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MUSIC
- NOVEMBER
20,
2002
Rosetta, Millenary and Flatfoot team up for a show at The Temple
By JUSTIN SMITH
Friday night fans of local music have a chance to see some of the best
working bands in Lansing all under one roof.
The Temple Club in Old Town is providing that roof. Rosetta, Millenary
and Flatfoot – somewhere between alt-country, indie/garage and
space rock – will provide the talent and at the old church on the
corner of Cedar and Grand River Avenue.
The
three groups make for an interesting mix that should bring out an even
more interesting crowd. That’s what Sarah Stollak, singer/songwriter
of Millenary, is hoping for.
“Having bands with different musical styles makes the night more
intriguing,” Stollak said. “Even though it’s a diverse
lineup, it’s still only showcasing a tiny perspective of what’s
happening musically in Lansing.”
Flatfoot has an impressive list of shows dating back to fall 2000. They
slid under the radar of the bar scene because of the group’s traditional
country lineup and sound. Instead of catering to the booking agents
they honed their skills playing free shows consistently in coffee houses
all over the area and developing a loyal fan base of “flatheads.”
Recently, Flatfoot took the plunge into electricity, at least part time,
spurred by new drummer Joe Irvin, whose previous drumming experience
came from punk and art rock. Since that transition they have been taking
the stage in bars from here to Ann Arbor.
Stollak’s band Millenary would most easily be classified as indie
or garage rock, but she doesn’t seem to see any reason why they
can’t share the stage with a band like Flatfoot.
“As a musician, the concept of a musical genre can be really random,”
she said. “For example, even though what Millenary plays is pretty
much indie rock, I’ve also played the violin since I was a kid
and love Flatfoot’s instrumentation. When it comes down to it,
even though our styles are different, I think we’re all just taking
our musical inclinations and using those to do something fun.”
The band certainly comes off as fun with a mix of crunchy guitars and
Stollak’s lyrics, where a good sense of irony thrives on top of
a versatile voice.
Headlining the night will be Rosetta. Since the 2000 release of its
debut “Eternity” on Rexrode Records, the band has garnered
more critical acclaim than any local group. The spacey disc has sold
consistently at local stores and gets air play at 88.9 The Impact, while
the live shows have become as much a part of the weekend East Lansing
landscape as dollar draft nights. With a live repertoire that includes
14 Beatles tunes, the seasoned squad always brings in its own following.
And yet, somehow this odd mix seems to fall perfectly into place, at
least if you were listening to Curt Micol, president of Rexrode Records,
in his interview with me last month: “If you take a hundred music
fans and you bring in one band, you may have 20 of them, one band cannot
impress everyone. But if you bring in two bands now you’ve got
40 fans coming out to the show. They start to cross-pollinate —
it benefits everyone.”
This show could definitely make a statement about the state of local
music. Stollak knows that well. “Lansing doesn’t really have
a regular venue for touring acts, so we all have to get out there and
keep making local music more visible,” she said.
If everything comes together as it should and fans take the ride to
The Temple Club with an open mind she says, “I’m anticipating
that each of our bands will make some new fans Friday night.”
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