Sound Off blasts off at Square Room

By Greg Wood
Thursday, October 15, 2009

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Greg Wood

Katie Cauthen, left, and Carey Hodges serve as emcees of the Square Room's Sound Off competition.

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Greg Wood

Sound Off judges include, from left, Paige Travis and Karen Reynolds.

Greg Wood

Lisa Cyr, general manager of the Square Room, hangs with co-worker Dustin Burnett at Sound Off.

Greg Wood

Sean Cook and Hailey Wiles take in the music at the Square Room.

KNOXVILLE — On a recent Wednesday night, the Square Room's Sound Off competition debuted. And if just another battle of the bands competition sounds like overkill, you might want to reconsider: This isn't your average competition.

Lisa Cyr, co-creator of the Sound Off and general manager at the Square Room, says that the Sound Off is "not just a battle of the bands." She believes Knoxville is full of talented musicians and that should be showcased.

A large number of acts applied, which was pared down to 25 competitors. The concept is simple: Five bands compete each first Wednesday of the month. At each showcase each band must cover a featured artist. They perform two originals and one cover in their set and are judged by both a panel and the crowd.

For the next few months the competition is in the preliminary rounds before winners start competing against each other. The final winner gets to perform at Sundown in the City next spring - as well as recording time, radio play and other prizes.

It's a little bit "American Idol" (minus judges' commentary) with the exciting feel of your high school's battle of the bands (with a substantially more professional approach).

For the first showcase, the room was packed - wall-to-wall packed. It's an all-ages show, so there was a large under-21 crowd, though people in their 50s and 60s were there as well.

The featured artist last week was the Beatles, which could have been disastrous. Not only is asking bands to cover Beatles songs a tall order (like asking third-graders to do calculus) but it's also sacrilegious (like asking third-graders to do calculus while walking on water).

Yet it worked amazingly well at Square Room. With the Beatles remasters and "Beatles Rock Band" hitting stores recently, the Square Room effectively cashed in on the latest round of Beatlemania.

In fact, it almost overshadowed the original music.

The first act, Hyfantis and the Bishops Band, played some straight-up, blues-inspired rock 'n' roll. It wasn't until their lead singer sat down at the grand piano and they launched into the "Sgt. Pepper's" track "Getting Better" that I was astonished. Their bassist nailed the intricate bass riff which carries that song. Though their harmonies on the chorus were shaky, it was endearing as no non-Beatle will ever be able to master that song.

Instantly, Beatlemania overtook the crowd.

The second act, Black Cadillacs, had a similar scenario. Their first two tracks rocked hard, sounding like David Gray singing for the golden era of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. But then they whipped out a cover of "Yer Blues," off the White Album, that blew all other performances out of the water.

The guitarists traded off lengthy, raw, rocking solos sounding more like a Stooges record than the "White Album" while the singer drove the crowd crazy, yelping the ever-so-negative suicidal lyrics into the mic while flailing around.

Although subsequent performances weren't quite as good, Taylor Brown and Company capped off the evening with a decent set, choosing "Eleanor Rigby" as their cover. It bordered a little too much on the Chris Cornell version for my tastes, though it was pretty good and the crowd seemed pleased.

When it came time to name a winner, based on the judges' scores and the audience cheering, Taylor Brown and Company took home the win.

As far as letting us know which artists are going to be covered over the next few months, Cyr says we'll just have to wait: "I can tell you it will run the gamut, though," she says.

If Knoxville pulled off Beatles night, I doubt there can be any task too tall.

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