Fighting King George

It wasn't as smoky as I thought it would be in the small backroom at Bear's Place last Wednesday for the return of the Booze. With sweat and overanxious adrenaline pent-up in the crowd that night, the gathering of hipsters was waiting for the gospel. Tom Donahue and company sat at the booths toward the door. Herald-Times music writer David Coonce told jokes at halftime. The friendliest parts of the Decanters and Three on Tree were there, smiling, beers in hands. A large crowd pointed toward the small stage, welcoming John Wilkes Booze back home. \nSo all knowledge comes secondhand and rumor-driven here, but that's what you get when you chase down a contemporary local legend. Legend to the type who read obscure non-fiction books on music and soul-related crime history and watch blaxploitation flicks and listen to whatever All Ears and TD's are sharing this month. \nThe thing is, it's all connected. \nThat night, with an opening slot by Fat Worm of Error (never have I been so musically terrified and delighted since hearing Taste of DNA and refusing to listen again) the fever dripped, rolled, jumped, pounded and exploded off that tiny stage in a room lined with demure portraits of jazz artists. I was scared of the intensity, with lead singers occasionally jumping off stage and looking like they were about to lose it anytime, but dying to be part of it equally. That's what makes going to see the Booze unlike anything else. \nThe Booze is a side project of local indie favorites the Impossible Shapes plus Eric Weddle and Seth Mahern. Rockpoppier than the Booze, the Impossible Shapes have opened for The Black Keys and are scheduled to open for Kid Dakota and the The Black Eyed Snakes in September. Small town band flows through strong Southern Indiana music tradition to make good. Where the Impossible Shapes pushes Pitchforkmedia-fare up a few rungs, the Booze rips the rock down and straps it to a harness of R&B with the fever of Southern Evangelical preaching. \nLast week, John Wilkes Booze returned from a tour covering each major direction you can drive from Indiana. Last year's big project for the band was nothing short of as remarkable as reading reviews of local bands in national news posts (indie-driven nonetheless, but Racebannon, the Shapes, Booze and others off local Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar distribution make the rounds; it gives me circulating feelings of pride and jealousy). The Five Pillars of Soul EP series consisted of limited pressings of five handmade tributes to Melvin Van Peebles, Tania Hearst, Albert Ayler, Marc Bolan and Yoko Ono -- with the Booze praising the subjects' dedication to searching for and providing the soul behind the day-to-day that drives so many folks who make the pop cultural news. Beyond the music, the EPs provide mini history lessons in the liner notes, letting the inclined know what the Booze brothers think they should. And that's how it should be done. \nEven though I never really figured out how seriously to take frontman Mahern's preaching (including uplifting words to those out there fighting "King George" at last week's show) what I knew about the band was that no matter how seriously the guys took themselves, they always know what they're looking for and what they're talking about. Look at Weddle's top ten record list on johnwilkesbooze.com; he's got On the Beach listed. Three of them have Pet Sounds -- no surprise, but reassuring anyways. Though the band's face sometimes comes off as over-the-top and self-gratifying, it's because that's what they want. The Booze isn't driven by some hidden motive; everything its after comes out pretty clear. Good music, good times, better living, happiness, quality government and enough food and beer to get by. \nJohn Wilkes Booze is a band fit to have an infatuation with. Here's the plate vocalist Mahern, guitarist and electronicist Weddle, bassist Chris Barth, drummer Mark Rice, guitarist Jason Groth and keyboardist Aaron Deer are handed -- the same lillywhite Southern Indiana middle/working class living as the rest of us. Debts, closing music clubs, work, war, family stress and everything else. They've got it too. They're just looking for something more, and encouraging others to do the same. \nI just wish more people would have danced last Wednesday.