By Steven Webb
Mister Paradise was all set to play at Sweetwater on Thursday night, that is until they were notified the bar wouldn’t be open that night. Rumor has it the owner fired a lot of the staff and closed for the evening, but no one could be reached for comment for an official reason.
However, Mister Paradise found a smaller?but much, much cooler?venue to play: Mark’s Campus Pub.
The Pub, as it’s affectionately called by regulars, is renowned around the city for it’s cheap Amber Bock drafts, its, well, shall we say charming, atmosphere, and, of course, Miss Linda?the fastest bartender in town. It ended up being the perfect location to play.
Mister Paradise formed in early 2006 with Andy Hite on drums, Frank McAvey with vocals, J. Kasper on bass, and Eric Tubb on guitar. Though one might guess their influences and inspiration come from a wide range of material, such as Tool, Pearl Jam, Live and Incubus, the band says their influences are “all original,” and that you just have to guess for yourself.
Their sound is eclectic and stuffed full of variety. Their MySpace describes it as “running the gamut from country to metal to hip-hop phatness.” However, they forgot to mention funk. LOTS of funk.
They had to bring their own P.A. system, using a laptop with ProTools as their mixer, as the Pub is not equipped for bands.
Mister Paradise opened by declaring, appropriately enough, “F*ck Sweetwater?Miss Linda help us out!” Their first song was a blues rock song called “Carousel.” It featured a grooving bass line with lots of vocal and guitar unisons. The song ended rather shortly, as did some more of their later songs. Rather than drag songs out, Mister Paradise likes to keep playing something fresh and different, instead of making us listen to the same parts repeated over and over again. Their songs are very solid and to-the-point. There is no excess repetition.
Their next song, “Do You Believe,” was a reggae groove with a lot of funk, a lot of attitude, and continually moving parts, not to mention catchy as hell.
They slowed down and threw in a ballad to keep the audience well-paced. “Demons Lie Beneath” had nice, melodic bass lines, singing minor chord work, and a good, hard chorus.
Later on, the band played a song called “Drugs.”
“This song is about drugs,” McAvoy told the audience. It received one of the biggest cheers of the night. Tubb played a very bluesy, soulful solo on the tune, showcasing his guitar skills.
They were also apparent in other songs, featuring a wide array of techniques from tapping to actually slapping his guitar like a bass. He keeps a sweatband around the nut of his guitar for quick string muting during slapping sections.
The band kept pumping out catchy, funk-driven songs for their set, keeping the audience engaged. The range of styles was unbelievable. One song featured lyrics so fast that McAvoy had to fire them out like a machine gun, and the next slowed down and let Hite show off his double kick skills, a nod to all the metalheads in the audience.
To end the show, Mister Paradise took a request from a cute blonde and played, surprisingly enough, a full-on (nameless) country song! It was quite an appropriate way to end the eclectic evening.
Mister Paradise is out to fill in the gap that they feel is present in the Murfreesboro music scene. “There’s not much variation,” Kasper noted, “They’re all cookie cutter.”
With their crazy, diverse influenced rocking, Mister Paradise is not only filling in the gaps, but also doing the one thing that they have set out to do since the beginning?rock your face off.
Check them out at myspace.com/
misterparadise.
