JUNE 18, 2009 ISSUE
Doc Aquatic is NOT a Jamband
Boone Quartet Plays Koncepts Hookah Lounge June 25
On Thursday, June 25, Boone-based quartet Doc Aquatic will bring their eclectic brand of indie rock to Koncepts Hookah Lounge.
For more than a decade, Boone has developed a reputation—for better or worse—as a hotbed for young jambands that are often comprised of ASU students. Using the sounds of the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, Phish and Widespread Panic among others as a rough sonic blueprint, these bands have frequented High Country stages, playing long, improv-based shows that make for good dance parties, but don’t exactly give non-jam fans anything to get excited about.
Doc Aquatic would like to make it perfectly clear that they are not one of these bands.
“That’s the struggle; getting people to view you as not the typical Boone jamband,” said guitarist/vocalist J.C. Hayes. “We love lyrics. We love melody. We love everything that makes music great.”
On Thursday, June 25, Doc Aquatic will demonstrate their love of lyrics and melody with a live show at Koncepts Hookah Lounge. The show will start at 10:00 p.m. and is open to people 18 and older.
Comprised of J.C. Hayes, guitarist/keyboardist Adam Grogan, drummer Zack Hayes and bassist/vocalist Charles Gately, the relatively new Boone band combines sonically adventurous indie sensibilities with a melodic classic rock background for a sound that sounds warm and familiar, yet fresh and new.
Friends since high school, J.C. and Grogan have been plotting their new band for years, but didn’t get off the ground until J.C.’s younger brother Zack and Gately came along in summer 2008 to give the pair a rhythm section versatile enough to flesh out their musical ideas.
Since then, the band has been writing and recording, trying to find a balance between their love of classic rock and folk from the likes of Neil Young, Bob Dylan and The Beatles, and newer indie rock stylists like Wilco, Animal Collective and Dr. Dog. The results thus far are a handful of undeniably catchy compositions that range from the ambient major key drone of “Summertime” to the angular, tempo-shifting rock of “Rattlesnake Shake.”
“We’re still in the process of developing a really solid sound,” said Grogan.
While their sound may be a work in progress, Doc Aquatic’s energetic live shows have already begun to impress local music fans and critics. The band took top honors at ASU’s Battle of the Bands at Legends and has since been making the local rounds, performing at the Dragonfly Theater & Pub, Murphy’s and the increasingly popular Wednesday night open mic sessions at Koncepts.
“People actually come to listen to your music,” said Grogan. “They’re not there to get drunk.”
Part of the band’s efforts to avoid being tagged as another Jamband from Boone include moving to Asheville later this summer, where J.C. and Grogan hope the band will find footing in the town’s thriving music scene. However, both agree that Doc Aquatic fully intends to continue playing frequently in the High Country.
“Our whole mission right now is to book as many shows as we can and play with as many bands as we can,” said Grogan.
To hear music by Doc Aquatic, click to www.MySpace.com/docaquatic. For more information on their show at Koncepts, call 828-265-9477.
Want To Go?
Date: Thursday, June 25
Time: 10:00 p.m.
Location: Koncepts Hookah Lounge
Cost: $5
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