Quick Hit Band Interview: Water Tower

Water Tower at the Silverlake Lounge

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What's the story behind how your band started? Short answer: We met in high school at the water tower in the woods. Many people would come from around the little suburb town to hang out at the water tower, and we enjoyed playing music there. Every night in the summer we could see groups of people flocking to the tower for a place to spend a few minutes in the woods down a gravel road, away from the city.

And just in case- Long answer can be found at Scene Point Blank

Where is your favorite spot to write music? And why the spot? I love to write music on the side of the road. The constant flow of people in cars inspire me to understand myself on a deeper level. I see a bit of myself in each person, and therefore I have endless inspiration on the road.

Own Q&A. Why do y’all write music? It makes us happy, and it helps us grow. We stay connected through the music, and therefore are able to stand back from the painting and see the bigger picture.

The Silverlake Lounge: Andy Clockwise with Jagged Baptist Club and EW Martin

The last time I saw Andy Clockwise was back in 2019 at the Lodge Room. I've followed him since 2010. He puts on an excellent show. This time was no different with him jumping up on the Silverlake Lounge bar's counter top along with Blake Stokes from Jagged Baptist Club for one song. Is there any one who gives the old man cranky attitude than Andy Clockwise? The show was part two of his December residency. Unfortunately, it was his last residency as the spike in COVID-19 cut short his 4 show residency. 

Any Clockwise

 

Jagged Baptist Club and EW Martin opened the night for Andy Clockwise. EW Martin did a solo guitar set doing mostly covers. This was my fifth time seeing Jagged Baptist Club this year. They rank as the band I've seen the most this year. Not a bad band to see more than any other. They know how to put on a show. And they also claimed (in jest) that this show should be known as the final show of 2021, because it was actually New Year's Eve and we just didn't know it.

Jagged Baptist Club

EW Martin

The Silverlake Lounge: The Little Miss with Cassandra Violet and Sven Fleming

Checking out The Little Miss and her The Silverlake Lounge set represented my second straight night of record release parties. On Monday, I went to Honey Child's release party. And then on Tuesday, it was off to The Little Miss to catch her "Best Self" release party. Hayley Johnson's set was filled with folk sounds layered in with random humorous takes on life. How much money did you spend on Amazon buying useless things that you thought would help improve your life? Did you consider moving to Idaho to save money? There was more than just an album release party. It was also her birthday. Both her parents were their to celebrate with a cake and candles. Also, her dad joined in on guitar for a song. It was mentioned that he had bought her a guitar for her 21st birthday and that she initially had no real use for it, because she didn't even know how to play guitar. Then a couple years passed and all is history.  

The Little Miss

Cassandra Violet started out her set with the most perfect whistling. Sven Fleming opened up the night with some longing tunes. Interesting note for the night is that his drummer then went on to play guitar for The Little Miss. 

Cassandra Violet

Sven Fleming

The Silverlake Lounge: Nicholas Mudd Band, RJ Bloke, and Lasers Lasers Birmingham

It was off to The Silverlake Lounge to catch Small Town Friday Nights Acoustic Night. This was my second Friday night heading out to this event. On this night it was Nicholas Mudd Band, RJ Bloke and Lasers Lasers Birmingham hitting the stage with country, Americana tunes. Maybe this is just the numbers person in me, but one thing I noticed: Nicholas Mudd had three members of the band on stage, RJ Boke had a duo and then Lasers Lasers Birmingham did a solo set, 3 - 2 - 1. 

Nicholas Mudd showed some Kentucky pride. As I mentioned once on this blog, I'm a Duke basketball fan. If anyone knows the history, Kentucky and Duke have an intense rivalry. But hey, that didn't prevent me from enjoy the set. 

Nicholas Mudd Band

RJ Bloke brought out the harmonica while his guitarist hit those strings hard.

RJ Bloke

Lasers Lasers Birmingham opened his set with three straight covers. What did he do during the pandemic? He said he obviously learned cover songs.   

Lasers Lasers Birmingham

The Silverlake Lounge: Ryan Hahn & The Believers, The Little Miss and Water Tower

As mentioned in my Starcrawler blog post, before this Silverlake Lounge outing, I'd already gone out to catch some live music - Starcrawler, of course. But I considered the Starcrawler set to be a pre-season outing on my part as the band didn't do a full set and it was an acoustic one at that, which is nothing like their live sets. 

I honestly was thinking that I might not catch another live set until early July when I plan to catch a DIY festival (there is an El Cid event that I really want to go to in a week, but I already know I'll be working late that night). But as I was scanning through Instagram, I came across a night at The Silverlake Lounge that featured Ryan Hahn & The Believers, The Little Miss, and Water Tower. The event was also listed as an acoustic night, but it didn't feel like one -- other than the absence of their drummers. This is my long way of saying that I consider this night to be my official first music outing of the (hopefully) pre-COVID-19 world.

Ryan Hahn & The Believers

So how did it feel to be back seeing live music inside an actual venue? Since Feb 2021 (the last time I went out before COVID-19 shut down the music industry), I've seen live music -- I'm not going to lie. I've been invited to see some acoustic sets played. I ran across some music alongside the LA River. I was invited to photograph a taping of a band for the online version of Echo Park Rising 2021. But this, with the hope that we are past COVID-19, brought a big smile to my face. I just couldn't help it. The crowd was enthusiastic. This was the most people I've seen inside The Silverlake Lounge in years. It was amazing.

The Little Miss

The night was filled with Americana Rock. And yes, it was listed as an acoustic night, but the bands had the speakers blasting and the electric guitars plugged in (okay maybe just one). It didn't remind me much of a quiet acoustic night.

Comment of the night came from The Little Miss: How many people found themselves spending a lot of time on Zillow? Like, how would it be to live in Missouri? Cheaper. 

Water Tower