The
well-traveled rockers Bright Light Social Hour are hoping for a better Friday night forecast at this year’s
Black swamp Arts Festival.Last year when they were scheduled to close the Friday night show, a thunderstorm
short-circuited the show. Their visit wasn’ta total washout. They played an after-hours show the next night
atHoward’s Club H.Still Bright Light social Hour, officially Austin, Texas-based thoughtheir real home of
late has been the band’s van, hopes to get on stage Sept. 6 at 10 p.m. to deliver some thunder of its
own.The band — guitarist Curtis Roush, bassist Jack O’Brien on bass,keyboard player A.J. Vincent and drummer
Joseph Mirasole — certainly hasdemonstrated its power to rock in hyperkinetic form with elements ofprog
rock, techno and other styles over a rock-solid groove.Still the band, just a few years old, has continued
to evolve, said Jack O’Brien in a recent telephone interview.“The music is still very rock based,” he said,
“but it’s certainlydarker and more hypnotic and more groove oriented. We started toincorporate more drum
machines and synth, electronics, but still in agritty rock context.”And the band has been working that new
material into their sets. That leaves some fans requesting “more of the old stuff.”“We’re not interested in
doing more of the same,” O’Brien said. “We have a record and that’s well documented.”Beside “the old music
doesn’t speak to where we’re at.”Not that they completely ignore the old favorites, sometimes even
reinventing them so they flow more with the new songs.The song “Back and Forth” from 2009 has been revamped
“to give it more of a dreamy feel. That totally revived the song for us.”The new sounds have been documented
on a new recording that’s in thefinal stages of production. Instead of hiring a producer, the banddecided to
do the job themselves and instead invest the money in theequipment they would need.Last year the band
described its collective process for creating newsongs. Everybody brings in bits that the band shapes into a
musicalwhole. Lyrics are created the same way. One band member is then chargedwith pulling together a draft
that the others polish workshop style.Bright Light Social Hour has always been a work in progress with
itsmusic reflecting the shifting musical obsessions of its members.It traces its roots to house in Austin
where founder Roush lived. Thehouse had all the amenities needed for hard-rocking jamming, and
thehard-rocking partying afterward.That party feeling persists in the music that as demonstrated last
yearwhen they played a pre-festival show at Grounds for Thought. That gigended with the band in full
shaggy-mane-shaking, drum-flailing, guitarthrashing mode.O’Brien said the festival is a perfect fit for
Bright Light Social Hour.“We loved it,” he said. “I love any sort of free festival in a city. Itreally
brings the community out.”And if people are ready to party, Bright Light Social Hour is more than happy to
bring the music.http://www.thebrightlightsocialhour.com/