Local band Keep 7 heats up South Elgin’s Riverfest
The feeling of a summer festival before the Ferris wheel starts to turn and the smell of deep fried food fills the air is one of anticipation.
It’s the same feeling you get as a spectator watching Keep 7, a local band that tried to warm up a sparse crowd at South Elgin’s Riverfest Saturday.
The band consists of five members all from local towns. Their sound is reminiscent of the music they play (Green Day, Jimmy Eats World, Blink 182). It’s the kind of songs that feature an occasional screeching vocal and lots of bunny hopping while playing the guitar. But unlike many teenage bands, they bring more to the stage than cover songs. The group already has an album out and has gone through a number of lineup changes in their young careers before finding their current sound.
“We have this dilemma that we’re lazy, so we never practice,” lead vocalist Josh Denson told a morning festival crowd of about 30 people. “Then before a show we practice hard, and I blow out my voice, and I can’t sing.”
Denson and fellow band mates Ryan Joyce, Noah Throw, Jason Conn and Tayler Buck still put together an intriguing show that hinted at future success once the band gets more time together. They’ve only been playing as a group for about eight months. To watch them, you can tell they are still working on their stage presence, even if the audience was sparse.
“Have you ever been in a relationship and you just don’t like it?” Denson asked a nonresponsive crowd. One person raised his hand. “All of us are probably in one right now.”
It was the lead in to the band’s original song, “Easy Win,” but it’s a little difficult to imagine any of the young band members having spent too much time in multiple hollow relationships.
That’s not to say the band isn’t aware of its own youth. An original, playful montage of nursery songs put to guitar spoke to that. Think of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, the ABC Song and “The Teapot Song” put to a “We Will Rock You” backbeat, and you can easily imagine the playful nature of the band onstage with T-shirts, shorts and sometimes no shoes.
“That was an original that we perform at elementary schools, and the kids just love it,” said a guest supporting vocalist to the crowd.
“That literally never happened, but if you think that would be fun, put us in contact with an elementary school,” Denson said.
The band is probably at least one more album away from a full set list. Denson even sung the lyrics from Neon Trees’ “Everybody Talks” from a sheet of paper as the band played.
“This paper is not the lyrics,” Denson joked to the audience. “It’s a love letter. I love reading love letters.”
Despite the kinks, the band kept the crowd entertained to the point that few people walked away, and more than a few kept their feet tapping throughout the performance. The group is already working on a sophomore album and looking to book shows at local suburban venues.