Crowd favorite

By Casey Gillis

Published: June 25, 2008

It’s a Saturday night, and the sounds of “Come Together” echo through the bar at Big Lick Tropical Grill.

Casey Wood, lead singer of local band The Ruckus, growls the lyrics of The Beatles’ classic, his eyes closed and heels tapping on the hardwood floor.

Beside him, band mates Chris Blankenship, Jason Hatcher and Danny Farmer jam along on the guitar, drums and bass, respectively.

“Thank you very much. That’s a song we wrote back in the ’60s,” Wood jokes after the song is over and the applause has died down.

The Ruckus is a crowd favorite at Big Lick, says manager Beth Duckwall.

“They play such a good variety of music, and they have fun with it,” she says. “People are disappointed if we don’t have them (booked) in a month.”

The band, which has a show scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Friday at Jazz Street Grill, is just as comfortable rocking out to Beatles’ tunes as they are playing rap songs like Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It,” Outkast’s “The Whole World” and Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” or “Slow Jamz.”

Wood’s rap skills — which he says he picked up in college, when he’d drive around listening to Outkast — are something to be envied.

“The shock value is the cool part, I think,” he says. “There’s definitely a surprise element to come out with that in the middle of a set, after like two or three Jimi Hendrix songs.”

On this particular Saturday night, the band’s set included covers of those rap tunes, as well as Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain” and “No Woman No Cry,” The Police’s “Message in a Bottle,” Tom Petty’s “Last Dance With Mary Jane,” Incubus’ “Drive” and Blues Traveler’s “Runaround.”

Wood says they never plan out a set list before shows, preferring to stay in the moment.

“We just like to feel out the crowd and each other, and whatever comes out, comes out,” he says. “Organization isn’t our best strength.”

Blankenship says if they’re playing a dinner show, they’ll start out slowly.

“You don’t want to rip anybody’s face off right away,” he says, laughing.

The band approaches learning new songs with the same cavalier attitude. Instead of planning ahead to incorporate a new one into their show, Wood says they prefer to fly by the seat of their collective pants.

“Somebody will request it, one of us will know it and the rest will play along,” he says.

Wood, Blankenship and Hatcher began playing together 10 years ago when all three were in the drum line of Liberty High School’s marching band. They continued jamming together over the years, eventually forming a three-man band.

Farmer joined them in March.

Before that, “we were playing for fun and switched off who would do the bass playing,” Wood says. “(Now) it’s really nice to have somebody who knows what they’re doing playing bass. We kind of picked at it, but we’re not seasoned pros or anything. Danny’s the man.”

All four moonlight with other bands: Wood with the duo Mike and Casey; Hatcher with The Waiting Girl; and Blankenship and Farmer with The Extroverts, Jazz Street’s house band.

Right now, The Ruckus is content playing covers, but Wood says creating their own original tunes is on the horizon.

“The ultimate goal is to write our own stuff,” he says. “We’d like to sit down sometime to do some writing together, where everybody contributes. I’d love to see what comes together with all these guys.” 

IF YOU’RE GOING:

—WHAT: The Ruckus
—WHEN: 8:30 p.m. Friday
—WHERE: Jazz Street Grill on Old Forest Road
—INFO: http://www.myspace.com/theruckusva