"If this doesn't get your butts out of the chair, I don't know what will," says Jones, and the band breaks into Bob Marley's "Stir It Up," with the bongos making it a surprisingly true rendition.
The crowd's attention is being drawn between the band and a basketball game being shown on small TV's. By 11:15 most of the crowd has cleared out, but by 11:30, it has doubled its original size.
One song breaks into a fiery duet between Adam and Mike, bongos and bass, when out of nowhere Jones breaks into his own rap song.
The last song of the evening is always Jones' own "7-11 Love Song," a crowd favorite.
The song is simple, with lyrics like "I'm in love with the girl from 7-11...; She only makes four-twenty-five, but that's okay..." It is a simple, catchy melody, and a funny song, typical of many of his songs. Last year, Jones got the song played on the R
U radio station.
Jones has a strong songwriting ability, and the band taps into a kind of simple honest rock that manages to fuse all kinds of sounds. That's something commonly said about new bands these days, but not many are able to do it with the energy and enthusiasm
put forth by Root 81. The very recent addition of the drummer, Matt Walkowski, brings a whole new sound and dimension to the band, which seems to have limitless depths of talent.
Jones, at least, doesn't expect to take the music past college. He hopes to get a career "in the media."
Maybe nothing will come out of the band's efforts, and perhaps they don't want to take it outside of college, but for such a small location, and being made up of full-time students, the band has a great combination of style, talent, and uniqueness that ri
vals the bands that come to Radford from other places.
