The Wedding returns
Listen up!
Brian Washburn
Issue date: 9/8/08 Section: Life & Style
The UA hosted its first concert of the school year last week when NWA's emo/pop-punk golden boys, The Wedding, stopped through to play a show hosted by Thrive Minitries.
While a limited number of people trekked their way through the rain from Hurricane Gustav to the Union Ballroom (the concert was originally scheduled to be at the Chi Omega Greek Theater), there was still a decent amount of attendees, about 50 to 60 people, when the show started at 8 p.m.
But even though The Wedding, comprised of vocalist Matt Shelton, guitarists Trevor Sarver and Matt Jameson, bassist Cody Driggers, and drummer Adam Thron, comes from our cozy corner of Arkansas, it has been almost a year since the members have made their way up here. And it shows. The band has changed line-up, released a new EP and fine-tuned their sound.
After a short opening performance by local country singer Justin Driggers (who is the former singer of Music Hall-mainstay, metal band The Goodnight Fight), who sounded as similar as any country singer attempting to rehash the "good-ole' days" of Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, The Wedding took the stage to a loud introduction of a train storming through the UA.
Opening their set with the song "Receive" from their new EP The Sound The Steel, the band jumped on stage and got the relatively small UA crowd jumping up and down and drew them instantly into the show.
New lead singer Matt Shelton (formerly of major label rock band Letterkills) has a voice longed for in the music scene these days. It's loud and a bit unique. However, it is still not as good as former lead singer Kevin Kiehn's voice, which could have propelled the band to national stardom a few years ago.
After rocking out to a few songs from their last album Polarity, as well as one song from their debut, self-titled album, it is clear Shelton is not Kiehn. In fact, he's nowhere close. But while the old songs are not the same, they work. And the new songs sound even better live because of the energy the bands puts into them.
While a limited number of people trekked their way through the rain from Hurricane Gustav to the Union Ballroom (the concert was originally scheduled to be at the Chi Omega Greek Theater), there was still a decent amount of attendees, about 50 to 60 people, when the show started at 8 p.m.
But even though The Wedding, comprised of vocalist Matt Shelton, guitarists Trevor Sarver and Matt Jameson, bassist Cody Driggers, and drummer Adam Thron, comes from our cozy corner of Arkansas, it has been almost a year since the members have made their way up here. And it shows. The band has changed line-up, released a new EP and fine-tuned their sound.
After a short opening performance by local country singer Justin Driggers (who is the former singer of Music Hall-mainstay, metal band The Goodnight Fight), who sounded as similar as any country singer attempting to rehash the "good-ole' days" of Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, The Wedding took the stage to a loud introduction of a train storming through the UA.
Opening their set with the song "Receive" from their new EP The Sound The Steel, the band jumped on stage and got the relatively small UA crowd jumping up and down and drew them instantly into the show.
New lead singer Matt Shelton (formerly of major label rock band Letterkills) has a voice longed for in the music scene these days. It's loud and a bit unique. However, it is still not as good as former lead singer Kevin Kiehn's voice, which could have propelled the band to national stardom a few years ago.
After rocking out to a few songs from their last album Polarity, as well as one song from their debut, self-titled album, it is clear Shelton is not Kiehn. In fact, he's nowhere close. But while the old songs are not the same, they work. And the new songs sound even better live because of the energy the bands puts into them.
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