The Loft invades Chelsea’s with real rock

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By Jason Andreasen

The Loft, a Nashville-based rock band that is gaining serious credibility within rock circles, is taking over Chelsea’s Friday night, Sept. 21, and bringing some of what is hopefully rock’s forefront with them.

Even though they have been compared to such bands as The Black Crowes and the Rolling Stones and have opened up for jamband royalty member Gov’t Mule, they are definitely living on the cutting edge of rock. They’re just doing it with a throwback style.

When I spoke to The Loft’s lead singer, John Banzhoff, the band was in their tour bus on their way to yet another live show in Augusta, Ga.

“We probably did something like 600 shows over the past five years or so. It’s fun. It’s important to develop a good live show, and I think we’ve worked a lot towards that,” said Banzhoff.

The Loft, though you may not have heard of them, are following that time-honored tradition of touring ‘til the wheels fall off the bus, literally!

Banzhoff told me of the time that the band was driving to a show in South Carolina, when one of the tires flew off the axle.

“The damn thing shot across multiple lanes of traffic, hit a wall, and started coming back at us,” he recalled.

They ended up stranded on the side of the road with time to kill. The band grabbed their instruments, plugged them into the bus’ power supply and put on a concert right there on Interstate 26. They taped it and put it on YouTube.

“You never know when we could play another one; right now, we’re riding with nails in the tires,” Banzhoff confessed.

Their bus, which is just an airport shuttle bus that they bought for $5,000 – in part because they could use the luggage racks as beds – has been put through hell the last five years.

“It’s a workhorse,” Banzhoff proudly admits.

The Loft has gained increasing notoriety as an up-and-coming-band following their performances at Austin, Texas’ South by Southwest festival (SXSW) the last few years.

“Oh, SXSW is the coolest. For a band, there is no better place to be heard,” Banzhoff told me.

When they left Austin earlier this year, they figured they’d be able to relax some and go play a show in Baton Rouge.

The only problem is that they were scheduled to play at Chelsea’s on St. Patrick’s Day.

“We had no idea it was like that in Baton Rouge for St. Patrick’s Day,” Banzhoff said of the parades, beads and binge drinking that locals encounter every March. “We had a ball. We were coming down from SXSW and we went right back up. We fit right in with all the drunk people having a good time,” he said.

The Loft has also built a reputation as fan-friendly, allowing their shows to be recorded by their fans. In fact, bootlegs of their shows are available at http://www.archive.org/details/TheLoft for free.

“It’s beautiful. There might be a show that 50 people went to, but it’ll get downloaded by 150 people. It’s a great way to bring our music to new ears,” Banzhoff contends.

The Loft is a band emerging from the shadows by doing things the right way: touring, writing good songs and bringing rock back to its roots in Soul and the Blues. Now, the band is working on new material for an upcoming album.

“The goal right now is to get great songs. Better written, thoughtful, rock ‘n’ roll,” Banzhoff explained.

He also said that the band plans on playing a lot of new material at their show at Chelsea’s on Friday.

“Yeah, watch out for ‘Golden Road,’ I’ve been having a blast playing that live,” he excitedly confessed.

E-mail the author at JasonAndreasen@tigerweekly.com

Originally Published: Issue 580 - September 19, 2007

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