The rain was terrible as I pulled into the tiny little bar on the corner of Shore Drive, wading through nearly flood level waters to park in what seemed to be a safe place.  The Half Shell has a reputation for hosting a variety of local bands, and once inside a quick glance at their calendar showed a new band almost every day from every genre imaginable, including an open mic night every week.  The place had bands stickers plastered absolutely everywhere, and the people were friendly.  I spent some time chatting with the band and their friends, but that was quickly interrupted by a very drunk man who came from the sports bar to the right.  He kept mentioning how his loins were on fire and pulling his shirt up, and then began to matter-of-factly tell us important life lessons.  He was an interesting guy, to say the least.

Buddy Mars leads the band with a strong sense for business, having many of them himself.  His deceptively deep voice and raunchy rhythm guitar provides the musical support.  Evan Martin is a classic rock enthusiast, and takes with him some of that flair, often wearing just a vest on stage and letting his exceedingly long hair cover himself.  Peter Walker plays the bass, and provides some comic relief in between sets.  He's a hilarious person that you have to see to understand.  Ace Taylor enjoys everything punk rock and it shows in her drumming and attitude.  All of them spend most of their days together in the city of Smithfield.

Under the Bridge wastes little time with introductions; in fact, after asking if people are ready and commenting on how every band playing today is amazing, they go right into one of their most well known songs, "Justus is Served".  It starts with a demanding bass line and a few rowdy power chords that are arranged almost playfully.  Buddy Mars' vocals nearly sound like Social Distortion's Mike Ness, keeping them just listless enough to convince the crowd that he does indeed not care, and moments later lead guitar Evan goes into a rippling guitar solo that sounds like it could have been in a Led Zeppelin song - unusual for a punk band, to say the least.  They can actually play their instruments.

After a bit of shenanigans in between the songs, they play their next song, "Skeltic".  It's guitar is arranged happily and the bassist, Peter, follows suit.  He doesn't follow the guitar the entire time, preferring to put his own free-spirited, almost-jazzy-but-not-quite bass into it.  The entire band speeds up with each other seamlessly and slows down of their own accord with telepathic timing.  No words are heard, it was just an instrumental that shows off a bit of their fun side.  If you bothered to take a look at the frontman's amp, however, you would notice that the "-hall" from Marshall has been taken off to give it a custom flair at an affordable price.

The next song is about a werewolf, as Mars calmly tells the crowd.  The drummer bangs the drums zealously, keeping the entire band in time while the guitarists stop and let the bass carry the song, enthusiastically shouting out "Hey!" until the crowd is doing it back.  At this point Evan is prancing around the tiny stage with a smile on his face before planting his foot on an amp and preparing another skilled bit of guitar work.  He's good at conveying the emotion the song tries to bring through their song, while Mars lays down the rhythm he needs to go a little crazy.

Moving quickly into some of their new material, Evan and Mars tease the crowd with timed chords while Peter lays down a fast bass riff that builds up excitement, with Ace's drums complimenting them both at the same time rather nicely.  The crowd is going insanely wild at this point, pushing each other around with goofy smiles and inconveniencing the people at the bar.  Oh well, it's a punk show, you shouldn't be sitting down anyway.  (Don't tell anyone I was too.)  The band doesn't give you much chance to stand around either, constantly pummeling your ears with fast punk that makes your feet feel like they can't keep up if you stay still.  The song ends abrupt and hard, and within seconds Mars is serenading the crowd once more with mischievous in between banter.  "This is a special song...but this isn't about special people."

The next song "Moonshine" might sound self-explanatory from the introduction but it's actually mostly about how women are wrong.  Sometimes.  Ace shows off some impressive drum rolls, while the band provides yet another tasty hook that is sure to capture you if the verses don't.  The songs themselves aren't particularly crafted like they spent hours slaving over them, but they keep it loose so anyone can get wild when they want to and it'll fit.  It works well for this band and they don't make any apologies.  The band enthusiastically moves with the time changes and seem to be in perfect rhythm with each other.

Peter's bass once again introduces the song while atmospheric guitars induce the song into a darker tone.  Mars vocals drone over the room, singing of discontent and feelings of rebellion.  This is truly the pinnacle of an Under the Bridge anthem, something that most people from the current youth generation of people can relate to easily.  As they say in the chorus, they are the voice of a generation, and we aren't satisfied with the world in its current state.  "What are you waiting for?!" they demand as Evan wails on his guitar, bringing that anger and rebellion into musical ecstasy and "Rebel Generation" to a powerful close.

