CHERRY CHEEKS + DOGSMILES + BENEATH TREES + THE HYSTERIAS
TUE SEP 29 | 6 PM | COASTAL EMPIRE BEER CO.
Portland’s Cherry Cheeks calls its music “eggy synth punk,” which may sound less appetizing than the music itself. Egg punk is a loose term for twitchy, weird, DIY punk with Devo-style art-rock DNA, cheap-sounding synths, short songs, and a full embrace of the awkward nerd lifestyle. Cherry Cheeks checks the boxes wholeheartedly.
Kyle Harms started the project in Orlando during the 2020 lockdown, playing virtually everything himself and channeling boredom and frustration into hyperactive, bass-driven punk with pop hooks. After relocating to Portland, a self-titled 2021 album and 2023’s CCLPII established Cherry Cheeks as a full band.
This year’s D.O. & The Bytes gets downright ambitious. The 14-song concept album follows digital hero D.O. as sinister Reapers try to wipe his memory clean. Surveillance, dehumanization, and even romance with a chatbot are wrapped in synth-heavy punk that remains fast, goofy, and very catchy. Harms handled the instruments and production himself. Whether the story speaks to you or not, the music makes it work.
Jacksonville’s DOGSMILES offers keyboard-driven hardcore dance punk, with a five-song 2025 demo that combines abrasive energy with enough melody to make the chaotic “queer anarcho weirdo” music danceable. A near-perfect complement to the headliner, only much heavier.
Savannah’s Beneath Trees remains one of the city’s most original garage rock concerns, blending psych, noise, and punk. Their latest EP, Bird Sounds, continues the evolving sound of lead vocalist, guitarist, and visionary Genevieve Chasty.
The Hysterias keep things considerably more traditional with authentic old-school punk fueled by riot grrrl energy. Their debut single, Hysteria, dropped in April.
Four bands for $12 on a Tuesday night. What more can an eggy punk ask for?
STAN RAY’S SOUL SATISFACTION
SUN OCT 4 | 3 PM | TYBEE POST THEATER
You can’t talk about the live music scene in Savannah over the last 15+ years without mentioning Stan Ray. He and Jefferson Ross created the Savannah Songwriters Series around 2009, hosting hundreds of musicians.
He was the singing drummer of The Accomplices during the 2010s and often participates in local all-star tributes in town. His dedication to community even includes a front porch performance in the Gordonston neighborhood during the COVID nightmare, bringing the joy of live music to those starving for it.
He formed Soul Satisfaction in 2023, describing it as “all original music I’ve written over the years” for a funky, horn-centric band. The current version plays originals as well as classic soul and R&B covers from artists like Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison, and James Brown.
It also features a bevy of Savannah’s prodigious talent. The list is long, but you’ll hear Dolette McDonald, Ben Keiser, Jared Hall, Eric Nelson, Ryan and Patti Kelly, and others joining Ray in showing off the best of Savannah. Pro tip: while you on Tybee Island, stop at Sea Wolf for the world’s best hot dog before or after this matinee show.
PANDORA’S BOX – AEROSMITH TRIBUTE
SAT OCT 3 | 7 PM | COACH’S CORNER
The Aerosmith story can be told in three parts. The superior version was the filthy ’70s outfit that earned Steven Tyler and Joe Perry the Toxic Twins nickname and sounded like an American answer to the Rolling Stones. Toys in the Attic and Rocks had riffs, danger, and a truckload of swagger that sounded considerably healthier than the people playing them.
The lifestyle worked exactly as advertised, and the band splintered. The loss of Joe Perry in 1979 was catastrophic. Rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford’s departure in 1981 should have ended the band. They somehow kept it together, but that middle period was bleak.
Look no further than the humiliating video for 1982’s Lightning Strikes, where the boys play-act as street toughs ready for a rumble. See them swinging bats, pipes, and chains, splattering…cantaloupes. Like, literally, bro. It has to be seen to be believed.
Sobriety became the survival plan, and by 1984, both guitarists rejoined. They found their MTV footing after the initial abortion, and it was time to get paid. The reunited and newly clean Aerosmith broke huge again with 1987’s Permanent Vacation, their first sober album. It sold five million units.
Pump and Get a Grip followed. Singles Dude (Looks Like a Lady), Love in an Elevator, and the Crazy, Cryin’, Amazing trio packed arenas and the band members’ bank accounts. Some prefer their junkie era. Millions of record buyers clearly enjoyed the alternative.
Atlanta tribute band Pandora’s Box wisely refuses to choose. Formed in 2015 by Steven Tyler doppelgänger Nathan Utz and guitarist Steve Taylor, the group jumps from Back in the Saddle, Last Child, and Toys in the Attic to Rag Doll, Angel, and Cryin’. Whether you want the Toxic Twins staggering toward oblivion or the sober MTV superstars cashing enormous checks, they’ve got you covered.
JUSTIN VREELAND
SAT OCT 3 | 8 PM | NICKEL & OAK
In the late ‘80s, hardcore bands like Agnostic Front, DRI, and Cro-Mags caught flak for “going metal.” The culprit was advanced abilities. When you can play more intricate music, you want to, and the simplicity of hardcore can be confining.
This may explain the career arc of Justin Vreeland. As a high school student in New York’s Hudson Valley, he recorded and released a classic rock debut, This Is Justin Vreeland, and then Death to Alt-Rock.
The sophomore effort is a loose, fun, and very competent garage rock album that pokes fun at the NY scene. It also includes interesting covers of Donovan’s Sunshine Superman and Train in Vain by The Clash. The following year, he enrolled at SCAD but couldn’t get booked. Instead, he began busking on River Street while studying sound design and working on new music outside any spotlight.
An absolute workaholic, he evolved into a Southern rock, roots, folk, jam, and Americana singer-songwriter. In a 2024 interview, he spoke of his desire to write 100 songs a year. With an eye on narrative songwriting, he claimed Gordon Lightfoot as an inspiration and discussed a preference for fictional and observational lyrics rather than his personal experiences.
Subsequent releases display an almost ridiculous breadth of styles, but this isn’t a case of “jack of all trades, master of none.” He knows how to write songs and refuses to be constrained by a single style. Bold for a 23-year-old, which is promising for a generation that uses the indecisive word “like” the way “literally” is constantly misused.
DAVIS & THE LOVE
FRI OCT 2 | 9 PM | BARRELHOUSE SOUTH
Plenty of bands claim they mix the old and the new. Davis & The Love walks the walk. Their originals, of which there are many, mix modern pop with old-school soul and R&B. Nate Davis has a voice versatile enough to cover a wide range, but his relationship with music mirrors those between people.
Their debut album, Future Retro Love Story, works as a loose narrative about falling in love, doubt, passion, heartbreak, rejection, and self-love. The two simultaneous love stories threaded through the album are about a couple and his own artistry. He is the main songwriter, backed by a band of fellow Atlanta musicians, and cites Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Tears for Fears, and Beastie Boys as influences. Not a bad collection of idols.
To make ends meet, one assumes, the group is also a professional party band. While their own songs are strong, this is where the gamut gets wide enough for the Barrelhouse South party train to roar through.
Any band that’ll play Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together, Sublime’s Santeria, Ginuwine’s Pony, and the Rolling Stones’ Miss You isn’t simply counting on an inebriated audience to cheer for anything. That takes guts.
By Frank Ricci