Local indie group Clubhouse will hype up fans with new music and covers this Saturday for its second Athens show this month.
The Ohio-based band has performed numerous times in Athens and will be making another appearance Saturday at The Union Bar & Grill at 9 p.m. Opening for the five-man band will be reggae pop group V!bes from Columbus. The tickets are $6 each and can be purchased through the band’s facebook page.
The upcoming show will be the band’s second week in a row performing in Athens. Last weekend, it performed at Riverfest along with Soulja Boy and other Ohio-based groups.
The band prefers to perform with the crowd verses at the crowd, drummer Zak Blumer, a junior studying engineering physics, said.
Four of the five band members are students at Ohio University. Keyboardist and backup vocalist Michael Berthold is the only member who does not live in Athens during the academic year. Berthold goes to The Ohio State University and lives in Columbus, where the group does a lot of practicing, producing and performing.
The group has also been traveling the Midwest with other indie pop groups, such as Wolf Alice and Kid Runner. The highlight of the band's musical career so far has been opening for female group HAIM in Columbus, Ben Saulnier, the band’s bassist and backup vocalist, said.
“Max was actually overseas in Amsterdam when we got the call, so we got him from Europe to Columbus in 48 hours to do the show,” Saulnier, a junior studying music production, said.
The five boys are making a habit of sharing the stage with hit artists, as they have performed on the same stage as The Outer Vibe and Little Hurricane at the Fashion Meets Music Festival in Columbus in September.
Because not all of the band members live in Athens, they have to accommodate their individual schedules.
“Behind the scenes, we’re working in Columbus a lot so it’s kind of cool to come here and show all of our friends what we have been working on and give them a show,” Max Reichert, the lead vocalist and rhythm guitar player, said.
Clubhouse has also been working with Brick City Records, a student-run record company at OU, and hopes to be getting more new music out soon.
Much like most musicians, the band's style is always changing. Although its style is pop or indie pop, it has been becoming broader as time goes on, Blumer said.
“(We get) inspiration from whoever we’re listening to at the time,” Saulnier said.
The group is really focusing on spreading its name throughout the Midwest, Reichert, a senior studying marketing, said.
“Although we want to stay true to our roots, we want to be huge. We have pretty big goals that hopefully we reach at some point,” Blumer said.
Clubhouse has recently released its new single, "Run Away (Bud Magne remix)," on Spotify, which is gaining a lot of hype from fans, but the band plans on putting out new music once all of the artwork and tracks are finalized, Saulnier said. The members plan on sharing some of their new tracks along with older songs and some covers in their show Saturday.
“We’ve had great support in Athens from the music we have released so far,” Blumer said. “But compared to what we have prepared before, (our new music) just has leaps and bounds of time, energy and money put into this so we hope people like it, but regardless it’s going to be out there.”
