The Set List

By Brian Washburn

Switchfoot will bring their live experience to George’s Majestic Lounge on Tuesday night.

Switchfoot are definitely not a stranger to music industry success. From the moment their original songs found their way into a Mandy Moore movie to the moment their songs “Meant To Live” and “Dare You To Move” found enormous radio and commercial success, their pop-rock sound has been known around the nation.

But after more than a decade of being a touring rock band and with the recent industry downfalls that have cause more than a few bands to cut back or call it quits, it is a wonder the band still finds the desire and drive to keep trucking on. However, it is not the success that keeps Switchfoot making rock music, it is their passion for the songs and the impact it has on their fans that has kept them going.

“For us, one of the things that keeps us going is the true passion for the songs,” said lead vocalist and guitarist Joe Foreman in a phone interview last week. “Also, many times we hear a story about how a song had an impact on someone’s life where there’s been a struggle … and to hear that a song or album brought them through a difficult place, it’s very encouraging and gives us a lot of inspiration to write new music.”

The San Diego natives — Foreman, bassist Tim Foreman, drummer Chad Butler, guitarist and keyboardist Jerome Fontamillas and guitarist Drew Shirley — also consider themselves an extremely tight knit family, which should not come as a surprise because they have been playing together since 1996.

The music industry has been through a dramatic overhaul since those times, though. And with those changes, the band has found ways to keep up with the times and are even producing and releasing their own records, beginning with 2009’s “Hello Hurricane.”

Though the channels in which the music is released has changed, Switchfoot still find a way to create the best songs possible with new influences and experiences happening in their lives. “Usually the good songs come to me and I don’t have to chase them down. I bring the songs to Tim and the rest of the fellows and we perform a transformation like surgery to bring the song into the rock form from guitar,” Foreman said.

“We equate it to growing up. Sometimes kids get involved in drugs and get awkward in puberty, but hopefully on the other side of that they make it to another place that feels comfortable and into adulthood.” For the band’s recent record Foreman’s lyrical influence came to him through personal experiences and occurrences in his life that don’t make sense.

“The best songs covers difficult terrain — God, politics. Songs are always a safe place to act out these parts of the world,” he said. A staple of Switchfoot’s existence has always been their intense live show, which Foreman describes as a “good, old fashioned, sweaty American rock ‘n’ roll show.”

Concerts will also be a integral part of Switchfoot’s upcoming year, as they plan to tour the globe throughout 2010, as well as continue to write and record in their free time.

Brian Washburn is the founder of DBW and is currently working on a way to revolutionize the music industry.

The Set List

By Brian Washburn

You could feel it in the air. It was spreading its way, building rapidly as you approached the backroom at George’s Majestic Lounge last week. It was in almost every concert attendee’s face in the sold out Fayetteville staple. It was magic, and it was provided by Georgia natives Soundtribe Sector 9.

The show had been sold out — which happened in a matter of hours — for months. Even though the front of the backstage was packed with people climbing over each other to get into the dancing groove (which was not hard to do), the back was not as packed as one would have thought for STS9. But nevertheless, the band did not disappoint one bit and even left some concert-goers speechless and only wanting more as the show came to a close.

STS9’s groove-based electronica can be a bit redundant and even bland at times, but during the show it never let down. It kept attention peaked throughout the band’s two-hour set, which featured a wide array of the band’s decade-long career catalog. While some listeners (this columnist included) can get bored about halfway through these sort of instrumental concerts, this was not at all the case last Wednesday at George’s. The music flowed from track to track. Transitions between songs were flawless and only allowed for a few seconds in between tracks for the crowd to cheer at the top of their lungs, showing their love for the band.

Song transitions were not the only STS9 aspect that was flawless. The band puts themselves on a pedestal and sets themselves apart from other instrumental electronic bands because of their musicianship, specifically the rhythm section of bassist David Murphy and drummer Zach Velmer. The two provided an intense backbone for every track and never missed a beat.

Velmer went from whaling on the drum kit at about 100 miles an hour to a slower, grove-centered beat that allowed the band and the crowd to slow their dancing a bit and break it down.

Murphy showed the precision of a bassist who studies and knows the instrument like the back of his hand He played at times like he was soloing on a guitar.

However, the tunes were not what took the concert to the next level. The music is what drove people to the show, but it was the elaborate light show and the visual aspect of the STS9 concert that truly made it an experience.

The lights gave the packed house the opportunity to rave with one another on a level that has only been seen a few times over the past few years in the Northwest Arkansas music scene.

George’s and its regulars are used to these sort of trippy light shows going hand and hand with an electronica or DJ set, but it is the STS9 light show that takes it to the next level, especially in the intimate setting that George’s offers.

The close quarters gave the band the chance to get close and personal with their fans, and it allowed the fans to show the band just how much love Fayetteville and the NWA music scene has for STS9.

The band has played several sets on some of the biggest national stages, such as Lollapalooza and Wakarusa, but a true STS9 experience only comes in a close setting with viewers who are fully immersed in the visual triumph that is an STS9 show. After a long encore, STS9 left the crowd craving more.

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With the growth of the Northwest Arkansas music scene and the number of chart-topping artists taking the stage in NWA, no one would have believed a few months ago that the most anticipated concert of early 2010 would be STS9 at George’s Majestic Lounge.

But after epic performances in NWA over the past few years and a cult fan base gathering nationwide, STS9 is gearing up to play to a sold-out crowd at George’s on Wednesday. The show sold out in just a couple of days.

