Bringing back memories with Party Falcon

It’s like taking a walk into the past. Each Saturday afternoon, a group of long-time friends gathers to reminisce about the music on which they grew up. The sounds of Billy Idol, Bon Jovi, Joan Jett, and so many more fill the house as Party Falcon works through its playlist.

It’s not just the music that brings back memories, but the experience of making music together that began in their youth.

Jamie Gier was 11 years old when he got his first guitar. His older brother, Lincoln, who was 15, had just acquired a drum set, and the two started making music together. That connection continues to this day.

“He got his first drum set, I guess, from Bob (the friend who is the Party Falcon drummer today), and I got this hot pink, like a Pepto-Bismol-looking pink little cheap Arbor guitar,” Jamie said. “He and I just started making noise at the house and then, once we got good enough, we started jamming with Bobby.”

Bobby Concha lived a couple of blocks away in Chaparral. He had heard the brothers jamming and thought they sounded pretty good.

“His brother played bass,” Lincoln said. “He was on drums and Jamie would jam with them.”

When Lincoln was a freshman at New Mexico State University, a friend of theirs was having a party with a bunch of college kids and they just decided that would be their first gig. They asked Lincoln to sing with them. That was first for him.

It was 1990 or 1991, and they performed at the college party to rave reviews.

Bobby was a guitar player when he first embraced music, introduced by his father as he grew up in Los Angeles. Interestingly, it was after he moved to Chaparral that the music took off.

“They have two other brothers, Lance and Lyle,” Bobby said, talking about Jamie and Lincoln. “Lance started on drums, and I started watching him. They were away on a family vacation, and I borrowed his set, and when he came back, he said, ‘Dude, you’re better than I am.’”

A big part of the Party Falcon story is how these three original members found each other.

“We're all like little kids in Chaparral and at that time it was not nearly as populated as it is now,” Lincoln said. “When you went to your friend's house you walked through the desert and to find other musicians out there that were the same age, living the same life at that time it was just crazy if you think about it.”

What Party Falcon is today has grown from those teenage days. Jamie married Victoria when they were living in Nashville after studying different avenues of music at NMSU. She is now a vocalist with the group. Matt Reiter, who Jamie met when both were teaching elementary school music in Las Cruces, plays the bass.

Building from their childhood days, the Gier family has always jammed together, and now Jamie and Victoria’s 12-year-old son Oliver has joined the family band. Oliver is an aspiring filmmaker who has been on stage in Las Cruces theatrical productions, but with the Falcon, he is on keyboards.

“It was a little over a year ago for his 11th birthday party,” Lincoln said. “He said I want the Falcon to play so we played his party, and it was all in their living room and there were like 30 little kids. We like Billy Idol and know we needed some keys so he just kind of learned them.”

Jamie was trained in classical voice in college and had professors who wanted him to sing opera. He can still hit the high notes, but he’s decided instead to play this music. In fact, he recently left his teaching job to manage the schedule for Party Falcon. He feels it’s time to make it the thing he does.

Party Falcon takes its next big step forward Saturday, Oct. 25 when the group takes the stage at Elephant Ranch (3995 W. Picacho Ave., Las Cruces) from 7–10 pm).

“I'd like to do big shows at least every couple of weeks but I would love to be able to do weekly,” Jamie said. “We've done a couple of private parties and did a retirement party. This is our first time we can actually tell people to come see us. We're starting to get out there.”

The members of Party Falcon are hoping to create a powerful listener experience for everyone who attends one of their concerts.

“We want them to have that 80s nostalgia,” Lincoln said. We want them
to be oozing with the neon and reminiscing back in the days when they were listening to that music and where they were at the time. That concert you never got to see, now you can see it.”

A more detailed version of this story, sharing more of the stories about the individual members of Party Falcon, will be in the November edition of our companion magazine, Desert Exposure.