A Shatterday to Remember!

To Keokukians,

We arrived on the scene early at the Tipenecker Tap. Cole and and I furiously gamed away at Plants vs Zombies on our phones, while the bands and friends started to trickle in. Soon it became time to load in our gargantuan amps, and start setting up, while the booths, tables, and bar stools filled up with our fellow comrades. We immediatley felt at home amongst the tattoos, beards, and faded black band shirts.

As musicians through the ages have played the taverns around the world, this was one of those moments where the stars fell into place, and a defining moment was had between band and listener. There's nothing quite as intimate as having the band and audience trapped in a room, where you can see every eyeball and expression as every note and rhythm churns. We poured the music out untill our tap was dry, and left the listeners flooded with ample melodies to digest. And it was good.

The bands that followed only christened the listeners even further, and at the end of the night we were all equally drained, purified, and ready to go home with big fat smiles on our faces. It was a Shatterday to remember, can't wait to do it again.

Nik- The War I Survived

An Introduction by Nik

I'd like to talk to you about a few things. Yes, you! I've felt like I've really been on the cusp of discovering my voice/guitar tone over the past year. The War I Survived has really allowed me to go unrestricted in developing a sound that I couldn't quite achieve in other projects. I'm excited to say that you'll get to hear that sound soon, with our upcoming album "The Tank".

As far as what my influences are, and what I've been listening to as a whole, I usually just put my iPod on shuffle. There's a little bit of Cursive, Sunny Day Real Estate, Oceansize, Bob Dylan, Beck, Cloud Cult, ACDC, and several others going on in my head right now. Vocally, I'm going for a Sunny Day/Thrice vibe. Guitar wise, think Angus Young guitar tone meets Deftones/Oceansize with a dash of Sunny Day in there as well.

I'm really stoked about The War I Survived in general. Jason's drumming really allows the guitars to breathe, while the band as a whole is really about finding the right mix of melt your face rock with move your mind melody. I feel like we're all getting to play the music we always wanted to play, and that the total sum of all our experience musically is allowing us to achieve that sound. Our voice as a band has finally caught up to that sound in our heads.

Nik-The War I Survived

"Phoenix" live at the Elks Lodge!

Here is another video from our show at the Elks Lodge in Ottumwa from back in January. I've been having fun putting these together. There will probably be more to come. -Jason

The song "Low" from a live show!

Hope you enjoy this video. Liz had one camera and the other was on a tripod. It was pretty cool having 2 different angles, so it made editing this show pretty fun. I'm pretty sure that I'll post more songs from this show.