Genres will collide at the Thirsty Hippo’s Back to School Bash Friday, Sept. 7 at 9 p.m. with neo-soul funk band Brotha Josh and the Quickness, surf rock band Wildframes and alt-country band Flordiamen.
“If there are any freshmen here and they haven’t about Hattiesburg’s music scene, I think this show would be a good jumping off point to see a different part of the town,” singer and guitarist Josh Holt said.
Brotha Josh and the Quickness is a five-piece neo-soul band that takes inspiration from the greats of soul, funk, blues and jazz. The band formed in 2017 and have been steadily growing their style since.
“I think this bill is very interesting because we have surf rock and roll with Wildframes, us doing our soul thing and Floridamen doing their folk thing,” Holt said. “It brings a variety of people to the show.”
The band has worked toward an album that they will release this fall. “We are tracking pretty much all of the hits that we’ve been playing for the past year,” Philip Tapscott, bassist for Brotha Josh and the Quickness, said.
Wildframes, who had released their own album last April, is a band heavily influenced by 60s surf rock.
“[Wildframes] have a lot of energy behind their music,” Tapscott said. Holt explained they are interesting because they are different from a lot of the music in the area.
“We are definitely heavy, garage rock with heavy surf influence, and we are pretty unique in that respect.” William Bird, drummer for Wildframes said, “Our personality is also pretty different.”
Bird explained these differences stem from Wildframes vocalist Leeann Rogers’ eccentric stage presence, often throwing party favors into the crowd and dressing in costume to inject her personality into the music.
“When I first came to Hattiesburg, I thought there wasn’t much here,” Bird said. “Once [I] started going to other places, I found that there was a thriving music scene, and as a student, it would be awesome to see more of my fellow students at these shows.”
“There are few bands that really do folk rock,” Holt said. “Floridamen has that category with them which I think is very interesting.”
Flordiamen is a 4-piece alt-country band have been together for about two years. Floridamen blend country, folk and rock in a way wholly unique to themselves.
Keyboardist for Floridamen Joel Gallaspy said the differences in genres between the three bands exemplifies Hattiesburg’s diversity.
“[The show] definitely has a lot of different genres, but it works because you have a local music scene that supports its bands,” Gallaspy said.
