"Are You Livin'?" tour rolls into Boone, Gran Torino returns tonight to perform at Legends

Kara Hodge - Entertainment Beat

As part of its "Are You Livin'?" tour, Gran Torino (GT) performs tonight at Legends.

The "Are You Livin'?" tour" is in support of the band's latest single "Are You Livin'?" from its third studio effort "Two."

The release of the latest single is the second single released from the album. "Moments With You," which just won the Grand Prize in the "Pop Category" of the 2000 John Lennon Songwriting Contest, was the first

"The tour has gone really well this year," said lead vocalist Chris Ford. "It's like every time we play we get better."

The rest of GT is guitarist Stephen Decker, Todd Overstreet on bass, Pee Jay Alexander on trumpet, Scott Pederson on trumpet and saxophone, Whit Pfohl on drums, Jason Thompson on sax and David Heyer, also on drums.

"Moments With You" was added to rotation at over 35 commercial radio stations throughout the South and was featured on the Sept. 12 episode of MTV's "The Real World."

While featuring songs off "Two" at recent concerts, the current leg of the tour also has the band introducing several new songs to fans.

"We're working on new material for a fourth album right now, so that will be in the show too," said Ford. The new material includes songs "Sick And Tired," "Living In Darkness," "Street Lights," and "The Storm."

The new material takes the band in a new direction musically and represents a combination of sounds found on the band's two previous studio albums "One" and "Live at the Chameleon Club" --more rock and less fluff. "We can see our shortcomings on the first two albums," said Ford. "One" has better songwriting."

The good stuff: Most of the songs on "Two" are high energy and fun to listen to. GT has a lot of diversity because it's a nine-man band -Ðthere is just more sound for your money.

The not-so-good stuff: Like its first two albums, "Two" is still reminiscent of a college band that sings about college stuff -Ð love, breakups and love again. Maybe its fourth studio effort will be different.

"The shows lately have a lot more energy," said Ford. "When you're on tour, there are months you think you just suck, but now, it's just a lot of fun." Gran Torino plays tonight at Legends. Tickets are $6 for advanced/students and $8 at the door.

Tickets can be purchased at the Information Desk in Plemmons Student Union. Doors open at 9 p.m. The event is B.Y.O.B. 6-pack limit. Proper I.D. is required.

For more information call Legends at 262-3032. For more information about Gran Torino check out its Web site at .

One man's efforts help to bring diversity to Boone's music scene

Dan Frazier - Contributing Writer

Like most college towns, Boone has a good music scene. Among the multiple venues in town, there is always a band playing here on almost any given night.

But over the past few years, Boone has begun to see a steady flow of bands with similar styles of bluegrass, jazz and improvising jams that always perform to a packed crowd.

Boone's improving music scene can only be attributed to one man: John Rush.

If you have been to more than three concerts in Boone, the chances are you have been to a concert promoted by Rush.

He can be seen at almost any show in Boone, lingering in the back of the club, always wearing glasses and stroking his full Manchu as he observes the stage. He knows all the regular customers that come to the shows and is never too busy to turn down a friendly conversation.

Rush rents out the bottom of a house on Orchard Street where I had the chance to interview him. A Phish sticker on his screen door made his home easily recognizable. His living room is decorated with dozens of flyers of past shows he promoted in Boone.

"I like to keep the flyers of shows that didn't do so well visible to remind me of them," said Rush. In a corner is a fish tank housing Rush's only roommates and a broken couch resting on the floor.

"That's the result of dozens of bands sleeping in here night after night," says Rush, pointing to the destroyed couch. Rush moved to Boone in order to attend Appalachian State University for the fall semester of 1996. Boone seemed to suit him well for its good music and beautiful location according to Rush. He soon got a job as a bartender at Cottonwood Brewery while it was at its original location. While at a Snake Oil Medicine Show on Halloween in what is now Angelica's, Rush noticed something that he had never seen before. "There were 20 year olds trying to sneak into the bar to see bluegrass," said Rush. "I couldn't believe that such a young crowd was into it up here. I thought it was great."

As a bartender, Rush soon began to meet members of local bands such as Snake Oil Medicine Show and Papa Gumbo. "Everybody in Boone is in a band," joked Rush. "These people were becoming my friends completely unconnected to business except I was buying tickets to their shows."

In September of 1997, Cottonwood Brewery moved to its current location on Howard Street. In November, Boston's Schleigho offered a date to Cottonwood to book a concert.

Schleigho had played successful shows at the Klondike Cafe in the past, but due to its closing at the time had nowhere else to play in Boone. Cottonwood decided to book the show.

With the success of the Schleigho show, Rush's managers decided to invest in more live music by booking a Snake Oil Medicine Show side project called CX-1 to play every Wednesday night.

