Actor and musician Shane West returned to his hometown of Baton Rouge Tuesday night to cap off his tour with his band Jonny Was at the Spanish Moon. Because the 25-year-old singer and guitarist last visited Baton Rouge in February to visit, the punk concert was a small homecoming of his immediate family, including his parents and grandmother.
Although West is known for roles such as Landon Carter in “A Walk to Remember” or Tom Sawyer in “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” his heart has been in music since childhood.
“I started acting and performing music at 16,” West said. “It just so happened that acting succeeded first.”
Jonny Was consists of West on guitar along with Jerry Fitzgerald on the drums and Ben Gould performing bass and vocals. Gould and West met in 1996, and Fitzgerald joined them three years later.
The band arrived in Baton Rouge late Monday night. Tuesday they toured Baton Rouge starting at West’s favorite coffee shop, Coffee Call. The guys then took a brief driving tour of LSU’s campus.
As West puffed on his Parliament cigarette at the Spanish Moon later that night he said, “LSU is my favorite campus. If I had had gone to college I wish it had been here.”
Baton Rouge also impressed Gould.
“It is a lot mellower than LA,” Gould said. “When I step out of the shower, the humidity makes me feel like I’m stepping into another shower.”
After their day of driving around the city, the band prepared for their concert. Although they did sound checks an hour before the performance, West had to stop the music a few times at the beginning of the show because he couldn’t hear himself or Gould. But it was Fitzgerald who had many complaints after the show.
“This was on our list of top ten worst shows,” Fitzgerald said. “I mean it wasn’t as bad as in Kentucky where we had no sound check at all.”
High energy songs captured the band’s enthusiasm for music as Gould and West’s arms flew across their strings and Fitzgerald pounded on the drums. West made perfect oh’s with his lips as he waited to sing the next word.
With the fast pace of the music both Gould and Fitzgerald’s shaggy hair was soaked from their intense performance.
The crowd filled with women did not seem to notice their sound as they stared at the stage.
“I came to see them because Shane is super hot,” said Nina Ta, a biology sophomore.
When the band entered the stage, it was obvious who the crowd came to see when they all gravitated toward the left side of the stage where West played. Gould and Fitzgerald said it does not really bother them, because they enjoy performing.
The band departed from Baton Rouge Wednesday afternoon for Los Angeles. After their tour, West will remain in Los Angeles for the holidays, but after the new year the band hopes to head back to the recording studio, and West is also looking at two independent films.