CONCERT Basement What? to perform tailor-made set at Headliners tonight.
A touring band with local origins will celebrate its two-year anniversary tonight with a performance at Headliners, 505 N. Dill St.
Basement What? will hit the stage of the Village venue at 10:30 p.m. Admission is $3. The band comprises Dave George, lead vocals; Matt Albro, bass guitar; Nick Young, lead guitar; Joel Davis, rhythm guitar and Tom Foust on drums.
Amidst a plethora of good-natured banter and penny draft beers, Albro jokingly describes the band's trademark sound as "pussy rock."
"We appeal to a college crowd," said George, a sports administration major.
"If you had a tape mixed to play at a party to accommodate everybody, that's pretty much how we come out," said Foust, a criminal justice major. "George is real good at that, tailoring to the crowd."
Eschewing a conventional playlist, the band members are dedicated to entertaining crowds from all walks of life and musical backgrounds.
"We may play what people want to hear," Albro said. "But, we write what we want to write, even though there are songs we might not necessarily like playing all the time."
Members of Basement What? have a refreshingly candid approach to merging commerce and art. Combining cover songs with original material, the band remains true to its convictions.
"Our job is to go into an establishment and satisfy the crowd for whoever hired us," Albro said.
In a local scene permeated by indie rock values, George addressed possible criticism of the band's inclusion of Top 40 cover songs.
"If that's all you do, I can see why people would get upset," he said.
"(Doing cover songs) is what allows us to get our music out there," Foust explained. "We average two original songs a set."
Basement What? originated in 1996 George and his friends were asked to play a house party.
"We had two weeks to come up with a miracle whopping seven-song set list," George laughed. "Everybody wanted and encore, so we went back and played the same seven songs."
With backgrounds spanning the musical map, the band members displayed an appealing lack of rock star bravado when talking about their stylistic influences. With personal tastes ranging from Ani DiFranco's acoustic guitar to '80's hair metal (the bigger the better), the band sums up its style as good old-fashioned uncategorized rock 'n' roll.
After two years of mileage (performing in Valparaiso, Lafayette, Bloomington and Fort Wayne) and armed with out-of-town dates scheduled for the next two months, the band is happy to be performing in a Village venue.
"Our original fans are from here. A lot of people travel two hours to see us play," George said. "As flattering as that is, it would destroy us if they were arrested or killed for driving drunk. That's why we're excited to be playing at Headliners."