Emerging bands these days mostly seem to be bluegrass, Americana funk, hip-hop or pop.
The guys in Strange Weather have a goal: “We want a rock ‘n’ roll revolution,” said singer Vinny Berry. “We want to get people digging rock ‘n’ roll again.”
So far, so good. The new South Shore band has played five shows and each has been a rocking success.
Berry channels singers Robert Plant and Eddy Vedder to the beats of drummer John Gardner and a high-energy bass player Todd Christensen. Guitarist John “Chile” Munroe doesn’t move around as much. “He’s a Slash-like player,” Berry said. “He just moves his finger tips and he just rips. We have a cool dynamic going on.”
Strange Weather debuts at Whiskey Dick’s Saloon on Sunday. Haha Halfway from Lake Elsinore opens at 10 a.m. and Strange Weather goes onstage around 11 p.m.
“We are picking up everything we can get,” Berry said, mentioning last-minute bookings at McP’s and Tahoe Paradise Park.
When headliner Keyser Soze was unable to make it to the July 5 Tahoe Paradise Park 50th anniversary concert, Strange Weather answered the call and played on a big stage for the first time.
“We were a little worried because we’re definitely a hard rock band and that was a family event,” Berry said. “We felt like Quiet Riot playing the county fair but it ended up being great. It gave us the realization that people our parents’ age are more of the demographic that like our music.”
Strange Weather is clearly influenced by Led Zeppelin and it also covers Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” and “All Right Now” by Free. It already has 13 original songs and a studio session is planned for next week.
Strange Weather’s fast start brings to mind local bands that have ascended to prominence.
- The Dead Winter Carpenters’s first show was a 2010 Red Room after-party at the Crystal Bay Casino. Less than three years later the Americana band from Tahoma was selling out ticketed shows in the showcase Crown Room.
- Jelly Bread, a funk group from Reno, gained popularity in 2011 shortly after adding North Shore keyboardist Eric Matlock. It has been touring nationally practically nonstop for a couple of years.
- Pop singer Whitney Myer from Reno appeared on “The Voice” in 2012 and later moved to Los Angeles. She has five concerts from Aug. 12-18 in Reno and Truckee.
- The Mark Sexton Band, an R&B group from Reno, had a critically acclaimed album in 2013 and also is on the cusp of breaking out.
After Sunday’s late-night show in Whiskey Dick’s, Strange Weather will play from 6-8 p.m. Aug. 10 at Homewood Mountain Resort and Aug. 14 at Lakeview Commons in South Lake Tahoe in a fundraiser for CASA.
