This weekend Martini’s on Main is throwing one of its highly-anticipated patio keg parties: an outdoor extravaganza of beer, food and live music put together with the folks at Jackie O’s Brewery.
At last year’s fest, I saw a white-hot band of brothers from Columbus called The Up All Nights.
These boys played incendiary rock ‘n’ roll that came at us like a thundering freight train and tore the place apart. This year they’re back to do it all again.
In anticipation of this, I took a trip down to the Cbus Sports Pub in Columbus to meet with the band and talk about what they’ve got going on. Sammy, Jack and Yo-Yo (who are actual brothers) told me they’ve been playing Martini’s for a few years.
It emerged that the trio went to high school in Loudonville around the same time as Martini’s General Manager Cory Dawson.
“He was a grade above me,” said Sammy (vocals and lead guitar), “but I once bested him in an epic rap battle. He kind of looks like Leonardo DiCaprio.”
“He worked at the video store,” said Jack (bass). “He was cool. Sometimes he’d bring his own videos in from home to lend to us if the store didn’t have them.
“We like playing in Mansfield,” Jack continued. “Our friends from back home can see us.”
“Yeah, we love Mansfield,” agreed Sammy. “We’ve got a lot friends there. And Martini’s, it’s the hippest little joint. It feels like you’re in Manhattan or something.”
I told Sammy the bar used to be called The Manhattan Room before it was Martini’s.
“Well, there you go,” said Sammy. “You know that whole Carrousel drag is very hip. There’s a great bookstore, a great coffee shop. You just don’t expect it.”
As well as Martini’s, the band has played other local venues such as the Fourth Street Bar, the Brickyard on Final Fridays, and Relax, It’s Just Coffee.
Since they played at Relax I asked Sammy if he knew the legendary Ernest Mahoney.
“Yes,” said Sammy. “And he should be mayor.”
The night I remember them playing at Relax was a fundraiser for Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid, and I asked if they’d been involved with other political events.
“Well, we actually played on election night, at Misfit Manor,” said Jack.
What’s Misfit Manor?
“It’s a house party,” said Sammy. “A house on North Campus. That’s all I can say, really.”
That’s OK, I said. Let’s keep it on a need-to-know basis.
“Anyway it started off great,” he continued. “A good crowd, people were all dressed up. We were playing next to a big TV screen showing the results. At first I just couldn’t understand why the crowd weren’t responding to us like I knew they should. Then later people were crying.”
“It was kind of a worrying night,” said Yo-Yo (drums).
So here we are, I said, 100-plus days later.
“Yes,” said Sammy, “and – I guess we can tell you – we’re rushing out a new EP called ‘Emergency Protest.’
“We already had another complete album ready to go, but this one was more urgent. So we’re releasing them in the wrong order,” he explained. “Like the Beatles.”
I asked if this EP would be on 10-inch vinyl like some of their earlier releases.
“Well, first it’ll be available (to download) for free,” said Sammy. “The important things is to get it out there. There’s no time to mess around, we want this out there in a week or two. I mean, more stuff just keeps happening.
“A vinyl release may come later,” he continued. “When? When we can afford it, is the answer to that question. But hopefully at some point because people still like to have a solid copy.”
Is the new EP all recent compositions?
“No,” Sammy told me, “it’s a mixed bag of what’s important or relevant right now. But it’s not like every song is ‘No Trump.’”
“Didn’t you go to a Trump rally?” asked Yo-Yo.
“Yeah I went to a Trump rally,” said Sammy. “And I got ejected from a Trump rally. I had to see it for myself, it was eye-opening. Kind of a county fair atmosphere.”
“Put down that he burned an American flag!” laughed Jack.
“No,” said Sammy calmly, refusing to rise to the bait. “It’s not like I’m burning the flag. But this new release – it’s stuff that needs to be said. Not that it’s necessarily something no one else has thought of, but it can be consoling to hear that other people feel the same way.”
How long have you been playing together?
“We have always been. And we always will be,” said Sammy, enigmatically.
But how long though?
“About 10 years.”
“Our first show was the high school winter formal at Loudonville,” explained Jack.
“We learned to play together, and we had to figure it out together,” added Sammy. “Because we’re brothers we’ve had all the arguments already and we’re past the worst of it. We’ve been through that shit.”
Have you changed your style since then?
“No, but we’re better now. And better-looking. We were punk as shit back then. We still have some songs from that time. Actually one of the songs on the EP is older than the band.”
How long have you been in Columbus?
“Most of that time,” said Sammy, “about nine years. Most of the bands we started playing with are gone now.”
“We should call ourselves the oldest band in Columbus,” said Jack.
I mentioned that John Petric writing in the Columbus Free Press a couple of years ago said The Up All Nights were the best rock ‘n’ roll band to come out of Columbus, ever.
“Well, yeah,” said Sammy with a shrug. “He’s just correct.”
“He saw us at Double Happiness (a bar in the Brewery District). It was a great show that night, even though I was sick. I could only manage three songs.”
With them being such a “live” band, I asked how they found the process of recording.
“Well, it sucks,” said Sammy. “It’s godawful. We don’t play the way other bands do, we’re made to work live. So you have a lot of different ways to play a song, but then you have to set it in stone.
“People say ‘oh, you should just record it like it’s live,’” Sammy continued, “but we do exactly the opposite. We just give up on that and treat the recording like it’s a completely different thing.”
Look out for the band’s new releases, but if you get the chance, try to see them live. If you’re reading this on May 21, you may still have time to catch them at Martini’s Sunday evening patio party. It promises to be a peach of a night.
https://www.facebook.com/Martinis-On- Main-179734642080571/
http://upallnights.com/
