Giovannie & The Hired Guns and Black Stone Cherry with Jigsaw Youth

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Tuesday, Nov 14, 2023  7pm

Location

Categories

Nightlife • Music

Details

Giovannie & The Hired Guns and Black Stone Cherry with Jigsaw Youth
Doors: 7 p.m. || Show: 8 p.m. || All Ages
$29.50: GA Advance || $35: GA Day of Show
$110: Table of 2 || $220: Table of 4
$2 Minor Fee at the Door
GA = standing room only
Tables are assigned and labeled based upon time of purchase

GIOVANNIE & THE HIRED GUNS
In the last few years alone, Giovannie & The Hired Guns have grown from a massively beloved local live act to an undeniable new force on the national rock scene. Formed back when frontman Giovannie Yanez was working the counter at a pawnshop, the Stephenville, Texas-based band has amassed millions of streams almost entirely through word-of-mouth, thanks in no small part to their unforgettable live show—an electrifying spectacle that invariably leaves audiences sweat-drenched and ecstatic. With their high-octane collision of rock-and-roll and country, Giovannie & The Hired Guns are now at work on a hotly anticipated new album showcasing their hard-hitting sound, emotionally raw storytelling, and the kind of authentically gritty energy that’s sorely missing from rock music today.
As revealed on their 2017 full-length debut Bad Habits and 2020 self-titled album, Giovannie & The Hired Guns draw much of their power from the eclectic sensibilities at the heart of the band: drummer Milton Toles, for instance, brings a soulful intensity deeply informed by playing music in church as a kid, while guitarist Jerrod Flusche’s background includes session work with such prominent country acts as Dolly Shine and Sam Riggs & the Night People. With their lineup rounded out by guitarist Carlos Villa and bassist Alex Trejo, the band also taps into elements of everything from Southern rock and stoner metal to la musica norteña and Latin hip-hop. “We’re all from different walks of life, and we all have our own unique style that we add to the band,” says Yanez. “No one’s ever telling anyone else how or what to play; we just show up and jam out and it all comes together so naturally—nothing is ever forced with us.”
Originally from the Northern Texas town of Mineral Wells, Yanez first explored his soul-baring approach to songwriting at the age of 17 (“It pretty much started right after the first big heartbreak,” he notes). Around that same time, he began performing at local dive bars while holding down a job at a nearby rock quarry. “I’d go play gigs and be out till about three in the morning, then get up to go to work at seven—it was a struggle for a while, but I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life,” says Yanez. Not long after landing his job at the pawnshop, Yanez crossed paths with Trejo and soon began assembling the Hired Guns lineup, then pushed forward with an equally grueling gig schedule. “When we first started out it was always, ‘Hey guys, can you play a four-hour set with two breaks? Here’s $200,’” Yanez recalls. As word got out about their can’t-miss live performance, the band began selling out shows all across their home state, in addition to sharing stages with the likes of Read Southall Band and Kody West. And in a particularly thrilling turn, 2019 saw Giovannie & The Hired Guns opening for platinum-selling country star Jason Aldean to a crowd of 36,000 at Globe Life Park stadium.
Each released without the support of a record label, Giovannie & The Hired Guns’ two studio albums have drastically expanded their following, largely on the strength of viscerally charged tracks like “Rooster Tattoo” (a cut from their self-titled effort that’s now surpassed 3.7 million streams on Spotify). The band have continued to pursue their potent instincts on recent singles like “Ramon Ayala,” a freewheeling anthem named for the famed Mexican singer/songwriter whose music served as an essential part of the soundtrack to Yanez’s childhood. “Some of our songs are pure fun, and some will hit you in the gut and make you cry—it all just depends on what’s in my heart in that moment,” says Yanez.
With their third full-length due out in 2022, Giovannie & The Hired Guns remain intent on bringing that unbridled passion to each and every live set. “Anytime we’re onstage the most important thing is connecting with the crowd in a way that makes them feel like they’re part of the show,” says Yanez. “Everyone’s got their struggles and their demons, but hopefully our music can help people let go a little and feel like everything’s going to be okay. I know it’s been the thing that’s kept me sane, and now I just want to keep spreading that love.”