The underground success of a band like STS9 is remarkable simply because of the band’s focus on an experimental sound found almost nowhere else in the music industry.

With influences ranging from instrumental jam rock to electronica, as well as everything in between, STS9 — guitarist/keyboardist Hunter Brown, percussionist/laptop operator Jeffree Lerner, bassist/laptop operator David Murphy, keyboardist David Phipps and drummer Zach Velmer — find it extremely difficult to come close to classifying their genre. But why attempt to classify what you change at every instance?

On their new album, “Ad Explorata,” the five-piece Georgia group buckled down and focused their writing to bring out musical elements not yet discovered.

“We created this album with a little different approach in a sense that we made other albums over the course of a couple years and this one was fast,” Lerner said in a phone interview last week. “We didn’t rush or cut corners, really just buckled down in the studio. We were a little more focused on the writing and recording process and not taking so much time. Each album is its own thing, not better or worse, but a different expression … comparatively to the last album, this one is a wider spectrum with different vibes, energy and emotion.”

The vibes, energy and emotion might vary from album to album, but the quintessential attribute that holds STS9 fans together and has helped created a mass underground following is the band’s live performance — one that has garnered critical acclaim and fan approval along with chances to perform on national stages like Lollapalooza, Red Rocks in Colorado and even Northwest Arkansas’s own Wakarusa.

Though not to ruin the firsthand experience of being in the audience at a STS9 performance, the show features a slew of eccentric lights, sounds and never a real break from the music as it flows from one beat and jam to the next.

“Our goal is to try to put on our best show every night, put out high energy and quality, try to get people to move, and inspire and be inspired every night,” Lerner said.

STS9 has played George’s before and is scheduled to return to Wakarusa this summer. The band is excited to return to the Ozarks, where Lerner says “the fans are great and give us a lot of energy and love.”

While the band has played on some of the nation’s biggest stages and received mass praise for their off-the-wall concerts, Lerner said the band’s biggest achievement is the way they have stayed together after more than a decade.

“We haven’t really stuttered; we’re all moving forward and are all incredibly dedicated to what we do. Some of the bigger shows are big accomplishments, like playing at Red Rocks, but a big one is just continuing the band.”

The relationship within the band has them poised to move forward. But the more fascinating aspect of STS9 is their strong connection with their fanbase and the nonprofit organizations they have committed themselves to such as helping rebuild New Orleans’ Ninth Ward and supporting afterschool programs.

STS9 strives to make every experience a little more than just about the show as they team with their fans on several projects and share a really productive relationship, Lerner said.

With a 14-year career, 12 live and studio albums, thousands of performances and millions of records sold, the upcoming decade could bolster several paths for the electronic, instrumental band.

“We are going to continue what we’ve been doing, and it’s up to the fans to determine where it goes,” Lerner said. “We’re going to keep watching, growing and making sure we’re taking care of what we need to take care of by refinishing our skills, new music and putting on the best show we can.”

Brian Washburn is the founder of DBW and is currently working on a way to revolutionize the music industry.

By Brian Washburn

Money is tight. The economy has been in shambles for a couple years now. It looks like it might, possibly be on a bit of a rebound, but not any time soon. Let me clarify, not any time in the near future when we all need buckets of money to spend on that special someone when Sunday rolls around.

Roses are delivered across the nation and Hershey and Hallmark stock jumps just because it’s that time of the year for those suckers who dive head first into this nonholiday, Valentine’s Day.

So lacking the funds to show your true love how much you care for them, what is a lover to purchase their significant other? The answer is simple for some and quite difficult for others. With a bit of creativity, musical talent and love in your heart, a Valentine’s Day gift consisting of lyrics, music and emotion can turn into the best gift they have ever received. Just hit the record button.

If you take a look at some of the most influential romantic songs of the past few decades, they seem to be a love letter putting the musician’s heart on their sleeve to their true love.

Ironically, the greatest love song of all time is by one of the hardest, most attitude-laden bands of the past few music eras, Guns N’ Roses.

Axl Rose delved into deep feelings back in the late ’80s when Guns N’ Roses were writing their epic debut album “Appetite for Destruction.” However, these feelings were quite different from those he laid down on tracks dealing with drugs, L.A. and partying. His intense, poetic feelings came as a love letter he wrote over one of the greatest guitar riffs of all time when the band recorded “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

“Sweet Child O’ Mine” still lives up to the bar it set more than two decades ago, and it still resonates emotions men all over the world feel at one point or another. But it’s not the only prime example of a musical love letter that can make her weak at the knees on V-Day.

There’s always the cheesy, make-her-laugh-and-smile love letter songs such as “Baby, I Love Your Way” by Peter Frampton and “I’ll Make Love To You” by Boyz II Men. However, better choices come from the classy love letter route like “All My Life” by K-Ci and Jojo and “Kiss from a Rose” by Seal.

If you’re feeling a bit mysterious and dark with your V-Day date then go with “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak. More modern options for love letter songs to provide inspiration for your Valentine’s Day masterpiece include “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s, “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service or any modern cover — and there are a lot — of “Time After Time.”

However you decide to spend Valentine’s Day is totally up to you — or more importantly that special someone you are attempting to impress. But if money is tight and you live your life by the inspiration and emotions you can find in music, then pick up an instrument and serenade that special someone. And if you don’t have a lover to spend Feb. 14 with, then crank out the metal and rock out all night long.

Brian Washburn is the founder of DBW and is currently working on a way to revolutionize the music industry.