They lighten up with the next song, a cover of Bob Marley's One Love.  The song itself sounds pretty close to the source material, with just a bit of distortion. They go into an a cappella section, inviting the entire crowd to go with them.  They end the cover too fast however, but quickly go into another one.

Gracing the crowd with his deep voice, Mars starts to sing "lalala, la lalala, I can tell that we are gonna be friends."  This cover of the White Stripes song has been heavily altered to an Under the Bridge original cover, and also ends pretty fast... but not before Evan rips a solo that seems to be made up on the spot to me.  The whole song is fast, really, and the tone is definitely a lot more punk than the original, especially when Mars gritty voice sings it.

Announcing their last song, they claim it's about not being able to get a job.  "The economy sucks!" Mars says matter-of-factly, then goes into how he can't find a job with almost a hint of regret. This quickly is dissolved when his voice gets raspy as he goes "Too damn bad!"  The chorus gets playful then, and you can tell the band enjoys their rock and roll lifestyle.  Evan is once again strolling across the stage, moving to the drummer for a bit of lead/drum synergy.  Slowing down into another UTB bass hook, they end the song in classic punk style by strumming as fast as they can and beating on the drums as fast as possible.  A planned out ending, it seems, because as they say who they are the band does a riff that seems a bit too similar to each other for improvisation.

This entire time the crowd had been demanding that they play an old song of theirs, "Special Eddy."  This one is more self explanatory than the "Moonshine" one, which is the song he played when they thought he was going to earlier, and while Mars insists that he plays it every show and doesn't want to, he quickly announces that he's going to play "Special Angus."  I don't know if this has to do with the Sonic Angus Beef stickers they were slapping on everyone, or the former Rude Zombie member Angus. Either way, it shows a dedication and love for their fans that most local bands should incorporate.  Altering the last verse to "Special Zombie", Evan excitedly jumps into the crowd and wildly strums his guitar while falling to the ground, caringly supported by band friend Taco.

 

33: Starting off, I know you guys come from Smithfield and there are a lot of bridges in Smithfield, so is that where the name was derived from?

Evan Martin: Yup.

Ace Taylor: A specific bridge actually.

EM: There's actually this big bridge, so.

 

33: What was the bridge?

Buddy Mars: Pagan River Bridge.

 

33: Is there a reason?

AT: Yes.

 

33: What's the reason?

AT: It's a secret.

EM: It's like 2 miles from my old house, we used to walk across there all the time and...one day I had to pee, and I went over the bridge, and under there, and there were like steps and crazy things over there.  So, called them down there, went down there, and...we just came up with the band name Under the Bridge.

BM: It was our bassist at the time, and I said I didn't want to do it because it resembled other things.

 

33: Like Red Hot Chili Peppers?

BM: Well, actually that didn't come to mind first of all, it was Alter Bridge that came to mind, they were a new band, you know, and just had a single out. But, uhh...yeah.

Cheryl, Band Mom: I actually think Matt the Snake...

[Everyone laughs]

BM: Yeah, Matt the Snake was down there and he was like 'Y'all should name your band Under the Bridge' and we were like 'Sure!'. Never deny a talking snake.

C: It was really cool, they had a bunch of graffiti over there that said Under the Bridge, but the cops discovered it and they painted over it.

 

33: With bands like Paramore, Good Charlotte, and Sum 41 flooding the market with this generic droll, what do you guys do to make yourselves stand out?

BM: We pretty much, um, do whatever.  We take their music, and then we take everything out of it, and then we put stuff in there. [Everyone laughs]

EM: No, we don't do that.  Good Charlotte is actually related to us, we don't like to admit that, but yeah, pretty much. And um...

BM: Okay, that has nothing to do with music.  On the music side of the things, uh, that's a huge question that we could debate for hours, but overall we just...I get tired of what's on the TV and on the radio every day, I rarely listen to it.  So that's probably why we're not so much like those bands, because I don't listen to them enough.

C: I'm sorry to keep chiming in, but I think it has a lot to do with what they were taught, the roots of music. Old rock 'n' roll.

EM: Reggae.

BM: We're into a lot of, even outlaw country, you know.

