GRAND RAPIDS - As Superdrag frontman John Davis finished tuning his guitar Friday at The Intersection in Grand Rapids, he peered at the eager rock and rollers with smoke seeping around his face from the cigarette in his hand and asked “Grand Rapids, what do you got?”
Davis then began playing the opening track, “keep it close to me,” off their third full-length record “In the Valley of Dying Stars.”
The crowd, consisting mostly of kids in their early 20s packed in like sardines, responded with a loud roar of approval.
The band, best known for its brush with fame with its 1996 MTV “Buzz Bin” hit “Sucked Out,” didn’t play that song the entire evening, which seemed justified. They showed that they were talented songwriters and didn’t need to play the song that got them famous to be successful and put on a great live show.
Following openers The Atomic Numbers and Miles To Mars, the Knoxville, Tenn.-based band gave the audience a very personal and amazing performance rocking out to not only tunes off its latest album, but their first two on Elektra records, “Regretfully Yours” and “Head Trip in Every Key.”
“I was a little disappointed they didn’t play ‘Going Out’ but I can’t complain, they rocked,” psychology junior Andy Zillgitt said. “I also liked how they mixed it up between all their records.”
The band, consisting of Davis, Sam Powers on bass and Don Coffey Jr. on drums, was incredibly fun to watch, jumping around the stage and taunting the audience with sarcastic phrases between songs. At one point Davis played an entire song while smoking a cigarette, even while singing back-up.
With his shaggy hair hanging over his eyes, Powers refused to brush it off his brow the entire show as he strummed his bass guitar with ease. Coffey had a personal vendetta against his drums, hitting them harder and cracking them louder as the evening progressed. It was as if he drank 100 cups of his last name before the show, but it was probably the alcohol he occasionally sipped between songs.
Powers was impressed with the crowd and at one point said “Grand Rapids is rowdy as hell.” He was pleased with the concert.
“The crowd was really into it,” he said. “It was great to see everyone be so fired up. It makes us feel good about what we’re doing up there.”
Human biology junior Nick Boe dug the show.
“I’m from the U.P. and we don’t get many bands like this around my town,” he said. “This was my first time seeing them other than downloading songs off Napster and I was impressed with their energy.”
Davis said the band had a great time.
“The crowd really got us going and that made it a lot easier for us,” he said. “We’d rather it be loud than have a worst-case scenario of complete silence.”
