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Music

Behind the Next Big Thing

There will be old faces and new at this year's festival, sponsored by 97X. It's a good time to get to know the lesser-known bands.

By BRIAN ORLOFF
Published December 1, 2005

For the last five years, local radio station 97X (WSUN-FM 97.1) has offered music fans a taste of the "Next Big Thing" with its big, boffo festival in Coachman Park. Past events have leaned heavily on emo and alt-rock, with headlining spots by pop-punk purveyors the Used and the especially earnest Dashboard Confessional.

This year's festival offers a similar sprinkling of fresh faces on the rise - My Chemical Romance, for instance - but also its share of veterans and nostalgia acts (witness: Staind). For the unfamiliar, here's a rundown of what to expect:

Life is perennial doom and gloom for modern rock veterans Staind. For proof, sample several of the band's bleak sounding album titles. Nothing shouts, "I need some counseling" like the band's 1996 debut Tormented. And 2001's Break the Cycle features its mega-hit, the churning, sad sack anthem It's Been Awhile. The band's latest disc, Chapter V, naturally its fifth, settles on a more informative title, so maybe things have perked up for the Aaron Lewis-fronted outfit. Judging from the band's latest single, Falling, that just seems like wishful thinking.

Brooding California rockers Trapt continue this year's Next Big Thing trend of angst-ridden acts that leave out the final vowels in their names just to sound oh-so fraught and wracked with turmoil. Chances are, though, if you didn't get that from the band's name, you would from its beefy sound with its metal-lite riffs and desperate sounding lyrics. Consider Victim from this year's Someone In Control with its piercing cry: "I want your eyes to see/I want someone to notice me/I wanna be your new victim." Perhaps this band should join the fellows from Staind in therapy.

My Chemical Romance is a pop-punk band with a rough and, often, arty edge. The band was nominated for a slew of MTV Video Music awards this year for its song Helena from its album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. The Goth-inspired clip sports a bevy of black-clad dancers all gyrating and swing dancing in front of a casket in a candle-lit church. It's not an average funeral but singer Gerard Way looks commanding as he conducts his dancers, the assembled mourners and his revved-up band through the rather rocking proceedings.

Story of the Year changed its name from its wacky original choice, Big Blue Monkey, and began a gradual sonic morphing as well. Now the band, a Warped Tour regular, peddles emo rock with as much fervor as many of the other groups on that scene. Too bad the band didn't keep its original-sounding name as a distinguishing factor.

With apologies to Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy, Midwesterners Alkaline Trio might just be the punk rock Wilco. No, the bands share nothing in common sonically, but both acts are practically revolving doors, shaking up their lineups with each album release. Who knows exactly which band members play on Crimson, the band's latest, and well-received album? One constant: the tag team vocal stylings of Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano.

Chicago's Rise Against broke through with its latest album, Siren Song of the Counter Culture, a disc the band created ostensibly to set itself apart from the mainstream.

Naturally, to project such a grandiose image, the band cranks up the volume and the power on its choruses as well as its political consciousness. It's not exactly breaking away from anything, but the band carries the torch for the punk rock movement.

Actor Jared Leto's side project and band, 30 Seconds to Mars, receives this year's nomination for Best Cover of an Esoteric Bjork Song. Perhaps it's the unexpected fact that the coarse, grunge band tackles Iceland's most fluttery iconoclast. But Leto erects riveting tension in his almost trip-hop version of her song Hunter. Plus, he gets all political, substituting the word "American" for Scandinavian in the line, "I thought I could organize freedom/how Scandinavian of me!"

Motion City Soundtrack order you to never forget their band; they've titled their latest album Commit This To Memory. Apart from frequent stints on the Warped Tour - quite the status symbol in the punk rock community - the band's album was produced by Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, yet another nod of acceptance by the community. Plus the critics have been raving.

Quasi-local band (they're from Orlando) Anberlin aim for sweeping grandeur, at least melodically speaking, on their latest album, Never Take Friendship Personal. Of all the bands on the bill, this group is probably the novice of the bunch, and naturally stands the chance to live up to the festival's titular declamation. Is Anberlin the Next Big Thing? You'll have to hear them and find out for yourself.

97X Next Big Thing 5 begins at 11 a.m. Sunday in Coachman Park, 301 Drew St., Clearwater. $32.10. (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100.

[Last modified November 30, 2005, 11:29:06]