The BellRays (USA), Punk, Rock & Soul
Admission 7 pm, B.O. 15 €.
Tickets: freakshowrocknrollbar.ticket.io/9bkce9ce/
(Come early / start earlier than on WE)
If music is food for the soul, then The BellRays are Thanksgiving and they know how to cook.
The BellRays strip their music down to the essentials. "We listen to where our hearts reside and write simple songs to make us, and hopefully everyone who hears them, feel good," explains singer Lisa Kekaula.
Blues is the teacher. Punk is the preacher. It's about emotion and energy. Experience and raw talent, spirit and intellect.
When these things come together, exciting things happen. Bob Vennum and Lisa Kekaula founded The BellRays in 1990 in Riverside,
California, but they didn't really think about it at the time. They wanted to play music and they wanted it to feel good. They wanted people to WANT to get up, to HAVE to get up and see what was going on.
Form an opinion. React.
So they took everything they knew: The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, The Who, The Ramones, Billie Holiday, Lou Rawls, Hank Williams, The DB's, Jimmy Reed and Led Zeppelin (just to name a few for whom "BLUES IS THE TEACHER") and ran with it. These bands and artists have since become "catch phrases", things to emulate and sound like.
That was never the intention of The BellRays. The BellRays were never about inventing a "sound" or trying to fit into a scene.
to fit into a scene. It was about the energy that made all this music so irresistible. The BellRays' influences were learned from the blues and then they learned to make it their own.
to make it their own. The Beatles wanted to play R&B, transformed
this energy and invented "Rubber Soul". The Ramones tried to be Del Shannon or Neil Sedaka, and the result was "Rocket to Russia".
came "Rocket to Russia". It's an organic track that's been fueled by Bob and Lisa and the current rhythm section of Pablo Rodas (Lisa and the Lips,
Alber Solo) on bass and Craig Waters (Countdowns, Andre Williams, Cody Chestnut) on drums that flows and comes across as honest and urgent. You will learn and you will feel. Blues always teaches and punk always preaches.
The BellRays are often compared to a mix like "The Stooges meet Aretha Franklin", "Tina Turner and the MC5", "James Brown gets kicked in the balls by The Who".
Their new and 15th album "Heavy steady go" will be released on August 30, 2024.
Info:
https://thebellrays.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BellRays/
https://www.instagram.com/thebellrays
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpk5RxTa87I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tAPLISsKwo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv3zDylVlnk
Price information:
15 € + fees