THE STEEPWATER BAND
SAT NOV 14 | 9 PM | BARRELHOUSE SOUTH
The middle class of rock and roll doesn't get nearly the respect it deserves. These are the bands with established careers, substantial catalogs, years of touring, and devoted followings, yet precious little national recognition. They illustrate a point Take Five readers hear repeatedly: the music business is so brutally difficult it's practically cruel.
Chicago's Steepwater Band is a prime example. Formed in 1998, when a brief rise of blues-based guitar rock inspired by the Black Crowes was already waning, they've spent the last 28 years recording and touring, including extensive European excursions. Nine studio albums later, they're still at it, with the brand-new and quite enjoyable Down & Divine released just last week.
Despite their Chicago origins, Steepwater's classic blues rock has a distinctly Southern accent. Their founding members reportedly first connected at a Black Crowes concert, and former Crowes guitarist Marc Ford produced their 2008 album, Grace and Melody. They've shared stages with Gov't Mule, Buddy Guy, Cheap Trick, and the Drive-By Truckers, among others.
It's an impressive résumé for a band that somehow remains largely unknown outside its dedicated following. In almost any other profession, such longevity and productivity would constitute an extraordinarily successful career. In rock and roll, people might still be asking when they're finally going to make it. Drummer Joe Winters answered in a 2019 interview that they are. That attitude, easily interpreted as an “F-you” to the industry, also reveals that success has many definitions. If making the music they want to is one, they’re bigger than U2.
FREE THROW + MICROWAVE + MICHAEL CERA PALIN + KEROSENE HEIGHTS
FRI NOV 13 | 6:30 PM | DISTRICT LIVE
Of all the genres, emo may be the hardest to define. When it was born in Washington, D.C.'s hardcore scene with bands like Rites of Spring and Embrace, whose members helped form Fugazi, the style was still taking shape.
The common thread was a deep expression of personal sensitivity to the harshness of life. It evolved through the folkier, introspective sounds of Midwest emo, exemplified by Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes, the alt-rock of American Football, and the post-hardcore of Cap’n Jazz.
The third wave included the commercial pop punk of Dashboard Confessional, My Chemical Romance, and The Used. That mainstream breakout eventually petered out. The current version, somewhat revivalist, embraces rawer punk, hardcore, and screamo, with emotional vulnerability and anti-macho bullshit still at its core.
Nashville's Free Throw has been a standard-bearer for the latest generation since 2012, building a remarkably consistent six-album catalog while steadily increasing the musical intensity. Their 2014 debut, Those Days Are Gone, introduced the breakout single Two Beers In, a painfully relatable account of romantic misery compounded by alcohol. The song helped establish a band unafraid to expose emotional wounds while delivering the music with considerable physical force.
Over the ensuing albums, singer Cory Castro's ardently personal lyrics have matured alongside the musicians. Young adult angst and romantic disappointment gradually gave way to self-examination, accountability, and recovery.
This year's Moments Before the Wind adds the terrifying dimension of impending fatherhood. That alone could make an emo double-LP. It's a striking evolution for a genre often associated with perpetual teenage misery. Unfortunately, we all must grow up.
The alt-rock and grunge of Microwave, the heavy indie-rock of Michael Cera Palin, and the melodic punk of Kerosene Heights round out a formidable bill demonstrating how much variety contemporary emo can accommodate.
FIRESIDE COLLECTIVE
FRI NOV 13 | 7 PM | BROUGHTON STREET BOWL & BREW
Making a name for yourself in Asheville, North Carolina, where accomplished bluegrass musicians fall out of trees in a stiff breeze, is no small accomplishment. Fireside Collective managed it with a traditionally rooted sound, then began pushing the boundaries of a genre that's proven remarkably receptive to experimentation.
Formed in 2014, Fireside Collective built its reputation on acoustic instrumentation and formidable picking skills, winning MerleFest's band competition in 2016 and eventually reaching No. 3 on Billboard's Bluegrass Albums chart. Along the way, the Grateful Dead became something of a musical North Star, inspiring longer improvisations and a willingness to follow songs wherever they might lead.
