The Players: Lucas Holter, vocals; Brad Kovar, guitar; Brett Lindenberg, bass; Caleb Fritel, drums; Richard Nash, keyboards.
Appearing as part of a pre-Temecula International Film Festival Music Showcase is a band out of Orange County, by way of North Dakota, called Starving For Gravity. Before the show I ducked backstage to meet the guys. After that brief encounter, and as I watched them take the stage, two words came to mind - humble and professional.
Looking around the club a little while before the band took the stage, the crowd numbers were less than stellar. If fact, the place was dead. Yet miraculously, a New York minute before the band plugged into their amps, as if Zeus snapped his fingers calling forth the minions, the band's fans, roughly a 70% female make up, materialized to crowd the Knitting Factory's floor. Jumping around screaming and showing their appreciation for the guys on stage were buxom bodies, and, something I as a reviewer have NEVER noticed in any local club, females holding up handmade signs declaring their love and marriage proposals for the various band members. Am I witnessing a young band on the verge of exploding?
The music Starving For Gravity delivers is no frills, straightforward, contemporary rock and roll, with solid rhythms and hooks, and marketability. A band is a combination of parts, each with specific roles. Holter as the band's front man is perfectly suited bouncing back and forth on stage, displaying confidence and an excellent sense of timing for when to hang back and when to come forward to the edge, giving the female fans an intimate experience, all the while possessing quality vocal chops. The other parts, like the swirling pools within a rushing river that combine to energize and pulverize, Kovar, Lindenberg, and Fritel combine to fuel the musical energy manifestation that is Starving For Gravity.
Starving For Gravity is an up and coming band with quite a bit of potential. And though they lack a finished CD (currently the band is in the studio recording), this band delivers the goods live, a strength which will serve them well in the future.
Contact: 79 Volts Mgmt, 951-296-1016; akravetsky@gmail.com
