By Pedro Paredes //

JEFF the Brotherhood with Bully, SCRAPER //
The Independent – San Francisco
March 29th, 2015 //

Nashville-based JEFF the Brotherhood are usually a duo, but they beefed up their sound with two additional touring members in support of their new LP Wasted on the Dream. Even though their sonic style reminds you of some rock and metal bands from the 70’s, these guys sound fresh as fuck. While they were playing, I looked around to notice everybody with a big smile on their faces. We all knew we were getting a real rock ‘n’ roll/heavy metal concert experience, and we were all digging it.

To have this type of experience, not only does the band needs to do their part, but also the audience. And since both of the parties were bringing it, the result was awesome. On the band side, there was a lot of hair, guitar riffs, rock power poses, beer drinking and drum diving — Jake Orrall jumped into the drums helmed by his brother Jamin toward the end. On the audience, I witnessed a lot of “air guitar solos,” crowd surfing and mosh pitting. There was one drunk guy that took the mosh pitting too seriously, which almost started a fight, but since he was being a drunk asshole, the rest of the peeps sided up and got rid of him.

Even though they are from Nashville, second opener Bully sounded distinctly “Californian.” Polished and melodic, their music reminded me of Best Coast. Frontwoman Alicia Bognanno seemed very shy in the way she interacted with the crowd, but whenever they started playing, it was like she transformed into a rock-star queen.

They had some fans in the crowd that knew all of their songs, and it feels like this Bully are going places, especially when you consider Bognanno was invited on stage with JEFF the Brotherhood for a song.

The first opener of the night, SCRAPER, was a nice surprise. The three-piece (guitar, bass, drums) punk band from SF are raw, gritty and unpolished, and their stage presence, song lyrics and guitar riffs could not help but remind me of The Ramones. The interaction with the crowd was mostly through the music. Between songs the most the lead singer would say was “Thank you very much!” in a very heavy-metal type of voice, which was kind of funny. The highlight of their set list was a song called “Lick Me”. Yes, that’s right. “Lick me”.