Under the Radar: Quick Step John

Welcome to the beginning of this week's series Under the Radar, where VLM takes a look at bands that aren't quite mainstream, but deserve to be. I'm still sort of making this series up on the fly, so it may change over the course of the week (or longer if I decide to keep it up). I'm also going to try to keep posting normal entries, but again, making this up as I go. But without any more apologies, let's get started:

Two weeks ago Arcadia had a battle of the bands featuring 5 bands from the Philadelphia area. Since they were the first band to arrive, I got the best chance to interact with the guys in Quick Step John, a five-piece band with a HUGE sound. Their performance was almost undoubtedly the most spirited of any of the five bands there, and having heard their album that same energy and grand style carries over to the studio. Their album reminds me a bit of Augustana, with a great blend of heavy instrumentals playing pop music, matched by frontman Craig Whitaker's vocals. Songs like "One By One" (which the band is quick to point out appeared on a recent episode of ER) show off their range between pop and post-grunge ferocity. At the same time, ballad "Up On A Satellite" is a crowd favorite in the style of Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional, right down to the chorus that begs for the crowd to sing/scream along.

Lastly, keyboards in a band can be a risky thing. Too often I hear them as virtually nonexistent until the token ballad, and in concert they tend to be relegated to the back of the stage, a certain energy-killer. I can't speak for last night's show at Tom & Jerry's, a bar up the block from my house in suburban Philly (fucking drinking age...), but at the Arcadia show, in a gym with around 150 people inside, keyboardist Ed Bagden positively wrecked his keyboard set. I mean, he destroyed the thing, the kind of thing that would have made The Who say "Holy crap".

Quick Step John released their debut album, The Multiple Personalities of Last Week and Next Year late in 2007. It's available on iTunes now. In the meantime the band is touring up and down the east coast in support. Check their MySpace for details.

I'm going to make it policy for these pieces not to predict future popularity, because that's a dangerous situation. Suffice it to say that for QSJ and every other band I profile I hope for nothing but success for them, since they sure as hell deserve it.

Quick Step John - Up On A Satellite [iTunes]
Quick Step John on MySpace

==TJ==