DJ Boner Chatt 105 Rock
photo by Mark Herndon
Within Reason
photo by Mark Herndon
Leigh Kakaty, lead vocal
photo by Mark Herndon
Pop Evil
photo by Mark Herndon
Josh Marunde
photo by Mark Herndon
Dave Grahs
photo by Mark Herndon
Leigh Kakaty
photo by Mark Herndon
Josh Marunde
photo by Mark Herndon
Fans
photo by Mark Herndon
Front row fans
photo by Mark Herndon
Nick Fuelling
photo by Mark Herndon
Matt DiRito and Josh Marunde
photo by Mark Herndon
Matt DiRito
photo by Mark Herndon
Grif, Chris, David and Chase of Within Reason
photo by Mark Herndon
Nick Fuelling
photo by Mark Herndon
Leigh Kakaty with Chase of Within Reason
photo by Mark Herndon
Matt DiRito and Dave Grahs
photo by Mark Herndon
I heard a few weeks ago that something evil was coming back into the Chattanooga Music scene. I think it wasn’t put quite that way by one of my friends in the inner circle. However, it didn’t take me long with a little bit of social media prowling to come up with the nature of the threat.
I always enjoy a variety of musical taste on the menu and certainly Chattanooga can bring it on. Music makes us happy, some makes us sad… some just eases the soul…. And, yes, some will shimmy shake your bones. So a threat is coming?… really evil? ripping rock’n roll, with crash of metal and a twist of alternative punk. Then it occurred to me…….It has to be “Pop Evil.” I remembered it was on the Volkswagen stage, couple of years ago during the summer of 2012 at the huge Chattanooga party by the river, a/k/a Riverbend Festival.
Our music friends of the festival brought not Kiss, or Poison to the river, it was a “Yankee” band of musicians who found themselves breaking out in the Tennessee river city. They came from Michigan as noted with some of the best musical influences. Detroit best known for years of producing heavy metal (automobiles) but also produced Bob Seger, Grand Funk Railroad, Kid Rock and Eminem. Kiss adopted it as a second home in “Detroit Rock City.”
Pop Evil says their music “is the natural summation and continuation of all of those elements, distilled into powerful art.” The alternate punk rockers “Pop Evil” who at Riverbend shook the stage with songs like “Daisy Chain ~ Everybody wants to ride” …… a song that exploded the crowd from the stage as lead vocal Leigh Kakaty grabbed the mic and lead his band to rock the stage…… looking around the stage at each band member no doubt was committed to the passion of being in Chattanooga at the moment sharing their evil……. That was the summer of 2012.
Now it’s this cold week in January, already one of the coldest days of the year so far as well-noted Chattanooga Rock 105 DJ Boner introduced Pop Evil who came back to Chattanooga with fire in their eyes bringing hard rock, chaos and attitude. They say it’s the “type of music inspires like-minded outsiders to optimism.” It was impossible to contain this group of spirited-minded and very talented musicians as they literally shook the house at the end of Track 29.
These are the moments I tried to capture with photography revealing the passion and spirit of the guys in front of their music and fans. The members of the band are Leigh Kakaty - lead vocals and founder, Josh Marunde – drums, Dave Grahs - rhythm and lead guitar, backing vocals, Matt DiRito - bass, backing vocals, and Nick Fuelling - lead and rhythm guitar.
This story would not be complete without giving credit to the Birmingham AL group “Within Reason” playing their opening gig in Chattanooga for the first time. The huge crowd of all ages warmed up to them immediately with breaking their music set twice. Stopping once as WR drummer stopped to give a couple of pair of drumsticks to some twin boys who managed with the help of their mom and dad to be on the front rail. Then another unexpected change was when Pop Evil’s lead vocalist Leigh Kakaty came out and joined “Within Reason” performing the song “We had it all”. What a class act that Pop Evil showed by sharing a song with these kids from “Within Reason” set.
Within Reason, loaded with various talents, personalities and music, will be shared on this page soon. I think my prediction would be “Within Reason” could be on the path to Riverbend or Nightfall soon.
Track 29 continues to introduce the Chattanooga music scene with a variety of entertainment for the river city. Check out the social media outlet at https://www.facebook.com/Track29, https://www.facebook.com/popevil, and https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWithinReason for more information.
Mark A Herndon, CPG
Professional photographer
m.a.herndon@comcast.net