Photo and story by Toriana Williams / Contributing Writer
Filled to the brim with vintage vinyls, aging books, classic movies and video games, Media Rerun, a local media shop, puts on several free shows a month with various artists, local and not.
Saturday night, many had the luck to be a part of the energetic crowd as bands Fugly Screw, As A Friend, Bad Idols and Jibber Jabber performed. Each of these bands are unique in sound but still share a popular punk-rock vibe. Not only do they share a particular type of musical genre, they also share equipment. As rough-and-tumble as some of these band members may look, they’re a lot friendlier than they seem, and all are very encouraging and extremely thankful for the opportunity to play. They vocalized it at the end of most sets to show appreciation to the store’s employees.
Even though the venue was small, the audience still danced along to the thunderous sound jutting forth from the people-sized speakers set up around the store.
Fugly Screw, a headache-inducing-but-that’s-okay kind of band, went on first. As each of their songs ended, excitement dripped from the cheers of the crowd, begging for another.
Next, As A Friend performed, the smallest band of the night. Despite losing their guitarist just hours earlier, they still managed to put on quite a show for their fans. Singing covers and original songs throughout their set, everyone was singing along by the end.
Bad Idols’ guitarist and vocalist, Eric Trent, said, “My favorite thing about playing at shows is the 25 minutes of the day you get to really let loose and be in total honesty and hopefully inspire people with being so open.”
And their band was just that: honest. They loved to be aware of when something messed up and would crack jokes with the crowd.
Lastly, performing their first public show, Jibber Jabber took the stage and surprised all with such a great sound. One of their guitarists and vocalists, Elliott Virula, was almost too open about his last few trips to Tennessee, which gained many laughs from the crowd. A fun band is always a good band, which is what they conveyed as their members jumped around and fully immersed themselves in the music they were making.
As the night came to an end and the mini-moshpit dispersed, smiles were worn through the exit of Media Rerun, clinging on to the promise of another good time and for it to come soon.
To contact Lifestyles Editor Sydney Wagner, email lifestyles@mtsusidelines.com.
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