A choice of flavors

April 6, 2008

Country rock meets modern rock this weekend when two acts at the top of their games perform at Streeters’ Ground Zero. On Friday, April 11, country-rock star Eric Church performs; meanwhile, Chevelle brings more than a decade of mod-rock hits to the stage on Sunday, April 13.
Both acts will be bringing plenty of backup: Revving up the show for Eric Church will be JoCaine & 75 North along with David Shelby. Opening for Chevelle will be Finger Eleven and God or Julie.
Doug Street, owner of Streeters, says the country show is a bit of a new direction for the club, which has backed down somewhat on its hip-hop acts this year, owing to the unreliability of the performers. “Eric Church offered us a good show with tickets at just $15, so we’re happy to have him here,” he says.

Here’s the lowdown on both acts:

Eric Church:
Over the past year, Eric Church has been busy opening for Bob Seger’s “Face the Promise” tour at arenas around the country, in addition to performing his own headliner shows. He opened more than 20 shows for Seger, who is one of his personal inspirations as a songwriter.
Speaking of which, Church has always been strong in the songwriting department: he wrote or co-wrote all 12 of the songs on his album, “Sinners Like Me.” Church thinks of himself as a songwriter interested in plain talk about the human condition, along the same lines as Seger, Kris Kristoferrson, Steve Earle, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings.
“Honesty is my number one responsibility,” Church says of his songwriting. “If you listen to this, you’ll find out who I am.”
One of the things that hit home for Church on the recent tour was the fact that Bob Seger doesn’t go for a lot of onstage gimmicks like lasers and fog machines; Seger lets the strength of his songs carry the show.
“When we toured with Seger, that’s one thing I learned,” he said in a recent interview. “Nobody’s got a bigger crowd -- that we’ve played with -- than Bob did, and he just went out there and played his songs.”
Raised in Granite Falls, North Carolina, Church got an early start, singing “Elvira” to a waitress and the customers at a local restaurant at the age of four. He started writing songs at the age of 13, even before he learned to play guitar.
He threw together a band on a whim, called the Mountain Boys, in college and got a gig at a local bar. Although the band knew just 14 songs, they were able to fake their way through a four-hour gig. The band caught on, and within a year, Church was performing up to five nights a week at bars and college parties, adding his own songs to the mix.
Based on his local success, Church was ready to ditch college to take on Nashville, but his father made him an offer he wisely accepted. “I wanted to move (to Nashville) two years before I graduated,” he says, “but my dad made me a deal. He said, ‘If you’ll graduate, I’ll pay for your first six months in Nashville,’ which I thought was a pretty good offer. I graduated with a degree in marketing and he was true to his word.”
It took Church a year of knocking on doors to get a publishing deal with Sony Tree in Nashville. All that time he was busy writing dozens of songs.
“I just kind of threw muscle into the writing, so we had a large pool to draw from when it came time to record,” he says in his online bio. “I think I demoed 60 or 70 songs at Sony last year, and you probably demo one out of every four you write, so I wrote a lot.”
Church’s songwriting skills paid off: other country performers began recording his tunes and ultimately, Capitol Records offered him a recording deal for “Sinner Like Me.”
“I think we’ve made an honest record. I don’t think there’s a song on there that’s not me,” he says. “It’s songs about what’s going on in the world--this is what I think. You can agree or disagree. I just don’t want them to hear it and go, ‘That’s nice’ and move on. I personally like music that goes way out and picks a side.”

Tickets for Eric Church, Jocaine and David Shelby are $15 in advance with the April 11 show starting at 8 p.m.

Chevelle:
With a name that pays homage to a legendary muscle car, you’d better be good, especially if you’re a three-piece band.
No worries: with seven CDs under the hood, multi-platinum Chevelle goes the distance down Thunder Road with crashing beats and explosive power chords.
Originally a band of three brothers, Chevelle got its start in Chicago in 1995, where they quickly became favorites on the local hard rock scene. They made their name with an angry, anti-establishment sound married to strong musical hooks.
Chevelle recorded their first album, “Point #1,” in 1999 and hit the road for a high profile tour. That led to getting signed by Epic Records and a number one single, “Send the Pain Below,” on their second album, “Wonder What’s Next.” Since then, they’ve been mainstays on modern rock radio and a main stage act at festivals such as the Ozzfest.
Today, the band includes Pete Loeffler on guitar and vocals, Sam Loeffler on drums, and Dean Bernardini on bass. It’s still a “band of brothers” in that Bernardini happens to be the Loefflers’ brother-in-law. Recent hits for the group include “Vitamin R” and “The Red.”
Their new album, “Vena Sera,” was recorded in Las Vegas, adding what they call a “chaotic and crazy” element to the songwriting. The CD aims to be the catchiest and most melodic outing yet for the band. “We spent six to 12 hours a day - for four months straight - working on the melodies,” says Sam Loeffler. “We really put in the time that we needed to make these songs what they are.”

Tickets for Chevelle with Finger Eleven and God or Julie are $27, with the April 13 show starting at 8 p.m.