Photo via Live Tetherball Tonight/Facebook
Live Tetherball Tonight
Live Tetherball Tonight
I once had a very hard realization that I was at a Live Tetherball Tonight show.
That might sound odd, especially considering I was at Sabbatic that night to watch the band perform—it wasn’t like I just blindly walked into a local punk show and suddenly found myself fighting my way out of a mosh pit.
My realization came before the band even flipped their amps into standby. I approached the bar and ordered a Hamm’s. The rather busy bartender just laughed and replied, “This is third time we’ve run out. I have to grab more from downstairs.”
I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head at this reply. Live Tetherball Tonight, for as long as I’ve been paying attention to the band, has embraced a care-free, life-of-the-party persona while performing a unique blend of late ‘90s, early 2000s emo. The title of the band’s first EP, You Can Always Stay the Same, is even a reference to the college drinking game Ride the Bus. This moment for me was evidence that the band actually practiced what it preached and brought the party to its shows.
Emotions on their Sleeves
But just as much as the band has preached the word “party,” the Milwaukee trio is also known to heavily wear its emotions on its sleeve. Lyrics are honest and presented in an almost confessional format, and the band has written songs about friends who have passed away, family trauma and heart break.
Live Tetherball Tonight - Who Liked Who First?
It’s been seven years since the band released that first EP and the band’s sound has matured quite a bit. On October 21, Live Tetherball Tonight released a four-track EP titled who liked who first? It’s a powerful short collection of songs that ditch the band’s typical sporadic noodling and emotive outbursts for structured verses and huge, sing-songy choruses. Think if Motown Records decided to take a chance and sign a Midwest emo band.
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“Each of the songs touches on a different aspect of a more modern romance,” says vocalist and guitarist Ryan Gehrig. “I really love listening to early ‘60s R&B and I was trying to think of all the different themes that they go through.”
Old School R&B
Gehrig points to the third track, “In Time,” as the most obvious example of how he incorporated his love for ‘60s R&B into the band’s sound.
“It’s a little bit more old-school sounding the way that the parts come and go and the dynamics within the verses where everyone plays up and down in volume,” Gehrig says. “It’s a really strong sound and we just did a good job of keeping the rhythmic heartbeat of the vocals, which should be the centerpiece considering how I wrote the album.”
And the vocals do succeed in taking center stage on these tracks. Gehrig’s impressively lengthy vibrato in the chorus of “In Time” comes to mind as something that wouldn’t be found on an older Live Tetherball Record and is a testament not only to Gehrig transforming his singing style but improving upon his songwriting skills.
“For this record, I practiced a lot going into it,” Gehrig says. “I really didn’t want to just fall into screaming choruses. I was really trying to find notes that were in my vocal range where I could actually sing high and have real dynamics.”
Dynamic Shifts
Gehrig’s guitar parts have dialed back a bit, allowing for the rest of the band to stand out more on their own. Bassist Josh Rardin’s riffs are just as likely if not more likely to get stuck in your head as the guitar parts, and drummer Josiah Kuechenmeister carries the rhythm section with heavy-hitting hands that really help accentuate the dynamic shifts.
This is all a change of pace for a band that was looking like it would be one of Milwaukee’s last-standing keepers of the Midwest emo genre. Long gone is the band that released a song called “Party” that shouted the lyrics “I’m so glad that you are here not there/Now drink a beer.”
Gehrig is already working on the next set of Live Tetherball Tonight songs, and its likely that the band will keep pushing into its newly developed sound.
“I’m just trying to release music that anyone can listen to in any mood,” Gehrig says. “I’m trying to make music that your mom could turn on.”
But don’t worry—the cocktail that is Live Tetherball Tonight just wouldn’t taste the same without at least one part emo and one part party, no matter how much the recipe changes.
