Friday's Lobsterfest
Defiance, Ohio brings folk punk to Lobsterfest
By Dani Purcell, Staff Writer
June 5, 2008 | 9 p.m.
Local booking agent Brian Ostrander recently informed Athens residents of a pleasant piece of information: Lobsterfest, a weekend-long series of local shows and events, is now to include Columbus' staple punk band Defiance, Ohio this Friday at The Union.
Defiance, Ohio’s modest workings began as a trio in late 2002. Singer-guitarist Geoff Hing, drummer Will Staler and bassist Ryan Woods initially started playing in a style similar to pop-punk, though the three had no intentions of leaving the practice space and venturing toward the idea of shows.
Several small shows and a mini-tour later, a friend simply called BZ crashed the trio’s practice with her violin in 2003. After the release of the band’s first full-length, Share What Ya Got, the band experienced the addition of Sherri Miller as a cellist. The band’s current roster also includes drummer/guitarist Theo Hilton.
Hilton was initially recruited to replace Staler temporarily as the drummer when he was not able to tour, but, Woods said, became a permanent band member who plays guitar when Staler is available.
Defiance, Ohio’s style is easily referred to as “the” face of modern punk culture– with a “do-it-yourself” attitude, the band assembles earnest lyrics, a gaggle of acoustic instruments and orchestral components of violin and cello into a quirky mix of genres, but it is often regarded as “folk punk.” Folk-punk may reflect either genre in guitar strumming patterns or vocal style, which makes for an adaptive, unique scheme of styles in cooperation. The lyrical content, however, is rooted in derivatives of punk music.
The band's lyrics are often based on thematic or large, abstract concepts– love, discontent, friendship, frustration, apathy– but are reinforced with concrete explanations or examples. “Condition 11:11,” a track from the band’s second full-length release, The Great Depression, perfectly encompasses and makes example of the group's writing style.
“I remember in the kitchen when you told me your grandma died/That's when I realize it gets worse/I want to wish things last forever/Won't you thicken my soft skin?/You comfort me so and I remember.”
Woods described the band as a group of individuals who contribute, with collaborative effort, toward the band’s songwriting process. Though the band performs and writes music as a unit, Woods stressed the importance and strength of the individual and his or her life experience as a contributor toward Defiance, Ohio’s content. Though members may write a particular part of music, other members may add to or transform that song. Most songs are generated during practices by the group as a whole, Woods said.
Although Defiance, Ohio focuses lyrically on relationships with people, the band also addresses extreme discontent with political status in several songs. Woods wanted to refute common misconceptions.
“I think we try to steer away from labels. People have described us as anarchists, as anti-capitalist. People have described us as a lot of things, and I don’t have an overtly specific message for other people," he said. "I think what we would like to do as a band, or as a group of people, is consider the position we’re in and make the best choices that we feel comfortable with ourselves.”
Woods could not think of a particular term to describe the band’s general political mindset, but he nodded to allusions that Defiance, Ohio individuals are “discontent with the status quo.”
Contrary to the popular principle, Defiance, Ohio shows little concern with individuals “pirating” the band’s material. Woods noted that the band realizes that some people do not have equal access to computers or community resources, or do not have the ability to or wish to buy music. The band gives a thumbs-up to downloading, and it simultaneously lives up to its album title, Share What Ya Got, by providing torrents to all of its albums and EPs on its Web site.
“For some people there’s not really the possibility or interest in spending money on music, and I don’t think that’s something they should have to do," Woods said. "it’s important for us to make it as accessible as possible without promoting what we do and trying to push it on people.”
Since Defiance, Ohio’s simple beginnings as a punk trio, the band has developed into a six-member arsenal of successful individuals. Within the last few years, most of its members have transitioned through different life stages and locations– most have completed and received degrees, and four of its members relocated to Bloomington, IN– but their friendship and tightness as a unit have not wavered.
Woods’s parting words on behalf of the band were messages of jovial memories and excitement toward playing in Athens once more.
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Experience Defiance, Ohio with Beaten Awake, In-Sect, The Quincy Apparatus and Delay this Friday at The Union. For more information about this event, check out the Facebook event.