On a sticky evening in July, Star & Micey rolled up to the Freakin’ Frog in a long shiny white van. A misleadingly small trailer hauled enough gear to keep the five bandmembers’s hands—and feet—busy for two full sets later that night. The stickiness might have been odd for Vegas, but Star & Micey hails from Memphis, where July feels like having a damp, microwaved towel wrapped around your face.
Inside the bar, the temperature dropped only a bit. Luckily, the Frog’s the place to cool down with an ice cold beer. I needed that beer too, since Star & Micey’s singular brand of soulful folk pop got me bouncing in my seat and working up a sweat as soon as they took the stage. The room was mostly empty. A woman in white dress at the bar danced in place. A few stools down from her, a laconic bearded man avoided eye contact, hunching over a local daily’s crossword puzzle. The lack of crowd didn’t matter a whit, though; Star & Micey’s energy and enthusiasm rivaled that of any band I’ve seen perform live.
At the risk of sounding like your hipsteriest friend, Star & Micey is one of the best bands you’ve probably never heard of. They have a crazy loyal following in Memphis, and made a serious impression at this year’s SXSW music festival in Austin. Paste magazine featured a series of videos on their website from Star & Micey’s SXSW performance.
Watch the videos, and you’ll see why all the subterranean hype. At the Frog show, the band’s five male members crowded onstage along with an impressive array of guitars, drums, mic stands and a bass. In addition to that classic line-up of rock instruments, a piano, a mandolin, an accordion, and a tambourine all made memorable appearances. Unfortunately, the band’s violinist couldn’t join on this tour, but unless you’re already familiar with their music, you wouldn’t notice the absence. With songs like “Baby Blue,” “Crazy Jean,” and “Grace Askew,” the band displayed the full range of their genre influences—blues rub shoulders with alt-country, and both have on-again, off-again relationships with good ol’ indie rock, but also make out with folk and pop on the side.
The five guys—Josh, Geoff, Jeremy, Adam, and Nick—played off each other like old pros, whether with a quick glance to coordinate a change of beat or with a surprisingly funny non sequitur while fixing a mic malfunction. Each song felt tight and together, in a way you rarely see in lesser-known bands. It’s clear that they like playing together and that they do it often. A four-part vocal harmony never seemed out of place, and the distributing of percussion duties across a drummer, a pianist, and three string-players’ feet never felt overwhelming. They even managed to overcome the awkwardness of a seven-person crowd, and get everyone in the bar clapping along to entire songs.
Bottom line, Star & Micey’s music and their zest for playing it just makes you feel good. Imagine dancing around your house in your pajamas on a sunny Saturday afternoon with nothing more to do than eat your favorite meal and enjoy being alive. Star & Micey is what you’d dance to. Luckily, if you’re in need of such a joyful soundtrack, several of their singles can be downloaded from their label, Ardent Records.
The show’s highlight came at the end of the second set. All five bandmembers unplugged and arranged themselves around a table and chair in the dead middle of the bar. Jeremy, the drummer, climbed onto the chair with mandolin in hand. I turned and knelt on my booth seat just in time to see Star & Micey launch into an acoustic rendition of “Cold, Hard Truth” (which is featured over in the Paste videos). After an impassioned first verse, Jeremy spryly leapt off the chair, where he was replaced one-by-one by his bandmates—Josh, Geoff, and Nick with more strings, Adam with his accordion—each getting his turn to belt one out in the spotlight. I felt a tingle spurt down my spine and spread. Maybe it was because I only sat a few feet away. But even as I sit here, writing this and listening to “Cold, Hard Truth” from my built-in laptop speakers, the tingle comes back. There’s something about their sound, the Southern music tradition updated for the modern sensibility, the confidence that what they’re making is good, the exquisite orchestration…
So maybe it wasn’t the proximity, after all. But that won’t stop me from going to see Star & Micey anytime they’re in the same area code.
