This article appears in the January 2012 issue of Louisville Magazine. To subscribe, please visit loumag.com.
Verity “Vice” Jones started playing the upright bass eight years ago, and shortly thereafter formed the punk rock band Parlor Tricks, now called Vice Tricks. Her husband, Jeremy King, sings and plays guitar. Why the stand-up bass? For one, the Louisville native likes its percussive sound. Also: “It’s just so physically impressive. I’ve always been a really physically aggressive person — have always ridden a motorcycle, things like that,” Jones says. She dismantled the instrument and rebuilt it, reinforcing it with maple posts and heavy-duty nuts and bolts. It’s nickname: The Frankenstein. “I throw it around so much, beat it up onstage and when I get into the crowd or lift it over my head. I’ll jump on it. It really takes a beating,” says Jones, who runs her own cleaning company to pay the bills. “I’m a really shy person, but once I start playing I feel the music and I’m a part of it and this switch just flips. I’m not religious in any way but it’s like church,” she says. “When I’m really feeling it, I like to be as physical as I can be and get into people’s faces.”
Photos: courtesy Mickie Winters