BLACK STONE CHERRY
Proud Kentucky rockers, Black Stone Cherry, emerge from a challenging few years triumphantly with a behemoth of an album, Screamin’ At The Sky (Mascot Records/Mascot Label Group), out September 29th. The four-piece band’s eighth album explodes with urgently-emotive pop-rock hooks; heartfelt, redemptive lyrics; headbanging riffs; powerful dynamics; thunderous drums; and its most thrilling musicianship yet. The 12-song collection is also BSC’s biggest and best sounding album. The self-produced studio record was tracked at a classic Kentucky theater, and it sounds like the guys are smashing down the hammer of the gods.
“The thesis of this record is adapting and moving on. In the last few years, a lot of what I knew from childhood went away. I lost my father, and now I am the oldest living man in my family,” says vocalist/guitarist Chris Robertson. He continues: “There is a lot of darkness on this album—I bared my soul—but it always foreshadows light at the end of the tunnel.” Adds guitarist/backing vocalist Ben Wells: “We see something beautiful letting pain out—you come out a better person.”
In the past two decades, Black Stone Cherry has set a new standard for Southern rock, revitalizing the tradition with its burly riffs and stirring rock hooks. Since its formation in 2001, the four-piece brotherhood has remained Chris Robertson, vocals/guitar; Ben Wells, guitar/vocals; and John Fred Young, drums. Today, the band welcomes its dear friend Steve Jewell Jr. on bass/backing vocals.
Steve is formerly of the blues-rock band OTIS who has opened for BSC many times. “I grew up around this music. Every time we play ‘Lonely Train,’ I remember driving with my dad and hearing it on the radio. I get emotional thinking about it,” Steve says. John Fred chimes in: “Steve is the young kid in the band—he doesn’t have as many wrinkles! He’s a monster player, and we have this insane chemistry with him.”
BSC’s last album, The Human Condition, released on October 30th, 2020 through Mascot Records, was their sixth consecutive No. 1 debut on the UK Rock Albums chart. The album’s lead single, “Again” was the band’s biggest single in over 10 years in America, peaking at #15, and it was BSC’s highest charting record ever in Canada, also landing in the Top 15. The album racked-up 50 million streams worldwide, and “Again” amassed 20 million streams total.
Over the years, BSC has both headlined and rocked 12,000-cap arena shows and shared the stage with a diverse roster of superstars, including Alter Bridge, Theory of a Deadman, Def Leppard, Gov’t Mule, Nickelback, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company, Mötorhead, Halestorm, Stone Temple Pilots, The Darkness, and ZZ Top. In 2018, BSC performed in front of 100,000 people at the Download Festival as main support to Guns N’ Roses. In 2021, the band played the UK’s venerated Royal Albert Hall, immortalized on 2022’s live DVD Live From The Royal Albert Hall…Y’All.
Screamin’ At The Sky features all-new material written collaboratively while on tour. When it came time to record, BSC decided to try something it’s always dreamed of doing: tracking an album at The Plaza Theater in Glasgow, Kentucky, a legendary 1020-seat venue built in 1934 that boasts meticulous acoustics. “Every time we played the Plaza we wondered what it would sound like to record drums there. We finally decided to put all our eggs in one basket,” Chris says.
In June of 2022, the band rented the theater and brought its trusty engineer, Jordan Westfall, and all its recording equipment into the theater, setting up the basement as the control room and the stage as the live drum room. John Fred tore through his drum tracks like a beast, and they ended up sounding mountainous. Chris and Ben had time to record guitars in the theater before heading out on tour. Those tracks also sounded richly dynamic, and the rest of Screamin’ At The Sky was finished post-tour at the theater and at John Fred’s makeshift home studio.
Time between recording sessions, and incredible room ambience have resulted in a career high watermark for BSC. Screamin’ At The Sky bursts open with the title track which kicks off with the feral roar of dimed amps in a big open space. Then a bruising riff cycles through punctuated by what can be best described as John Bonham-sized drums in a sleek modern rock context. For the chorus, Chris delivers one of his finest performances, managing to be raw-nerved emotional but also smoothly melodic. “My idea for the chorus is a bunch of friends around a campfire screaming their pain away,” Chris says.
He is courageously autobiographical on the anthemic, “Nervous,” which opens with the lyrics: Memory lane, it’s ‘85, a baby boy with big blue eyes/And promises just waiting to be broken. The song balances slamming hard rock riffage with moody clean-guitar verses, reflective singing, and meticulously-crafted vocal melodies that gracefully rise until climaxing into an urgently-melodic chorus.
The barnburners continue with “When The Pain Comes,” an uplifting modern rock statement on confronting life’s challenges without succumbing to the pain. “That’s about digging your heels in the dirt and staying strong,” John Fred says. The single, “Out Of Pocket,” became something of an instant classic when the guys debuted it on their UK tour last summer. It epitomizes the band’s prowess at mixing sweetly weary verses with incendiary choruses. BSC lighten things up with “Smile, World,” a brawny sing-along about not taking life too seriously.
Screamin’ At The Sky has been a catharsis for Black Stone Cherry, and the quartet is savoring the calm after the storm. “A lot of bands would have thrown in the towel, but we came out the other side with some of the best music we’ve ever made,” Ben enthuses. Chris concludes: “ We’re in a great space—this band is as much as a family as it’s ever been.”