The 70s rock-n-roll style band, The Grove, played their first somewhat acoustic show in honor of the December Artists in Residency hosted by The Southgate House Revival, where the band will be playing every Wednesday night.
With influences from Led Zepplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Hendrix, The Grove’s musical influences really shine through their performances with every song sounding a little different than the other.
“I hate those bands that you listen to and every song sounds the same,” said guitarist Adam Forsthoefol. I mean it makes sense from a marketing perspective, they find something that works, they stick to it, and they go full into it and that’s with their image, their sound, everything. They just go with it as much as possible, which is great, but at the same time I think that there’s so much more and that’s kind of what The Grove does.
They really cannot be compared to some of the mainstream artists because The Grove have a different perspective when it comes music and performing.
“I feel like we can play with any band, change up our sound or our show, or play certain originals and fit in any kind of show,” said Forsthoefel.
No genre to categorize them in because they can perform just about anything including their versions of “Hey Girl” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and “I Shot the Sherriff,” by Bob Marley.
“‘I Shot The Sherriff’ is a newer one and we completely changed it up, we made it more of a jam band sound and less reggae and more rock-n-roll and it kind of has more musicianship, I’d say, than our other covers,” said Forsthoefel.
With Forsthoefel playing acoustic, Matt Forsthoefel (Adam’s brother) on piano/synths, Jeff Voegle on drums, and Matt “Bolt” Holt on bass, the band’s chemistry on stage really shine through their performance, even though it was Adam’s first night playing acoustic with the band.
“We’re like let’s take these weekly shows and try to do something different everytime as an experiment to go beyond our comfort zone, which is our goal,” said Forsthoefel.
Everything from the insane guitar riffs to the fantastic keyboard playing is what the music industry is missing…pure rawness and straight up rock-n-roll.
“There are too many sub-genres, just be a rock band. I mean what happened to that? I like just one genre and people now are just trying to categorize it so much, it kind of puts you in a little hole,” said Forsthoefel.
With two albums out now and a concert album in the making, the band has much more in the works for the year to come such as booking more shows with artists that they choose to play with and releasing 5 new tracks.
“We want to make sure that it’s a 5-track demo that just kicks ass, to be honest,” said Forsthoefel.
As of now, you can catch the band every Wednesday night throughout the month of December at The Southgate House Revival. Tickets are free. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the shows start at 9:30 p.m.
