With an album in production, a manager, and up to three shows a week, rock band The Grove has come a long way since its high-school days of playing battle of the bands shows in Cincinnati.
The group will play Saturday alongside Higher Fives, Trap Kings and Old Worlds at 10 p.m. at the Smiling Skull Saloon, 108 W. Union St.
In 2007, The Grove’s lead guitarist and vocalist, Adam Forsthoefel, started playing the national anthem on guitar for various sporting events, including games for the Cincinnati Cyclones and Reds.
Then in 2009, Forsthoefel joined with the band’s keyboardist Chris Brokamp to create a collaborative writing duo that would form into their first band, Somedaze.
The Grove still plays old songs from Somedaze and its self-titled album, Forsthoefel said.
The band changed its name to match the house the members rented together on Grosvenor Street and began playing one or two house shows a month.
Kevin McCulley, Forst hoefel’s long-time manager, gave Forsthoefel his national anthem show and has since started managing the band, helping it pick up two or three gigs a week.
“The Grove is not just a cover band. These musicians are talented song writers, and we’re working with many local places in greater Cincinnati to play some big shows next summer,” McCulley said.
The band has a repertoire of covers and original music that allows two-to three-hour sets involving 50 songs or more, said Forsthoefel.
Covers include songs from Marshall Tucker Band and The Black Crows. The band also creates original covers, including a combination of Neil Young and LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” or a Britney Spears cover “that you wouldn’t recognize until I start singing,” Forsthoefel said.
“Many think of the Grove as a ’90s cover band,’?” Forsthoefel said. “But we are much more than that. (There is a) blues side and grunge side to us, and we mix it together sometimes”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
