Three bands who have excited the underground music community by performing at The Bayou in the past, brought their tunes to the surface at One World Café last Saturday night for the event “Bayou Presents: Winter Wonderland Local Showcase at One World Café.”
The first band to play was Help Yourself. The band features three local musicians who happen to be brothers. Ethan Stevenson was on guitar and vocals, Gabe Stevenson on bass and Seth Stevenson on drums.
Help Yourself sounds like a garage punk band. Ethan Stevenson said some of the band’s influences are Weezer, Show Me the Body and La Dispute.
When performing they try to project a positive message to the audience, but mostly they just love playing music together and in front of people, Ethan Stevenson said. According to Ethan Stevenson there is one song in particular in which the vocals were mostly him rambling into the microphone, which created a droning trance accompanied with a steady tempo from the bass and drums.
All of the songs the band played were originals. Ethan Stevenson usually writes the lyrics and chords. He then hands those over to his brothers to fill in the rhythm section.
“I usually start it, and then we’re all kind of part of arranging and deciding what we want to do where and all that stuff. (It’s) mostly communal,” Ethan Stevenson said.
The second band to play was Hallowed Oak. The band is a “passion project” started by Gabe Smith, resident of The Bayou and main booker at One World. Smith organized the event last Saturday night.
Smith brought musicians that might usually play at The Bayou to One World for a few reasons. The basement of the Hallowed Oak playing at One World
Bayou is set up for demos and recording, rather than for live shows, One World just got a new soundboard similar to the one used at the Bayou making set up easier and it’s winter and Smith doesn’t want to have a bunch of mud tracked into his living space.
The songs performed by Hallowed Oak had a tranquil island feel to them. However, Smith said the feeling he’s trying to project from the stage is usually dark and “triumphantly sad.”
Smith said some of the band’s influences are Neil Young, Nick Cave and Jason Molina. Young specifically is influential to the style of Hallowed Oak, because Smith similarly plays loud traditional chords that most of the time aren’t power chords. “For me it’s about, being able to make a beautiful sound and then also be able to give it a little bit of a dark twinge,” Smith said.
The third band to play was Meddling. Ethan Stevenson played bass, Seth Stevenson played drums and Joe Marsh on guitar and vocals. The main song writer for Meddling is Marsh.
“That’s all Joe writing his guitar parts and lyrics. And then he kind of brings it to Seth and I, and then we decide kind of rhythmically what we’re going to do,” Ethan Stevenson said.
On stage, Marsh described the band as being punk rock.
“It’s very emotional, it’s very heavy, it’s sludgy, it’s really fun to play because it’s fast and slow,” Ethan Stevenson said. “Like I said, it’s emotional. That’s kind of the vibe I always have gotten from Joe’s music.”
Ethan Stevenson said some of Marsh’s potential influences are Hotelier and Algernon Cadwallader as well as math rock.
The next show at The Bayou will be on Feb. 14. The event is called “Dirty 30 Bad Boy Birthday Bash,” and is being put on for Smith’s birthday. The doors open at 8 p.m., and more information can be found on The Bayou’s Facebook page.
Sam Bruce can be reached at [email protected].