Yellowknife (Mar 05/04) - Rich Bomber (aka Richard Liukko) remembers the afternoon at Folk on the Rocks when the giant dragonflies invaded the beer garden.

Rich Bomber (aka Richard Liukko) of Edmonton ska band Mad Bomber Society at last summer's Folk on the Rocks. - NNSL file photo

"We thought space mutant dragonflies were attacking us!" Liukko laughs.

The dragonflies were just B.C. performers Mortal Coil, attracted -- like so many Folk on the Rocks patrons -- to the energetic sounds of Mad Bomber Society.

The ska band was so popular that Folk on the Rocks festival director Tracey Bryant invited Mad Bomber Society back for Saturday's spring fundraiser. It's the kick-off for the run-up to the festival.

"It's coming faster than people realize," said Bryant of the 2004 Folk on the Rocks festival.

The band promises new songs for the fundraiser, which begins at 8 p.m. at Weledeh gym.

Because Folk on the Rocks is having a difficult year in terms of funding, the festival's one and only fundraiser is more important than ever. The City of Yellowknife turned down the festival's request for an increase in core funding, and the request for the city to donate "in-kind" the costs Folk on the Rocks spends to rent equipment from the city.

Another $5,000 was cut when the Association franco-culturelle de Yellowknife eliminated its contribution as part of its budget cuts.

After Yellowknife, the band heads into the studio to record their next album. It's been almost three years since their last CD Atomic A-Go-Go came out.

Liukko, the Edmonton-based band's head honcho, describes their music style as the sound of the Sixties with the attitude of the late 1970s punk movement.

Mad Bomber Society performances are full of contagious energy and promote dancing.

Liukko liked the beer garden venue at last year's festival because the stage was right on the edge of the zone restricted to those 19 and over.

"We had people dancing in the beer garden, and the kids dancing behind us," he said.

Overall the festival was "awesome," Liukko said.

"We had a great time up there."

The six-piece band spent last fall touring the country from coast to coast in a van.

"It was intimate," said Liukko. "If intimate is a synonym for smelly. I'm glad we're not driving to Yellowknife."

After Saturday's licensed dance, Mad Bomber Society will play a free concert at Forty Below Golf, Sunday afternoon, for the under-19 set.

Liukko said the band will play for about 45 minutes, then just hang out.

"We want all the kids to come out on Sunday," he said.

At Folk on the Rocks, the guys in Mad Bomber Society met the guys in Illegal Relations, hung out and gave them tips on recording. That's what they'd like to do at Forty Below, only on a larger scale.

Unfortunately, circumstances dictate the guys will have to make new friends this visit.

"The irony is that most of the people we hung out with in Yellowknife are now at school in Lethbridge or Victoria," said Liukko.