Athens' ruling rockers are back in town for a raucous, rolling show that will give Athenians the Southeast Engine fix they need after a long summer. Formed in 1999 by lead singer Adam Remnant and drummer Leo DeLuca, Southeast Engine truly took shape when the pair started taking classes at Ohio University and practicing in their dorm rooms.We would drink beer and play until 4 in the morning
DeLuca said. Months later, the duo had picked up other musicians and began playing shows around Athens.The lineup has changed from time to time, but Remnant and DeLuca stayed the core of the band, which now includes keyboardist Michael Lachman, bassist Matthew Box and guitarists Josh Antonuccio and Adam Torres.With that many members, Southeast Engine lists plenty of influences. They cite the regular fathers of their genre, such as Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Guided by Voices, but Mike Tyson as a huge inspiration as well, DeLuca said.We're all music geeks Remnant said.Many great bands start in Athens only to be torn apart by graduation, and the members of Southeast Engine could not be students forever. Yet these bandmates have stuck together, with jobs ranging from Internet sales manager to eighth-grade teacher.As time goes by, the band takes time off to hit the road. Last year, it played College Music Journal's Rock Hall Music Festival in Cleveland, which also played host to such artists as Ben Kweller, The Lovely Feathers and Apollo Sunshine, among others.The band played 10 tour dates in the South in March and also played two dates in New York City. DeLuca said one of those gigs, at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn, was one of their best ever. But the guys said their recent show at Skully's Music Diner in Columbus and the subsequent review in Columbus Alive really has helped them break into the city's market.Since April, Southeast Engine has been recording a follow-up to their 2005 LP, Coming to Terms with Gravity. That record featured only four or five musicians on each song, Remnant said, but the band now boasts six members that makes the sound a little more epic. The band is tentatively calling the new record A Wheel Within A Wheel and hopes to have the album released some time in the winter.
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Chris Yonker
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Southeast Engine members Adam Remnant, Leo DeLuca, Josh Antonuccio, Michael Lachman and Matthew Box (left to right) get in tune with one another before practice last night.
As students return to hit the books and the bricks, perennial crowd-pleaser Southeast Engine revs up the Athens music scene
