Listening to a wild, Southern-flavored act and a psychedelic, British Invansion-ish band as well as perusing a collection of posters from local rock shows? Not a bad way for a music lover to spend a Friday. Especially if it’s all under one roof.
On Friday, Baltimore-via-Tennessee band J-Roddy and The Business and Atlanta’s Gringo Star will perform along with Scranton’s Orner Brothers at The Bog. The show will also serve as a reception for a showing of Bill Orner-designed posters from the past few years (Orner is also the Orner Brothers’ drummer).
J-Roddy Walston and The Business are known for a back-to-basics, Southern-rock flair and high-voltage rock show, and like Gringo Star — which has been lauded by everyone from USA Today to Pitchfork — will make its Northeastern Pa. debut Friday night. Friday’s gig will come one show after J-Roddy and The Business’ opening slot at a sold-out Langhorne Slim show at Mercury Lounge in New York.
“That should be pretty awesome; we never played with Langhorne Slim,” frontman Rod Walston said via phone before a show in Baltimore where his band was paired with a two rap acts. “We played at the Mercury Lounge about two months ago, the staff dug it, so they just said they’d keep an eye out for shows for us there.”
The Bog show will not be the first time Gringo Star and J-Roddy and The Business have shared a stage. And Gringo Star frontman Nicholas Furgiuele says The Business’ show is not one to be missed.
“I like those guys a lot, man,” Furgiuele says. “Those guys are really good. They kind of remind me of Queen meets The Band or something like that. They’re real high-energy and good rock and roll.”
The feeling is mutual.
“They put on a really good show,” Walston says of Gringo Star, which also features Peter Furgiuele, Pete DeLorenzo and Matt McCalvin. “They kind of hop around; the drummer will switch to being the singer, the bass player will start playing piano … It’s really a good kind of old rock and roll.”
J-Roddy and The Business — Walston (piano, guitar), Zach Westphal (bass), Billy C. Gordon (guitar) and Steve The Sleave (drums) — came together in Cleveland, Tenn., before relocating to Baltimore. The band released its debut album “Hail Mega Boys” last year on Southern Brethren records. Roddy and The Business are “in the middle of writing and doing that whole thing” for a full-length follow-up, Walston says, and it should be completed by the end of the summer.
Gringo Star’s first full-length will be out in the fall and is produced and mixed by Ben H. Allen, who’s worked with Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, P-Diddy and Christina Aguilera. Gringo Star has already gained some buzz, however, with USA Today publishing a favorable review of the its self-titled debut EP last year.
The band will perform at this year’s Lollapalooza festival and will return to the United Kingdom for the fifth time; it undertook a whopping four British tours last year.
Gringo Star was originally known as A-Fir-Ju-Well. So why the name change?
“We like Mexican food, and we don’t appreciate the white person that much,” Fergiuele says, laughing. “I don’t know. We changed it because we were touring with our band so much, and we got tired of explaining what this nonexistent word meant. And we’re really into Mexican culture.”
So there you have it: three bands gearing up for new albums (Orner Brothers’ debut should be out soon) and a collection of posters depicting everyone from Cabinet to Okay Paddy and Lewis & Clarke.
But if that’s not enough, let Walston himself give you an idea of what his group’s show is all about.
“It’s pretty wild,” Walston says. “A lot of sweat … Kind of like if really old-school rock ’n’ roll, like Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis kind of stuff got infused with some sort of crazy metal show or something. Everybody’s flinging themselves around, and hair’s flying everywhere, but then there’s like still 3-part harmonies. I would say that everything that we do kind of culminates in our live show. The songs come across best, the real thing that we’re trying to get at as a band comes across best in our live show.
“But, it’s basically like if you enjoy being entertained, even at the end of the night if you’re not like ‘I love this music so much,’ if you enjoy seeing grown dudes flip over pianos or whatever, then you’ll probably enjoy the show.”
w
go:
What: The Orner Brothers,
J-Roddy Walston and The
Business, Gringo Star,
Bill Orner’s rock posters
Where: The Bog,
341 Adams Ave., Scranton
When: Fri., May 2, 9 p.m.
Cost: $5