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 I
think I can say with some amount of certainty that my trip to Ye Olde Tap Room Saturday night (12/18/04) led me to the most intensely
emotional show I’ve seen all year. Many folks have heard of the
recent passing of localite Scott
‘Schwaac’ Head; well, Saturday night at the Tap Room
turned into a musical remembrance of sorts, with a great many of his
friends packing in to sit and pay their respects at the altar of one of
his favorite bands, Grayling. I’ve gotta remark that the Tap Room itself was a great place to be Saturday night, regardless of whether a show was going on or not. I can’t really decide what I liked best about the place … Perhaps it was the seemingly endless list of beers to chose from, heh. The décor around the place was interesting, too – in the room the bands played in, the back wall was ‘wallpapered’ with really old sheet music, and hung over top that were advertisements taken from old magazines (the REALLY old school PBR magazine ad was my favorite, of course). Along the side wall of the ‘band room,’ enclosed shelves showcased a wide collection of old school tap handles and beer cans, and the walls on the side room by the ‘stage’ area was actually completely covered in beer/alcohol bottle labels. Nick Lucassian’s assumed solo acoustic set turned out to be a performance by a trio dubbed Catfish Mafia, with Lucassian being backed by a bassist (on a stand-up bass, even) and a mandolin player. The Catfish Mafia had a very warm sound, as the acoustic backing lent well to showcasing Lucassian’s strong, gravelly voice. As would be expected, a few Shipwreck Union songs appeared in the setlist, as well as a Faces cover (if I’m not mistaken). This was a surprisingly strong (though low-key) way to start off the night. The newly re-formed Grayling stepped up from there and promptly knocked out a rousing 16-song set that saw many tears fall, many drinks downed and many songs loudly sung along with. There were so many things absolutely right about this set that it’s hard to describe everything in detail; needless to say, in drummer Joe Leone, bassist John Speck and second  guitarist Jackson
Smith, frontman/guitarist Jarrod
Wolny has most certainly found a group of fellas that are
completely in love with the songs they’re playing. All through
the night, Speck laughed and smiled as he played, leaning into the mic
to preface four or five different songs with, “Now this here is a
fucking jam!” I caught Leone singing along to almost every song
while he was playing (whether he had vocal parts or not), and after a
few songs, Smith was absolutely glowing up front. For someone
who’d only played one show out with a band since Grayling’s October
2001 CD release party for The Time
Was Now, Wolny’s guitar playing was surprisingly on the
money. Towards the end of the set, his voice did kick up a bit of
a rasp, though a kindly audience member did him the favor of helping to
sing a few of the more ‘active’ vocals towards the end of the
set. Grayling was always a tight live act, but it seems like there was something a little extra behind Saturday night’s gig; perhaps it was the gentlemen backing Wolny, or maybe it was the room full of friends who’d gathered to tearily sing along to songs they’d once shared with a friend … Regardless of what the reasoning behind it was, Grayling was just plain **ON** Saturday night. Although he’s not the sort of person to flail around on stage and draw attention to himself, Wolny is still the consummate stage presence because of the sheer intensity of his performance. Catchy two-minute benders like “Kill” and “Newsman” doubled up with slower, mournful takes on “Sentencing” and “Kevlar” leveled the performance out well, as the varied pacing of the material kept things from settling into any sort of predictable rut. Outside of the intense Wolny guitar noodling that closed out “Sentencing,” the set’s highlight was a grimy performance of “Sarsfield,” a song it seemed everyone (including Wolny) was a bit nervous to play, out of fear of damaging the song somehow. Despite his vocal issues by that point of the set, Wolny nailed the track, and the rest of the band performed just as respectably (obvious looks of both amazement and relief were plastered on the faces of both Speck and Smith after the track). I think the whole mood of the evening was really created by the constant dedications and verbal memorials that were made towards ‘Schwaac’ throughout the night. Basically, Saturday night was a great celebration of a man’s life; friends and scene acquaintances came together in a time of grief to do the one thing they know can always help – share drinks and great music with like-minded people. I, myself, didn’t know ‘Schwaac,’ but the scene at the bar Saturday night nearly brought tears to my eyes a few times all the same. He must’ve been one lucky guy with friends like that, indeed. … Just a quick mention: there will be an official memorial show for ‘Schwaac’ held on January 1, 2005 at Alvin’s – and yes, Grayling has been confirmed to play. Please do yourself a favor and check out the show; Grayling has been vastly underappreciated around the scene since the band formed in the mid-90’s, and it would be a damned shame to have such a solid act continue to fly under the radar of Detroit music fans. - Gary Blackwell |
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