Keyboard beaks the silence with its dancing melody. Steady rhythm beats out on bass and drums. Crisp wails on guitar join to round it out and the boys of The Bright Light Social Hour are bursting with energy. Notes fill the air. They are playing Shanty, the first song off their self-titled debut album and the start to every show, “Gotta keep moving, broke down and in ruin, now tell me what are we gonna do?”
Last week I sat down with the boys of The Bright Light Social Hour at their rehearsal space out on the East side. Curtis sat on top of an old trunk, bare foot and legs crossed, reminiscent of a meditative yoga pose. A.J. and Jo slouched back in an old, worn couch, Jack sandwiched between. Just back from their East coast tour and headlining the most recent Blues on the Green, it had been a long day of rehearsing and discussing songs for their next album.
As these boys have discovered, making it in the business is no small feat. Curtis reflected, “To try to become successful as a band is something that’s really hard. Thousands and thousands of bands are doing it, most of them are doing it unsuccessfully. So I think we’re kind of in some senses chronicling how difficult, but also how much fun it is to come together to do something.”
Their self titled album is full of this promise and hope of coming together. “Let’s build a city” they sing, “bare hands bare feet.” And they have begun to build that city around their band as they’ve grown and matured in their sound and success. Jack says “You’re building a little community around you and not only that but also your fans who are growing and the people that you’re interacting with, that you’re building stronger and stronger bonds with. I think that’s definitely the biggest theme. It’s growing as a band and with the people who are involved with the band.”
For a group of boys whose lyrics are laced with idealism and who rock with ease and energy on stage, they are very serious about their music and working together to create it. All songs are a collaboration. “One of us will bring in a concept for a song or a vision of the song or an idea, or we’ll jam a bunch and pull out a bunch of pieces that sound really good and then we’ll all work together. It seems like it takes a really long time.” It’s time well spent. Their album has garnered high praise among critics (apparently there is one bad review out there. I never found it). A.J. leans up from his slouched position on the couch. “What embodies it really is Bare Hands, Bare Feet. Simply put, it’s not just simply that ‘let’s build a city’ but in the sense of good old dirty hands, dirty feet and sweat. We’re just going to do it. Do it dirty and get it done.”
The Bright Light Social Hour as an album is solid, musically rich, and ‘get’s it done’. Each member has played his respective instrument for over a decade, A.J. for almost 2, and that experience and talent shines through in their lengthy instrumentals. They are a rock band that exudes energy and knows how to work a sweet jam. They are all kinds of fun.
Curtis sums up, “As we’re starting to write for our second record it made me think a lot about our first album. It’s somewhat autobiographical. Like, unintended, you know? It’s kind of the joys and the hardships of coming together to do something that’s not easy, to be a band”
So what’s at stake for their next album? “Wild and wooly and road driven,” says A.J. “We have a different kind of wind behind us.” Curtis adds, “a little less innocent and wide eyed.” “A little older” says Jo, and holds up a more risque outtake of their first albums cover.
Whatever the future holds, Curtis, Jack, Jo and A.J. (some of the nicest guys I’ve met) will face it together, building their band and their community, rocking concerts along the way.
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