 "Photo: BRIGHT LIGHT SOCIAL HOUR photographed by Lara Haase")
Driving towards the Bright Light Social Hour’s place is perplexing to say the least. After cruising along the familiarity of East Riverside, the instructions said to take a number of turns and u-turns before finally reaching the semi-hidden driveway, obscured by shrubbery and walls.
Yet, after all the confusion there seemed to be a tranquil coziness to guitarist and vocalist Curtis Roush’s house that contrasted the winding of the journey. This was his place for friends to genuinely hang out and make fun, danceable music.
In many ways, The BLSH, a local Austin band, embodies this somewhat trite analogy.
Roush as well as bassist and vocalist Jack O’Brien both started out steeped in the familiar academic setting of Southwestern University. They lost and gained some band members, traveled the world, got their graduate degrees from UT and are now moving up in the music world as a close group of friends.
Roush and O’Brien are joined by A.J. Vincent on keys and vocals and Joseph Mirasole who “plays the drums and keeps his goddamned mouth shut” according to their site. Infusing their wide variety of experiences into their songs, The BLSH melds Spanglish lyrics with psychedelic-experimental, hard rock n’ roll, and rhythmic deep-funk music to create a profoundly unique sound.
Although Austin360 labeled them ‘glam dance,’ they don’t see the connection. The band does take turns cross-dressing and carefully covering up with well placed instruments, but their sound resonates more with the true soul of rock n’ roll.
“Just knowing us by the posters and the [music] video, you’d be like, ‘Oh, that dude’s wearing a dress, and they’re all dressed up like cowboys,’” Mirasole said. “‘Now their dressed up as school boys and Jack’s naked. Wait, Jack’s naked.’”
Two weeks ago, The BLSH won ACL’s Sound and the Jury contest, which gained them a spot at the festival early Friday afternoon. After competing against 1,530 other bands, they gathered the most votes from judges and online fans by the end of the final round of competitions. Since then, they’ve already enjoyed more recognition in the local music scene relative to their humble beginnings when O’Brien teamed up with Roush after a campus-wide e-mail.
“I had never met [O’Brien] before,” Roush said. “But I had seen him around campus with the long dark hair and a lip ring. He was kind of the odd man out on this quiet, sleepy liberal arts campus.”
After several reincarnations of the band, O’Brien went traveling and eventually brought back a plethora of stories and inspiration. The lyrics and melody to their Motown-meets-Explosions in-the-Sky song, “Ocean,” were inspired by a passionate, moonlit night spent on a Mexican hippie beach with a sensuous Brazilian fire dancer.
Mirasole jumped on board while still in high school after spotting their ad on Craigslist.
Vincent allegedly joined the band “after being lured in with Curtis’ homemade cookies.”
Since then, the band has been honing their funk to the “The Sound and the Jury” winning performance they’ve become.
“I don’t know if [the Oh Snap! Benefit] planned to have us as the headliner before,” O’Brien said. “But they called us up after [The Sound and the Jury] and said, ‘Hey, we want you guys to headline.’”
The Oh Snap! Benefit Event will help raise money for the Sergio Machado Scholarship Fund that helps bring more international students to Texas. Alumni and friends created the fund and this concert in honor of Machado, a foreign exchange student at Southwestern who was killed in a car accident in 2008 after returning to Mozambique.
The BLSH will perform with 10 other bands, along with a burlesque show, comedian, and go-go dancers.
WHAT: Oh Snap! Benefit Concert
WHEN: Saturday, 2 p.m.
WHERE: Pine Street Station, 1101 E. 5th St.
TICKETS: $10 at the door, free with minimum $7 donation
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