V-roys at SPITTLEFEST Live Review

Spectator, Feb. 19, 1997

V-roys By Philip Van Vleck & Ellen Arthur

THE FIRST NIGHT OF THE Brewery's S.P.I.T.T.L.E. Fest came off in great fashion last Friday in Raleigh. Mercury Dime, rockBig foe, the Burnley Brothers, Redneck Greece Delux and Six String Drag all turned in excellent sets, the crowd was completely into the tunes all evening and the barbecue and beans were also right tasty. We took the opportunity to zero in on The V-roys, a quartet from Knoxville that has recently signed with Steve Earle's E-Squared Records.

The V-Roys are Scott Miller (guitars/vocals), Jeff Bills (drums), Paxton Sellers (bass) and Mike Harrison (guitar/vocals). Their particular musical vibe is basically straddling the fence between straight ahead rock and alternative country. As we heard during their set, the V-roys tend to fall off that fence fairly often, on both sides. We got about 15 songs from the band, including most of the tracks from their album, Just Add Ice.

The crowd loved these guys. The V-roys are a high energy deal live; they generate the sort of buzz that pulls in an audience and they had folks bouncin’ off the walls in the Brewery. When they dowshifted for a ballad, that was usually when the twangcore influence was at its most obvious. "Goodnight Loser" and "Lie I Believe," both slow tunes, had an obvious country influence, but given the instrumentation of the band, nothing they did sounded as country as it would've with steel guitar, fiddle, or an acoustic/electric guitar balance. Obviously, The V-roys don't want to be identified as either a twangcore act or as a straight rock band.

I can identify them, however, as a Knoxville band that enjoys a huge following back in Vol land and it's not hard to figure out why. They rock hard and they keep it interesting. "Cry," for instance (seventh track on the album and the seventh song in their set last Friday night), is a speed rocker that comes on with a simple Buddy Holly rumble but gives way to guitar solos that are hardly vintage rock ramblings. It isn't just that different V-roys songs show different influences, but even better, that a V-roys song is likely to show several influences simultaneously. This can work for a tight band with plenty of chops and, coincidentally, that’s an apt description of the V-roys.

As good as their debut album is, their show at the Brewery was a notch better. The sonic blast that these guys conjured on stage is not quite there o the album. That’s no reason to back off the album, however. Rather, it’s the reason to catch this band in concert when they return to the Triangle.