The George Elliot Underground

In the darkness to stage left, Brian Dangerous, drummer for The George Elliot Underground, was rummaging through a pile of instruments and equipment the band members had set aside when they arrived. Part of his drum set was at his feet, covered with strings of Christmas lights.

"I've got to figure out if they are all going to come on," he said, brushing back his long, curly hair which was held mostly in place by his signature bandana sweatband. Once he was sure his drums would be properly illuminated, he stepped through the back door of Skully's Bar to join the rest of his band for a pre-show pep talk, delivered by band manager Brad Stickley.

The first band to play in Saturday's show at Skully's was The Sleeps, a band from Cleveland who played electric rock in a style not quite familiar to the Columbus crowd. Twenty-seven people were in Skully's when the show started, but nearly 250 people, ranging from college girls in dresses to middle-aged men in blue jeans, crowded the bar when The George Elliot Underground took the stage.

As Brian directed the other musicians to start, lead singer Matt Zab stepped to the microphone and filled the bar with a pure and harmonic voice not common for a local band.

The crowd screamed and cheered as Derek, the bass player, knelt to his knees and played before playing some more while lying on his back. Across the stage, guitarist Marlin pointed at the crowd and lifted his guitar in the air above his head, and Jeremy, the other guitarist, knelt at the front of the stage and let the crowd touch his guitar as his fingers danced across the strings.

"I love you," a girl shouted to the band. But they couldn't hear her because the rest of crowd was shouting, in unison, "G-E-U!"

The first time I met The George Elliot Underground, the five artists and their manager were practicing in a middle-class neighborhood in Pickerington, about 20 minutes east of the Ohio State campus. Their one-room studio with plywood floors was littered with beer cans and filled with amps and speakers and drums and guitars and other pieces of equipment with which I wasn't familiar.

The unfinished walls were decorated with posters: The Strokes, Eric Clapton, The Beatles, Hendrix and even Incubus. The band's producer later told me that he can hear the influence from many of these bands in George Elliot's music, but admires the fact that the band still has its own distinct sound.

"We are definitely a college band. Those are the people we want to target," Stickley told me.

The band plays mostly around campus, and is hoping to get more radio playtime on CD 101. Before I ever heard them play, Stickley told me that their style is "classic rock with a modern twist."

"We hate the fact that O.A.R and Rascal Flatts is what Columbus is known for," Stickley said. The band hopes to soon have the largest fan base of any band in Columbus.

The George Elliot Underground was formed last August from two bands that had broken apart. The five band members all went to the same high school, and had remained close friends even when they were in the two separate bands.

Once a few of the less talented artists in their larger group moved away, the five were left to play impromptu band sessions in the basement of their 12th Avenue apartment. By the end of summer, they were ready to perform live.

"They really created a band around a friendship, rather than having a friendship come from being a part of a band," Stickley said.

Their friendship is strong, as they talk to one another sometimes more like brothers than fellow band members. At one point during the practice session I attended, Brian stopped playing his drums long enough to yell at Jeremy.

He shouted "That is not an A. It's a B-flat. It goes C, then B-flat."

"Oh, I did not know that," Jeremy replied, smiling halfway.

Brian shook his head and looked down at his drums.

"God, you guys are a bunch of amateurs," Brian said. "You are like high schoolers playing at a talent show."

These types of antics are typical of Brian. He is the big play caller for the band, especially when they are performing. Brad might be the band's manager, but any decisions that need to be made on stage usually come from Brian.

When The George Elliot Underground is onstage, the members think and act as one being. They are one band. But offstage they are much different from one another. Derek wears his blond hair long and straight, and enjoys low cut T-shirts with lines of alternate colors. At the Skully's show, he wore a black leather vest, a half dozen hemp bracelets and nearly 10 necklaces, one of which supported a gold cross which dangled to his chest. He is very laid back, and puts a lot of emotion into his music. He moves and sways with the beat and sometimes closes his eyes as he plays.

Jeremy stands next to Derek and is nothing like the taller bass player. Jeremy is a thinker, not a feeler. He watches and considers things, and during a show you can tell he is thinking about 100 things all at once. He prefers to wear plain T-shirts, wears his hair slicked back and, like the rest of the band, is always in cowboy boots.

Brian, with his big hair, beard and bandana, is the most outgoing person in the band. He is loud, and usually scares people the first time he meets them. But once he's your friend you will appreciate his tenacious humor and bizarre antics. On weekends he has been known to skip three nights of sleep in a row, and he is always ready for a party.

Marlin is probably the most fashionable of the band members. He wears stylish shirts with pearl snaps for buttons. He is the only black man in the band, and often gets teased by the rest of the group, joking that he has no rhythm. He likes knit hats, which he wears even during summer, and occasionally wears sandals, though he wore boots to the show.