C: A lot of the old surfing music, the beach music, the rockabilly, and all of that because they were taught that you've got to go back to the roots to come up with a different sound which was still popular.

BM: It's basically why we don't listen to TV and the radio, and why we don't flood the music scene with, how did you put it, more generic droll.

 

33: Alright, that's good. This one's kind of for everybody, what bands inspire and influence you?

AT: Um, I kinda like, I mean Green Day's like my favorate band since I was a little kid, but...mostly like...I like Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash, and stuff.

BM: Is that really what influences you?

AT: Pretty much.

BM: Johnny Cash influences your drum ability?

 

33: Well, inspires...

AT: Well not really...

EM: Inspires.

AT: Yeah, he said an inspiration. Like The Clash. Does that satisfy you?

BM: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Peter, what inspires you man?

Peter Walker: Well, I mean, on playing my instruments...Probably more of like...Rammstein and Bad Religion.  I like, I mean like, everything that inspires me has always been life, you know?  Like wow. Honestly I have no favorite band.

EM: With me, music that inspires me is...everything they said, Rancid, Green Day, all that, but my actual guitar playing? What inspires me to do that is more like Angus Young, Chuck Berry, Slash, uh...what's his name?

 

33: Jimmy Page?

EM: Jimmy Page! That's my influence. Jimmy Page, uh, pretty much that kind of stuff.

BM: I gotta say, my main influence in music would probably be Britney Spears. [Everybody laughs] I mean, her vocals, they just hit me every time.

 

33: I saw a lot of that in the music.

BM: Yeah, thank you.  That's what we were going for.  But really though, what influenced me, as far as what we are doing now, it influenced me most the first time I heard Dookie from Green Day.  [Everybody laughs] I felt like I had to do something like that, it mattered to me but...I don't know.  And obviously you can almost see it in me a lot, Mike Ness from Social Distortion, Joe Strummer from the Clash, I mean, huge influence.  They make me really really happy I'm doing this, actually.

 

33: Most of your shows lately have been out of the state. How has the rest of the world not in our local scene responded to you?

EM: A lot better than here!

AT: Especially Maryland.

EM: Actually a lot. You go up to Maryland, we went down to Florida, and it wasn't like a million people or anything but the people that were there appreciated it and respected us a lot more. But I'd say we got more respect.

BM: I just wanted to say actually one thing, one thing from touring and being out what we've discovered is...basically nobody likes a band in their hometown, almost.

EM: Not almost.

BM: I mean there's cases, but we went to Gainesville, Florida and in Smithfield where we are originally from, Against Me at the time was the biggest band, you know, but it was all providence.  So, they're from Gainesville, and they hated us in Smithfield, we could not walk down the street without being hassled.  So we go to Gainesville, and all they do is talk crap about Against Me, and talk about how much they love us.  So we had some stories to share when we got home, you know?

 

33: There's all these local bands that are over thirty, would you still be satisfied with that, ten years down the line, playing local shows and doing what you do now?

BM: We kind of all decided that music is life, here.  There's no two ways about it, we're going to play music for the rest of our lives.  And if the band does not pay, you know, it doesn't pay our bills, then we're going to have to get other jobs and look into other careers, but it will always be a huge part of our lives.  Even if we are 30 and we're playing local shows, that's better than not at all.  But, will I be happy with that?  Honestly, no. I want to tour the rest of my life, we all love to tour, be on the road, be writing music, and be completely consumed by the band.

EM: I'm pretty sure all of our main goals, it's not like to get a billion dollars or anything, but if I can make a steady income from the band, basically support myself. If I'm losing money, then we can't do it. But if we're making enough money to get by, pay for gas and stuff like that, I'll do it until I'm 80.

 

33: Anyone have anything else to add?

AT: I agree!

 

33: Is each song a separate entity, or do you have a message that you're trying to convey through the whole thing?

BM: I would go more with the song is a different entity, because in some situations we sit down, if it's something that we feel is worthy to write about, a song like "Rebel Generation", you know? That has our overall message, and overall that's what we try to incorporate into our music, mostly in our albums and stuff. But song-by-song basis? We basically write whatever we feel at the time, which sometimes ends up being...like a song we're playing tonight, 'Walk down my front door and on the 460, cars flying by'...uh...

EM&AT: The whole gang is with me.

AT: Please remember the lyrics on the stage.

