Rock performer Lausen dies while waiting for transplant

Wednesday, June 3, 1998 | 11:05 a.m.

You are 18 years old and the doctor tells you that a virus has severely weakened your heart and placed your life in danger. What do you do?

If you are Las Vegan Bucky Lausen you decide to make your dream of performing as a guitarist and lead singer in a rock band come true.

For three years, Lausen, while waiting on a national list for a heart transplant, was the front man for the garage bands Spork and Odd Man Out, which developed a following on the local underground new wave music circuit.

Benjamin "Bucky" Lausen, an alternative rock performer who became a proponent of the cross-generational ska music genre, died May 27 at Sunrise Mountainview Hospital. He was 22.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 10 years will be noon Friday at Palm Mortuary-Eastern. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. to noon. Lausen will be buried in American Samoa beside his great grandmother.

"When my brother was first diagnosed, he was in a state of depression for about four months," Britta Shaw of Henderson said. "During that time, he came to deal with his situation and took the first step toward putting his group together. It went full blown from there."

Lausen organized the group Spork with three friends. When one of the members left, they renamed the band Odd Man Out and became a power trio.

Although influenced early on by Pearl Jam and Nirvana, Lausen later developed an interest in ska music, which combines the 1940s' Big Band sound with a rapid Latin tempo. It is popular with the mid-20s crowd that is labeled Generation X.

The group recorded some of its songs on cassettes which were sold at performances.

Born Feb. 25, 1976, in Athens, Greece, Lausen was the son of Ben Lausen, who at the time was in the Army and stationed in that Mediterranean state. The younger Lausen was nicknamed in honor of his grandfather, Buck Mathis Huff of Phoenix, who survives him.

The Lausens moved to Las Vegas in 1988, when Ben Lausen was assigned to the Army recruiting command post here. He is now retired and living in American Samoa.

When Bucky was 14, an aunt gave him his first guitar, an acoustic model. A cousin taught him some chords but Lausen pretty much taught himself how to play the instrument, his family said.

Bucky attended Kenny Guinn Junior High and Cimarron-Memorial High School. Shortly after he was diagnosed with life-threatening heart problems in December 1994, Lausen quit school during his senior year to form his band.

In addition to performing at traditional showrooms like the Huntridge Theatre, Lausen and his group were a hot ticket at so-called rave parties -- private events which require a secret code to get in.

"I didn't know a whole lot about my son's music other than that it was loud," Bobbie Huff-Lausen said. She helped her ailing son's career along by allowing him and his friends to practice in the garage of her Las Vegas home.

Each year, Lausen put aside his music career for a month to attend family gatherings in American Samoa. Shaw said the slow pace and tranquility of the South Pacific islands revived him for the rigors of rock performances.

Lausen also enjoyed drawing. One of his works featured caricatures of the band members which he hoped would one day appear on the cover of the group's tape cassettes and CDs.

Lausen had been on standby for a heart transplant since February, but a suitable donor was never found, his mother said.

In addition to his mother, father, sister and grandfather, Lausen is survived by his fiance, Sara Fierstein of Las Vegas; a brother, Tasi Tuiteleleapaga of Washington, D.C.; two other sisters, Brandee Lausen and Cita Lausen, both of Las Vegas; a brother-in-law, Travis Shaw and a nephew, Chanse Shaw, both of Henderson; and a grandmother, Adeline Pritchard-Jones of American Samoa.