That adventurous spirit was evident on 2022's Across the Divide, particularly the unusually unhurried Not Today. A review in Americana bible No Depression singled out the song's stretched vocal phrasing, unexpectedly relaxed tempo, and unconventional arrangements. It's a reminder that bluegrass musicians don't always have to play at a frantic, breakneck speed to show off their skill.
The final piece of the puzzle came with the addition of drummer Michael Tillis in late 2023, cementing the “new” in their version of newgrass. With country, rock, and funk rhythms increasingly prominent, Fireside Collective expanded its musical vocabulary without abandoning its bluegrass foundation. The evolution culminated in last year's The Seven, which demonstrates just how far five adventurous musicians can stretch a style while making it look easy. Do drums belong in grass? Sure sounds like it.
DELTA CIRCLE
SAT NOV 14 | 7 PM | COACH’S CORNER
Requests for classic rock may result in a youthful “okay, boomer,” but despite its relative dinosaur status, the genre endures and likely will for eternity. Savannah's Delta Circle has been all-in for their brief existence. Their excellent 2024 album, Someone Else's Story, delivered muscular, Southern-fried classic rock with strong songwriting, soaring harmonies, and pezzonovanti guitar firepower.
The road hasn't been entirely smooth. An early relationship with an independent label went sour, and the band has weathered a personnel departure. Neither setback seems to have diminished their ambitions. Instead, Delta Circle has been expanding its reach beyond Savannah, releasing new material, and concentrating on the old-fashioned business of playing live as often as possible.
Their recent singles also reveal a willingness to take risks. Alongside rock originals that fit the catalog, like Monday, Again and My Own Doctor, they also have the stones to cover the Beatles' Come Together and, far less predictably, Michael Jackson's Beat It. It's an entertaining combination for a band whose roots and identity are well-ensconced in a musical cast-iron frying pan. They're not interested in being confined.
Take Five covered the February 2026 Delta Circle show at Barrelhouse South, whose reliably beer-soaked atmosphere is practically custom-built for their music. Coach's Corner offers a different but equally appealing environment, with its spacious stage, open sky, and damn good food. The band has made no secret of its desire to graduate to bigger stages and a national audience. For now, the plan is simple: keep recording, keep expanding the repertoire, and tour, tour, tour.
HEAVY IS THE HEAD + SPEEDBAG + CHLORINE + SYMPOSIA
THUR NOV 12 | 5:30 PM | COASTAL EMPIRE BEER CO.
Savannah promoter Kublai Kanine is known for all-heavy, all the time, but there's plenty of variety under that umbrella. This four-band bill proves how many different ways musicians can assault your earholes without sacrificing their individual identities.
Richmond's Heavy Is the Head delivers ferocious metallic hardcore, with angular riffs, explosive breakdowns, and a remarkably consistent commitment to sonic violence across their releases. Their 2025 EP, For Your Loss, was dedicated to founding member Nick Rockefeller, who died of cancer, lending considerable emotional weight to the fury without bringing the listener down.
Speedbag takes a darker, more direct route, incorporating black and death metal influences into a primitive hardcore attack reminiscent of early Possessed with a punk rock education. Interestingly, vocalist MC Homeless comes from an underground hip-hop background, giving the band's musical pedigree an unexpected twist.
Connecticut's Symposia combines two genres that coexisted in the late '90s and early 2000s but rarely mated: nu-metal and pop-punk. There's a little Limp Bizkit in the mix, but the strong lead vocals, tight harmonies, and hooky riffing suggest more Jimmy's Chicken Shack than Fred Durst and his bros.
Portland's Chlorine is the outlier, balancing melodic pop-punk and neo-grunge with clean singing, quieter passages, and explosive dynamic shifts. The contrast is welcome, proving that heavy music doesn't always include a vicious beating with a blunt, rusty pipe.
By Frank Ricci