Baton Rouge bands are ready to play Voodoo Music Festival next weekend.
Three bands from the area are set to start the three-day festival off with an afternoon bang Friday and Saturday.
The City Park festival gets started Oct. 26 at 11:35 a.m. on the PlayStation/Billboard.com main stage with local rock act Meriwether.
Bones opens the day Oct. 27 at 10:30 a.m. on the Bingo! Parlor Stage, and half an hour later Brass Bed will start on the Noomoon Stage.
Meriwether will take a pit stop from its current Madina Lake tour to perform at the festival.
Andrew Reilley, frontman for the Baton Rouge rock outfit, said he is excited to open for Rage Against the Machine and Smashing Pumpkins, two of the headliners this year.
Reilley said the early Friday slot “kind f sucks” because he wants to see the Baton Rouge Meriwether fans come out. He fears many will have class.
“We want our fans to be there since they are our biggest support,” he said. “If it were me, I would skip school. But I’m not advocating anything.”
Meriwether also wants out-of-towners and newer patrons to experience the band’s “Louisiana flavor.”
He said it is sad to see New Orleans – and Louisiana for that matter – looked over by the music industry. He said the Crescent City is a music staple.
“We want people to see Louisiana in our music,” he said. “We bring a lot of different musical influences to each of our songs.”
Michael Miller is the voice behind Bones and is more than confident with his band.
He said Bones has gained acclaim with both Where Y’at and Antigravity magazines, two New Orleans music magazines.
“I feel very confident that we’re going to rip it up,” Miller said.
Miller said Bones fits the eclectic weekend of sound that is Voodoo Fest.
He said he feels the band’s bluesy, dirt-and-grime sound comes natural. He grew up listening to Chicago blues from his dad but was into punk bands such as Black Flag.
When he met Scott Campbell, the other half of Bones, the band really took shape.
“He just had this vision, and I just sat back and wrote the songs,” Miller said. “He just got the concept of my voice and ran with that vision of what is [now] our sound.”
Miller loves being a two-piece as well. He said it’s like having a conversation with two people. He also likes the challenge of playing with larger bands.
Miller said he is proud he can make the same noise as a larger band.
Even Reilley of Meriwether has seen Bones a few times. He said it deserves a lot of respect.
“They’re experienced and established players that have been around for awhile,” he said. “They’re amazing and dynamic.”
Though they are from Lafayette, Brass Bed members still consider themselves part of Baton Rouge’s growing music scene.
Christiaan Mader, Brass Bed frontman, said he is happy to be part of the bands outside of New Orleans that are playing the festivl this year.
Hurricane Katrina resulted in Southern Louisiana forming new bands outside the ravaged city, he said.
Brass Bed is comprised of two University alumni: bassist Jacques Doucet and keyboardist Andrew Toups.
“We have a wide agenda of music,” Mader said. “And we want people to come out and say, ‘There’s a band that does what they want to do.'”
Mader said the band has a short and early slot but is going to streamline their stage presence with a “concept set.” “We want to catch the audience’s ears with noise and psychedelia with our own style,” he said. “We want to show the crossover appeal and give, basically, a recorded experience.
—Contact Adam Pfleider at [email protected]