Brad Sample Band
Live @ The Limelight
4/20/2008
Reviewer: Max Beizer
At first glance, there’s a lot to like about the Brad Sample Band. As the name might imply, this is a straight-up, no-nonsense Rock and Roll band. It seems very appropriate that there’s no clever or intentionally mysterious name. You look at them on stage and you see four guys who seem to care about only one thing: making you stomp your feet. There are no gimmicks and no false image, just a bunch of dudes in t-shirts.
Before this show, I had met Brad a few times around town and I had heard he was a good guitar player. The Hendersonville-based music teacher by day is an instantly likeable guy—I get the feeling he is actually listening when we talk (which is depressingly rare amongst artists). He is polite and talks real good shop on everything music related. After a few times around the “let me know about your next show” carousel, I figured I should get out and catch the show at the new Limelight venue.
If you like loud guitars, you are bound to like the Brad Sample Band. The first few songs of the set featured surprisingly down-tempo numbers that were reminiscent of Southern Rock gods, Government Mule. There was a good mix of Blues and Soul that was thankfully not over-the-top, like way too many other white bands. The highlight of the early set had to be “Jealousy.” It was dark and a little dangerous—which usually equals good Rock song in my book.
By a few songs in, I thought to myself, “Now we’re cookin’ with gas.” The tempos and intensity started to rise to a fever pitch. These tunes started to sound like the best Social Distortion, 10 years later. Songs like “Meet Me in the Middle” and “Feed the Machine” rocked about as hard as was safe for the building’s structural integrity. The latter half of the set featured more of Brad’s guitar work on a tone monster Telecaster that had all the guitar players in the room (and this is Nashville, so pretty much everybody) watching intently.
The Brad Sample Band is a local act worth keeping an eye on. I got the overwhelming sense throughout the set that this was a band with a lot of potential—which is to say, they are not taking over the world just yet. There were times when the bass and drums were not locking as tightly as the best bands always do. I also found myself wishing that the Brad Sample Band were a trio, not a four-piece; the often-dull organ pads seemed, at best, way too up in the mix.
The nit-picking aside, when you look at the Brad Sample Band, you do not see a group that is trying to wow you with packaging or super-hip songwriting. You see a group that, with some more hard work and perhaps some good luck along the way, could do some serious damage on the Nashville scene and who knows where else.
You can hear the Brad Sample Band at www.myspace.com/bradsamplemusic. Be on the lookout for an EP this summer and an LP this fall. See for yourself (and call me an idiot) at Windows on the Cumberland in Nashville, July 12th.