It is late Friday afternoon and New York-based alt-rock band, Acid Dad is found hanging out in Atlanta. Earlier that day the band melted a few faces during their 45-minute set at their Shaky Knees Festival performance, picked up a few new fans, had some drinks, eat some chips and a took a few pictures. Ya’know, a day-in-the-lives type of thing. “It’s not really that different, ya’know, performing at a festival or a small venue. All that matters is that the music comes through and the fan energy can be felt,” quips singer-guitarist Sean Fahey; “At festivals you get much more to drink and eat and plenty more space for stretching and warmups though,” replies drummer Trevor Mustoe. These little observations are what makes a band playing the big stage just a little more down-to-earth, a little more likable, a lot more approachable.
But, taking a step back from the personality description, on stage, the Acid Dad dudes are quite volatile — in a good way. They display their talents rather cool-and-collected for the most part, but will not let you get too comfortable during their small bursts of high energetic musical outbursts. It is almost comes across as playful. From the neck up we have shades and shaggy hairstyles, from the neck down we have four different body languages that can each lead a small melodic charge and own the spotlight for moments at a time.
Singing duties are somewhat split between guitarists, Vaughn Hunt and Sean Fahey; yet unconventionally, they cede the center stage presence to bassist, Zoltan Sindhu. The front three read like a fair democracy of sorts. Like any group, a strong backbone is warranted, and that is where you find Trevor Mustoe, both literally banging away on the drums, and kind of symbolically. “I have a strong core, man. I can do back flips on a modified pogo stick. All you do is tweak the springs a little bit to spruce the jump and let my body do the rest,” confesses Mustoe. “He is really good at head stands, too,” reply the rest in unison. “Strong core, man.” Fitting for the man that helms the back of the stage.
“Atlanta is cool, man. Incredibly chill and just fun. Shaky Knees is one of the best festivals around.” mentions Hunt. It would seem apparent that the feeling is mutual. The Shaky Knees Festival is one of the premier festivals of our city, and they seem to always find those bands we need open our collective eyes to. “We love the direction of the band at this time. We are still promoting our latest LP ‘Take It From The Dead’ and our live record ‘Levitation Sessions,’ so if you enjoyed what you saw on stage. You can always help the band by checking out our material,” closes Fahey.
On festival grounds, the lads of Acid Dad left no melodic rock unturned, the fans appreciated that by way of loud and cheerful ‘uhs,’ ‘ahs’ and ‘woos.’ It was a party, and everyone in attendance got a fair share of masterful showmanship and bitchin’ tunes. Those not in attendance, missed out. Simple as that. Additionally, here-and-there you could spot the members just mingling around the grounds amongst fans, like previously stated, down-to-earth fellas.
All said and done, the Shaky Knees team did the festival patrons a huge solid by booking Acid Dad. Their sound is a healthy fusion of post-punk, neo-psych, a dose of rock-n-roll … and you know what, just go stream the boys. They put out good music and deserve your attention.
LoudSound Magazine 