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Wheeler Brothers - Live Oak Review + Interview!

Photos by: Neff Conner

All day Saturday was a busy but fun day full of music for our GoodBAMMCrew.  Things started earlier than normal with Taylor Prater covering Edgefest 23 for us in Frisco.  
Review + tons of great photos coming later this week!

Saturday afternoon I had the opportunity to meet up with the Wheeler Brothers atop Live Oak Music Hall's rooftop/patio & bar.  Extremely popular hangout for Fort Worth these days.  We had a nice chat about their most recent gigs, the new album and upcoming shows!

Before we jump into the interview I have to tell you about the live show leading up to the Wheeler Brothers headlining debut at Live Oak.

Made my way back to Live Oak around 8:30pm and was instantly greeted with a great craft beer experience at the bar inside the Music Hall.  Turns out Fort Worth's own Martin's House Brewing Companies - "Riverhouse Saison" is my spring time favorite.  Big thanks to the bar master expert Matt calling and pouring the shots behind the bar for the recommendation.

First up live was the Nashville transplant band Siberian Traps.  One of the live audio guys and Matt behind the bar both gave me a heads up that I needed to pay close attention to this band.

Playing songs off their newest release Blackfoot and previous releases, the Traps bring a mello-groove that hints at a frontier native-rock vibe with plenty of dynamic kicks and punches to keep it live for the crowd. Seth Reeves (vocals/guitar) and Parker Donaldson (guitar, vox, synth) bring a solid front man/lead guitar look to the band that rounds out well with Peter Wierenga (Drums) and Mike Best (Bass).

Be sure to check out track number 10 from the Blackfoot album featuring Mackenzie Scott aka: TORRES on harmony vocals.

Next up was Fort Worth's very own and new favorite to many - Sonic Buffalo.  Not a fluff statement either considering Live Oak GM/Spune man Mr. Ryan Duncan mentioned "they are one of my new favorites in Fort Worth".  Thanks for the brew Ryan, really enjoyed the 
"Blood and Honey"!

Straight up rock & roll with a 70's attitude, Tac Willy brings an Axle Rose - vocal range to the front of the stage.  Titles like "Big Whig" and "Fat Cream" make you want to go dig through all the dusty boxes in your dad's garage for that one vintage Zeppelin album or old Rolling Stone Magazine cover.  Ok, for some of us it's actually our old dusty boxes because we were around for that era.

Christian Funes on lead guitar, Zach Tucker on bass and Valmir Hajro on drums round out a great local rock experience for live goers new to Sonic Buffalo.


Music Hall is now full and it was time to bring out the Austin headliners!  Wheeler Brothers kick things off with a great energy and their fans had no problem filling in at the front of the stage.  The Brothers were playing songs off their brand new album "Gold Boots Glitter" that just released this month plus some old favorites.

Nolan Wheeler brings a frontman vibe that seems to work well for the female audience but in a natural fashion that keeps him cool with the guys in the crowd too.  From acoustic guitar, electric guitar, synth and a few glockenspiel parts, Nolan is a versatile musician and not your average singer who knows a few chords.

A.J. Molyneaux brought a great lead guitar tone to the live set and often made seamless transitions to the lap steel that brought sustained flow to songs like "Straight And Steady" and "You Got A Lot Of Love" which is the band's first attempt at a love song per: Nolan.

Mid set, a birthday girl / sister to the band got a chance to take the stage as an auxiliary backup singer/tambourine player/mic stand.

New member Nathan Rigney offers a solid blend of rhythm and lead guitar parts to the group plus harmony vocals that compliment the live sound.

Tyler Wheeler (Bass & bare feet) creates a great rhythm section with his brother Patrick Wheeler (Drums).  Just think Keith Moon meets Ringo Star w/ a solid mustache and that objectively describes Patrick's live playing style.

As mentioned in the opening, we had a great rooftop interview with the Brothers earlier before the show...


GBS:
How the heck was Clusterfest?  You guys got here straight out of Chula Vista right?
NOLAN:
It was awesome, we cruised over from Alpine, it was like a 7 hour drive, got into town grabbed a quick bite to eat and we were pretty much ready to go.  Loaded in an all that good stuff.  We got to catch our good friends from Austin, Wild Child, great band.

GBS:
Gold Boots Glitter just released back on the April 2nd.   Anything that stands out or feels different about the sophomore album?
NOLAN:
Just that our first album "Portraits" was our first attempt to be in the studio together and writing music.  With Gold Boots Glitter we were on the road for a good year and a half two years while we were writing I felt like our sound came together a little more on Gold Boots Glitter versus Portraits.
PATRICK:
The touring started to pay off too!  We had kind of a rough and tough first year out there working the grind and playing shows in front of 5 to 15 people.  This year we've got 10 festivals this summer off hand.  A lot of good things have been going on because of the work we put in last year.


GBS:
Hard work and road-dogging it really does pay off at some point right?
NOLAN:
Forces you to become better at your instrument.  You have to practice.


GBS:
Cool that AOL/Spinner streamed the album a full week for you guys.  Did you get some good comments and response from the fans out of it?
NOLAN:
The biggest response that we got was from this new application called Band of the Day.  A bunch of people hit us up on twitter about checking out songs and it's a great application and chance for people that haven't heard us before.


GBS:
Really serious question now guys!!  How many Likes/Drinks did Patrick have to end up taking on his birthday?  Last total count was 397 but hopefully they all didn't happen on the 12th!
PATRICK:
Ooooh!  I don't know it was heavy though!  I never made the official number but I feel like I came close!  I split it up over four days.


GBS:
Free Press Summer Fest should be cool!  Any particular acts you're looking forward to catching while you're in Houston that week?
NOLAN:
Heck yeah, we're looking forward to it.
PATRICK:
We haven't looked at the list yet but usually there are always four or five bands we want to see.

Check out the Wheeler Brothers performance of "You Got A Lot Of Love" live from The Bing Lounge on 101.9 KINK.FM radio sponsored by INTEL.

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