Johnny Conqueroo at Chuck's Music on December 5th
Johnny Conqueroo is a local rock band of high schoolers that I was introduced to by my friend Charlie Payne earlier this year. The first song I listened to was "Summer Blues," an upbeat guitar heavy track with a beefy solo performed by Grant Curless. Throughout the year, my realization of their future success grew increasingly. When the concert was announced, I was ecstatic to attend.
I arrived just after the opening acts were finished, and their success was immediately clear. The room was hot and tightly packed with people, VERY tight. The lights shining on the left and right sides of the stage set up an interesting glow among the crowd and on the band. The three musicians stepped up on to the stage and adrenaline rushed through the crowd of around 80. The just over an hour concert was purely the definition of a rock concert. Every human in the room was moving with the songs and enjoying the classic rock style Johnny Conqueroo likes to use. Some of the tracks included were "Night in Jail," "Summer Blues," and "Smokestack Lightning."
"Night in Jail" is a song about an abusive man that beats his woman, spends a night in jail, and is then removed from her presence. His kids are also removed from his possession, where he then feels like dying for being such a horrible father.
"Summer Blues" is a simple track that has a focus on the guitar solo just after the halfway mark. The song exhibits this loneliness/boredom feeling with the lines "I got them oh oh oh ohhhh oh ohhh summer blues" and "I'm staying inside because I aint got nothin to do," which turns out to be rather ironic because this is quite an exciting track.
"Smokestack Lightning" is a cover of the original "Smokestack Lightning" by Howlin' Wolf from 1964. Johnny Conqueroo's twist on it has turned the slow groovy R&B song into a thrilling rock song. The soft guitar Howlin' Wolf used has now been turned into a hard rock electric guitar that has little screeches and whammy bar hits that really bring out the Johnny Conqueroo style.
All in all, it was quite the concert. I came home very hot and messy but the energy in that room forced me to forget that I was dripping in sweat.
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