal. There will be a short lecture on the war before the band kicks in. And Roadman has a presentation ready to go for any schools or college classes that may be interested. The CD is for sale through the usual outlets and at athensvsparta.com for anyone who missed out on Peloponnesian War knowledge or just wants a musical dose of a classic story.

And what's next for Roadman?

"I've been reading up on the Sepoy Rebellion," he says a bit sheepishly.

Ah, yes. That would be the 1857 rebellion of Indian sepoys — soldiers for the East India Trading Company — after they were issued guns that allegedly were to be greased with animal fat. Perfect for another CD.

"I think Charlie went to about six hours of classes while we were at Trinity," Higginbotham said. "And one of the classes was on Thucydides and the other was on the Sepoy Rebellion."

pbeach@statesman.com; 445-3603