Friday, May 4, 7 p.m.
The Stardust, 218 Iowa Street, Davenport IA
Eight superb musicians will take the stage for one exhilarating event when the genre-defying talents of The Suffers play a Moeller Nights concert on May 4, their collective gifts leading Spin magazine to dub the Houston-based outfit “the sort of neo-retro group you never knew music was so badly missing.”
Defining their singular blend of blues, jazz, country, R&B, Cajun, and hip-hop as “Gulf Coast Soul,” a style resulting from the mixture of different cultures and musical genres present around Houston, The Suffers were formed in 2011 by bandmates and friends Adam Castaneda (bass guitar) and Pat Kelly (keyboards). Although they originally envisioned the group as a small-scale reggae jam band, both the lineup and the sound expanded exponentially with the addition of six other performers: Kevin Bernier (guitar), Jon Durbin (trumpet), Michael Razo (trombone), Jose Luna (percussion), Nick Zamora (drums), and Kam Franklin (lead vocals), the latter a recipient of three Houston Press Music Award nominations for “Best Female Vocalist” before she joined The Suffers. (In 2014 and 2015, Franklin would go on to win Houston Press citations as “Local Musician of the Year.”)
Frequent area bookings and tour stops led to the release of the group's 2013 single “Slow It Down b/w Step Aside” and 2014's Make Some Room, an EP debut that led Buzzfeed to list the band among its “25 New Artists You Need in Your Life in 2015.” Over the next year-and-a-half, The Suffers were covered by the New York Times, Spin, and Paste; they appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and Jimmy Kimmel Live; and they made made their first appearance at the South by Southwest music festival, with Esquire magazine naming them one of the 40 bands everyone needed to see. Released in 2016, the group's self-titled debut album was called “soul, straight from the heart” by NPR and “vintage soul, jazz, and reggae” by Spin, and The Suffers' sophomore LP, Everything Here, will be released this summer on July 13.
The Suffers' engagement at Davenport venue The Stardust opens with a set by Krystal Metcalfe, tickets are $12-15, and more information and reservations are available by visiting MoellerNights.com.
