Rare Thursday Show at Circle A Café With Tyler Keith and the Revelations, Spidora and Drip Edges

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Something is in the air if Circle A Café is hosting a rare Thursday night show. Even rarer if music consulates from Oxford, Miss. And Memphis, Tenn. are sending representatives of high energy rock and roll.

Tyler Keith and the Revelations, Spidora and Drip Edges play Circle A Café Thursday at 8 p.m.

Tyler Keith’s resume include The Neckbones and The Preacher’s Kids. Spidora, the relatively new local band includes familiar faces from Ramma Lamma and the Kill-A-Watts. Memphis’ Drip Edges’ Jeremy Scott, also bassist with Reigning Sound, was in town when RS played a show for the ages at Cactus Club on the eve of the pandemic lockdown. Previously his band Toy Trucks had played Circle A. He will also be playing bass with Keith on Thursday.

He took time to answer a few questions before the upcoming show.

How does last year’s Bear Grease album figure into what you are playing live?

While Bear Grease was essentially a solo project, Graham (Burks Jr.) and I formed a band to play those songs live. Now the live set consists of roughly 50% songs from the record, and 50% originals that we’ve learned since then. We’ve been recording as of late and should have an EP out soon.  

You are also set to play the three-day Green Bay UFO Fest this weekend on Saturday. Was Circle A part of that plan?

I did book shows in Milwaukee and Chicago on the way to UFO Fest. Milwaukee is a fun town to play, it's been 3+ years for me and longer for Tyler so we're looking forward to it!  

What were the challenges for you to keep playing music during the pandemic?

The pandemic, at least initially, was a productive time for me writing-wise, then a few months in, Greg (Cartwright, Reigning Sound) decided he wanted to do another Reigning Sound record which resulted in quite a bit of prep and rehearsal.  

Not all of the songs were finished so there was a lot of work done in a fairly short period of time. Things tapered off for me a little after we finished recording, but this is a fairly fertile period right now, creativity speaking.  Every day I'm working on a new set of lyrics, it seems. 

Can you talk about your long history with Reigning Sound?

Playing with Reigning Sound was a tremendous growth experience for me, both creatively and otherwise. Anytime you're around Greg for more than three minutes you're going to get exposed to a new record or group you’re not familiar with. Also, the conversations we’ve had about songwriting in recent years have informed how I approach writing now. Alex (Greene) and Greg (Roberson) are my brothers, we could walk into a room together today and start playing and you could tell it was us. 

As a music fanatic, what are some of the reference points you aim for?

I am a huge fan of both Gene Clark and Tommy Keene, and to this point I guess I can hear that as an obvious reference, even if nobody else can! And Doug Sahm’s screw-it-we-got-this attitude is always inspiring from a live presentation standpoint.