 

33: Ghetto Whistler.

EM: Ghetto Whistler, that was literally on the spot.

BM: I think that was our best lyrical work though.

EM: Ghetto Whistler was done at home, just like, playing an acoustic guitar...on the spot literally.

 

33: This will be easy, what can you tell us about your future? Do you have any planned albums, tours, anything like that?

BM: You can pretty much go ahead and assume we have about fifty albums coming out, another eighty years of touring...but on a serious note , uh, we're trying to do something this spring to tour, uh, I guess back down to Florida, and then this summer, we're doing an almost US widespread tour, we're trying to go up to Maine, down to Florida, through Texas, and even California, Nevada, and we're really trying to get to California.  So yes, there's touring in our near future.  And albums, Stick Figure is still on its way, for, what, three years now it's on its way?

AT: Yeah, something like that. [Everyone laughs]

BM: It'll be out soon, we have it recorded soon, at home, it's just funding is such an issue that-

EM: I'm not really worried about albums, because like he said, we have one waiting to get out.  All the songs are written, and while we're waiting for that to get out we already have one whole album written.

AT: And we're still writing for our third.

BM: We have one sitting at home, recorded, done, waiting for a budget and another one we're just finishing up now song by song basis, and probably won't be ready for another three years.

C: So therefore you can put in your article that they're perfectly willing to accept donations.

EM: Yeah, we'll accept donations.

BM: Oh yeah, we can finally get...going. And we have music for probably another five albums no problem.

 

33: I know you guys sort of had a dispute early on about where your sound was going, so on that note how have you guys evolved over the years?

BM: Do you want the evolutionary process or just what has evolved over the years?

 

33: Either or, sounds like the same thing to me.

BM: I want to let Ace go through how we evolved.

AT: Okay.  They wanted to be like Shinedown, I mean I like Shinedown but not...as much and that's not what I wanted to play.  And pretty much I brainwashed them into playing good music. [laughs]

BM: Yeah, okay, that's real good shit.

AT: That's what you get for letting me talk! [laughs]

33: You're like the Hitler of the band, then?

EM: Yeah, Hitler.

AT: Kind of.

EM: Except without the moustache.

[Ace points to Buddy]

BM: I am not the Hitler of my band.

AT: No, he's more Hitler.

BM: Aw, how am I Hitler?

AT: Well, you have more of a moustache than I do, so.

BM: More?  That is beautiful right there.  On a real note, since she won't be serious, I mean yeah early on, originally the majority of us were influenced and got into music basically on 'N Sync and Backstreet Boys.

EM: Wayyy, way back.

BM: It was a long time ago.

AT: Yeah.

BM: That's what made me start wanting to perform at all, then we got 3 Doors Down, you know.

 

33: I'm not sure...

BM: It's true.

 

33: It is?!

C: This is all when they were little kids.

 

33: I'm not sure you guys want me to publish this anymore.

[Everyone laughs]

BM: But, you know, the evolutionary process, so we were into 3 Doors Down, Nickleback, Shinedown, you know whatever was on rock radio at the time.

EM: Papa Roach and all that stuff.

BM: And that's what we wanted to do, and Ace basically said 'Here, listen to Dookie from Green Day' and we said 'Okay' and we were like 'We gotta play that!' Not play that, but that's what switched us-

EM: Inspired us, and from that Ramones-

BM: We realized mostly from listening to Green Day what we needed to do was play a lot faster.  That's basically what that meant, so she made us play faster and now we love it.  And through the years this family has evolved and more into our own I believe.  We have such wide influences from everywhere really.

 

33: On that note, have you guys had any attention from record labels?

EM: Uhm, minor.  Minor labels.

BM: Nothing major.  Uh, and I don't mean major as opposed an indie label, I mean, you know, opposed to a huge label.  You know, Warner Brothers hasn't approached us yet.

AT: Yet, hahaha.

BM: There's a bunch of smaller labels that we've talked to and just feel like we're not in a position yet where we might want to do that.  It seems like even an indie label kind of wants to take us over a little bit right now.

33: Another thing about that is, once you make that first album with the label and you're dead broke, you're not in any position to argue when they want you to change your second album.

BM: Exactly.

EM: Exactly, that's what happened to...uh, this one band that I can't remember, I'm not even going to try to think of the name, but I saw them I was like 'Dude, I love this band'.  Next time I saw them on MTV and they were all like, completely dressed different, voice, his voice changed.  Everything.

