Author | Justin Black
Featured photo originally seen in Interview Magazine
Savannah Stopover (March 6-8) is a three-day music festival that takes place in Savannah, Georgia and presents traveling musicians with a place to play en route to Austin’s prestigious SXSW Music Conference. Founded by Kayne Lanahan, Savannah Stopover is in it’s fourth year and they have hosted big names such as Grimes, The War on Drugs, and HAERTS in the past. The festival merges music, visual arts, and technology in a historic setting and will host over 100 bands in multiple small to mid-size venues.
The first night of Savannah Stopover was amazing! Even though I had utilized the Savannah Stopover website to create my schedule, I snagged a Schedule of Events that I could hold in my hand in a non-digital way. I made circles around Triathalon and Future Islands, the only sets I was absolutely not going to miss. Seeing as how the festival kicked off at six o’clock and Triathalon wasn’t going on until 10 o’clock, I decided to check out a local act. According to the schedule, I had two options: Fare the Gap and mumbledust, both doing shows at 9 o’clock. I chose Fare the Gap, performing at Hang Fire off of Whitaker Street, and what a pleasure it was!
Fare the Gap is a trio made up of Rebecca, Ryan, and Gordon. All three are very talented Savannah-based musicians with a sound that brings a smile to your face and a freedom to your limbs. At the start of the set, Rebecca invited the audience to “dance with us, have fun.” Looking around the room, I saw laughing faces and swaying bodies. Everyone in the room was having a great time, and Fare the Gap put on a flawless performance. I was enamored by Rebecca’s long hair and lovely face flowing with natural womanly beauty, and then I fell deeper into her grasp when she opened her mouth and released her power. She danced almost dangerously close to Ryan to reach her slender fingers to that little keyboard looking thing, while Ryan moved in a freedom all his own, guitar in hand when he wasn’t playing the keys. And let’s not forget Gordon, who sat in the spotlight keeping more than the beat. They looked like they were having the time of their lives, and they infected the crowd, which was quite diverse in age and style, with this spirit. On a side note, I was reminded during the performance of the young stage love of Sonny and Cher, so I was absolutely delighted to learn that Rebecca and Ryan are connected in more than the art of music making. What an all around good fun time this show was, and I cannot wait to catch Fare the Gap again.
Keeping the theme local, I strolled over to City Coffee, located off of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd to catch Triathalon, another Savannah-based band, as planned. First of all, the brown sugar latte I ordered was fantastic. The performance space at the end of the hallway exiting the coffee shop was fantastic as well. I walked right into a Spires performance, and I’m so glad I did. Spires is a collection of five guys from New York with a rock sound reminiscent of the Beatles. They were in Savannah for the first time doing only this one set for Savannah Stopover. Oh but wait, there’s a surprise fault in that fact! Savannah Stopover has a pretty large selection of Secret Shows, and I am excited to share that at 8 o’clock this evening, Spires will be filling the secret slot at the Artists Lounge. I’m going to use this opportunity to find out where they buy their pants, because these guys have the best jeans in town. It should also be noted that the attendees of their performance were a collection of familiar faces from Hang Fire, including Fare the Gap themselves. The room filled up more as Spires ended their set, as most of the audience was rolling into City Coffee to see Triathalon, an eclectic mix of guys and girls reflecting a neat diversity among themselves. They reminded me of a 50s prom band, and as much as I and everyone filling the venue from wall-to-wall enjoyed their performance, Spires was the unexpected musical delight I had been looking for. Coincidentally, I took a break at the Artists Lounge before heading over to Club One for the Future Islands set, where I ran into the members of Spires, who were just as stoked about the Future Islands performance later that evening as I was.
A definite factor in the appeal of seeing Future Islands for me was the venue. I had been to Club One, Savannah’s Gay Club, several times in college, but had never seen a band perform there. I was surprised and delighted to see the stage set up on the main dance floor in front of a long mirrored wall and under the biggest disco ball I have ever seen. Much like at City Coffee, I walked into a performance I wasn’t planning on. DEGA, a band local to my hometown of Athens, Georgia was mid-set and washed in blue light. DEGA is Kalen and Aslyn, indie pop duo who made fully rounded two part vocal harmonies over Aslyn’s keyboard and synth stylings and Kalen’s impressive killer base fingerings. I later learned that Kalen taught himself to play the electric and base guitars, among other instruments, and you can hear the Athens Indie music scene influence in his voice. The audience was a mass of bopping figures, full attention on the performance before them.
I thought DEGA was pulling a good crowd, but by the end of their set, more people were flooding in, filling all the empty spaces, and huddling close to the stage for Future Islands. My entire first day of Savannah Stopover was leading up to this performance, and they did not disappoint. The band took the stage with frontman Samuel T. Herring double fisting Budweiser, and entertaining the audience with dirty-worded-jokes and stories of the writing process for the song Tybee Island from the bands 2011 album On The Water. Herring is incredible. He has a big huge voice that must come from the very soul of him. It’s no wonder his instrument is his voice. His band mates are just as talented. You have William on the base guitar, Gary on the keys, and Mark on the drums, each excelling above and beyond in their musical craft. Not even the sound check issues extending into their second song could detract from the outstanding musical performance. And Herring has no issues getting up close and personal with the crowd dancing right up against the stage. There wasn’t a body in the room standing still, and their time slot—almost one in the morning—couldn’t have been more perfect.
I saw so many of the same faces at every performance last night, and there is no doubt that every one of them had as fun a time as I did. Savannah Stopover, now in its fourth year, is shaping up to become one of the fastest growing destination festivals around. Kalen of DEGA boasted for Stopover between songs, “I’ve been touring for about seven years now, and Savannah Stopover is the best festival in the country.” You can call it a prediction if you’d like, because I see Stopover becoming just that.