Rush then gradually began to become more involved by voluntarily booking bands for Cottonwood. In April 1998, Cottonwood began to do music four nights a week by booking mostly cover bands such as The Lazy Birds, Grassdance, and The Southern Lights.

"My first job as Cottonwood's booking agent was to fire my friends CX-1," said Rush. "My managers decided there wasn't enough money to keep paying CX-1 if we were paying four bands a week. I hated to do it, but I quickly learned that this type of stuff always happens in the music business."

Regular customers of Cottonwood concerts kept requesting that they book a new band out of Atlanta, Ga., called Sector Nine according to Rush. Cottonwood decided to pursue the band. "We didn't know what to expect, but it sold out, the toilets overflowed, and there were at least 20 people dancing behind the stage in the waiter's station. It was one of the rowdiest nights in Boone I can remember," says Rush.

Cottonwood's managers began to see the profits of live music and allowed Rush to book more national acts on a weekly basis, according to Rush. With the help of Schleigho's Web site advertising them as a place to play and the help of Sector Nine's booking agent Chris Cate, Rush began to book many popular acts such as The Recipe, Fat Mama, The Slip, Jerry Joseph and The Jackmormons and Viperhouse.

"I receive up to 40 phone calls a day now mostly from bands wanting to play here (in Boone) that heard about me from other bands that already have played here and had a good time," says Rush.

Local favorite bands such as Snake Oil Medicine Show and Acoustic Syndicate also began to play in side projects at Cottonwood as well.

The word spread quickly that Boone was becoming a jam-band mecca for great concerts within the music industry, according to Rush.

"College towns are where bands really make their points," says Rush. "If you play in Boone, chances are people are going to see you from Florida, Atlanta, Nashville or Chapel Hill, and when those people go home, they are going to talk about the bands they saw and spread the word.

"Most bands that come here are just on the road looking for a place to play and make some new friends while earning some gas money," said Rush.

"A lot of shows here are on a Monday or Sunday night because the bands are just wanting to play in places like Boone in between their bigger city gigs. That's why we get a lot of the bands here so cheap, too. People claim that Boone is in the middle of nowhere, but in reality it is only four hours from Atlanta and three hours from Nashville or Chapel Hill. It's in the middle of everywhere for a touring band," he said.

"I also began to harass the local college radio station (WASU 90.5 FM) to play some of the bands I was booking and help promote the show," said Rush. "That's when they introduced me to Goose (SGA presidential candidate Matthew Mounkes).

He was already doing a specialty show playing only bands that played in Boone called The Local Show. By January 2000, I was part of the show as a co-host." The radio gig allowed Rush to advertise and expose bands on the air that he was booking in town. It was not rare for the bands to come in for an interview or do an in-studio performance for the show.

The Local Show also received a time slot on the locally-owned cable network Mountain Times Television that lasted until the station was canceled in January 2001 (the radio show still lives on from 7-9 P.M. Thursdays).

On March 27, 2000, the managers of Cottonwood told Rush to cancel all of his April dates for concerts due to financial reasons, according to Rush.

"I then went to Murphy's (Restaurant and Pub) where I hung out, and my friends worked to offer the dates to them," says Rush. "They took every single one."

Papa Gumbo was already playing at Murphy's every Wednesday night, so the bar was ready to take on the concert business with Rush as its booking agent and bartender. Rush still remained working part time with Cottonwood until June when he went full time at Murphy's.

With the success of shows at Murphy's and the lack of space, Murphy's has decided to undergo a project to turn their basement into a concert hall. This project is still under construction and has no expectancy date according to Rush.

Geno's Sports Lounge renovated its downstairs in July 2000 and its bar manager, already a friend of Rush, came to him to ask him to be a promoter of some concerts at the club.

Rush generously began booking bands that he thought could use a larger stage versus Murphy's cramped corner.

Around the same time, Rush also began to work with Rafter's Grill and Bar to help book bands and promote shows.

"I would love to do this as a career, but as for now, I don't see it happening," says Rush. "I still cater to the starving artist and my fax machine is bigger than my TV.

Less than 10 percent of my business with bands is done with contracts. I've never been sued or ever had a band walk out on me. I don't try to take advantage of anybody, he said".

Not using contracts helps set the tone for what I am trying to do with the music -- it's trust and love, not lawyers and ink." Rush is sometimes criticized for bringing the same style of music to Boone. Rush also claims that he does not dictate which music genre comes to Boone. He only books what receives a good response.

For diversity, though, Rush has begun to book bands such as the legendary hip-hop artist Cee-Knowledge from The Digable Planets and local indie rockers Pency Prep.

"The more bands you go see, the more bands that you like will come to town," said Rush. "People come to college to learn, and so learning about music is a natural expression of that desire to discover new things.

"The talk around now is who is going to be the next big thing, who is going to be the next Phish or Widespread Panic," he said.

"Well, the chances are they're coming to town. Some of the best music in the world is coming here for sure," Rush said.