 

33: What, did they make him take estrogen?

BM: Yeah, probably.

EM: Lostprophets, it was Lostprophets.  They were pretty good, then they came back and were all [Evan begins to sing in a whiny, high pitched voice].

BM: I don't like to speak names because I love all kinds of music, but some of them I have a hard time listening to.  We're getting off topic.

 

33: It's all good, we get off topic all the time in Magazine33. But if Lostprophets comes to your house and starts trying to beat you up, I don't take any...

EM: Good, they're old.

AT: Off the record.

BM: Off the record, we could whoop them.

 

33: Can you guys recall any times where the tension in the band was sort of at a breaking point? Where there might be a couple of...incidents?

EM: Oh yeah.

BM: There's been some accidents to...to we're at the point of 'Man, I'm about to leave practice' and the occasional, uhh, I leave practice.  Which, I mean, the majority of-

AT: It's really just childish arguments.

BM: It is childish, and never to the point of 'Hey, I don't want to do this band anymore.'  That, that will never happen.  The music is more important that us to anything, and we basically live together.  So walking out of practice is not that big of a deal...It's not like we have a truck to get anywhere.

C: Ace has thrown drumsticks at Buddy's head.

BM: Well, hey, how many times has that happen?

AT: Well you always say...He says dumb things on stage, like this joke.  He, he has this joke.  That is not funny.  And he says it on stage sometimes, and he just doesn't shut up so sometimes I have to like throw a drumstick at him because I can't just get up and walk over and tap him on the shoulder, and it's funnier if I throw a drumstick at him.

BM: That's a low blow, because who's to say that joke not funny, you just say that-

AT: Tell the joke, tell the joke and see if he thinks it's funny.

BM: I'm not gonna tell the joke.

EM: It's a bad joke.

BM: Alright! I know it's a bad joke, but that's what makes it funny, because everybody gets mad at me and so it's funny.

EM: But yeah, fights and stuff, just random stuff.  Baby stuff.

BM: It hasn't been brought to fists yet.

EM: I can't recall anything that we've gotten in a fight about that had anything to do with the band.  It's just 'Oh man, you're annoying me' but as a band we just kinda jam at home.

 

33: Is there anything you want to say to your fans?

PW: [In a smooth voice] We love you!

EM: Wait for the new album, it's going to be a lot better.

AT: Don't take us serious.

BM: I do really actually want to say something a little heartfelt right now.

EM: Oh my god.

BM: Actually the fact, we do not have any huge amount of fans that just follow us around every minute, you know, paparazzi none of that, but we do have some extremely faithful fans that have been our fans for years now.  I mean, we're going on four years this summer as a band, and some of the people have been there since the beginning and I really...people who have stuck with us and hadn't listened to us live yet, they just heard our music on myspace in California and stuff, I really appreciate these people more than they know.  It actually means a lot to us to know that these people actually care about what we're trying to do so much, and also the fans up in Maryland.

AT: They were amazing.

BM: All the kids up in Park Rock last year.  Those were cool kids.  I just want to say that, in case they hear us because I love you people.

C: And don't forget the kids in Gainesville.

BM: We've got people all over the world, we love you all.  Even you, Hitler.

-----------------------

If you've been yearning for that punk rock sound that's slowly become more diluted with copious loads of utter crap, then be sure to take a trip Under the Bridge.  They have enthusiasm up to their ears and never fail to put the extra effort in for a fan.  Let's show these guys that a hometown can show some love, too.  Otherwise we'll all be listening to Paramore while these young kids grow into obscurity and talk about the days when people still liked punk.

 

MysSace.com/MusicUndertheBridge

MusicUndertheBridge.com

 

 

 

By Author: Ryan Mason

Ryan Mason was born in Hampton in 1989. He grew up listening to the generic bands on the radio before discovering classic rock and expanding his horizons. Now you'll find him listening to just about anything, from Pink Floyd to The Sound of Animals Fighting. Naturally this lead to him playing music himself, and he is the proud owner of a Gibson SG and a 5 string bass guitar. Unfortunately he sucks at them both, but hey, there is always Magazine 33! Some other bands he likes are Stiff Little Fingers, the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Incubus, Hendrix, Lamb of God, The Doors and the Gorillaz.

 

 

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