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The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Noise rock band returns to Bloomington

WAXEATER

WAXEATER’s album art, tour van and frontman’s forearm tattoo have something in common — Anne Frank.

Lead singer and guitarist Rob Montage founded his noise rock band in Bloomington over a decade ago and traveled in a tour van called “Vanne Frank.” The band and van will return to Bloomington on Thursday to play a show at the Back Door.

Montage is currently on his third “Vanne Frank,” he said. He also used the name for the first WAXEATER van, back when he had a different rhythm section.

“I think that’s funny enough to repeat over and over again,” he said.

WAXEATER has comprised the same three members for the past six years, Montage said. After living 13 years in Bloomington, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where drummer Aaron Sortman and bassist Elliot Turton both lived.

He said the move was partly caused by feelings that he had outgrown Bloomington’s college-aged crowd, but that Louisville also offered an audience for WAXEATER’s music.

“Louisville has a long history of sort of noisy rock,” 
he said.

While Montage now plays more bars than house shows, he said he doesn’t mind the shift, since WAXEATER never really fit in with Bloomington’s folk punk scene.

“I don’t think what we did was their style,” he said. “We were always friendly. We would play some of those shows, but we were not the kind of music they were seeking out and vice versa.”

Even in Louisville, Montage said his brand of music is lost on most people.

“We’re just making weirdo music,” he said. “There’s a niche 300 people in the United States that are really into it.”

He said he and his bandmates never sought out fame or crossover appeal.

“I know damn well the music that we’re making is not for everybody,” he said.

Playing music is really just a hobby for the trio, he said. They’re all in their thirties with families and full-time jobs to schedule around.

While these other commitments often mean WAXEATER can’t tour for more than two or three days, Montage said he’s satisfied with the lifestyle.

“This is not us trying to be Coldplay or something,” he said. “It’s something we do because we care about it, and it turns into a vacation for us.”

Right now, the band is trying to find time to record two songs for a seven-inch vinyl release, he said.

Both tracks comment on popular misconceptions of WAXEATER, he said. People see the tattoos, hear the noisy guitars and assume these guys were born and bred punk musicians.

“We’re like the least punk rock people in the world,” Montage said. “I drive a Prius and teach English.”

As far as Thursday’s show goes, he said he’s excited to reconnect with old friends and show off WAXEATER’s development.

“WAXEATER hasn’t played in Bloomington since I moved away almost two years ago, so I think it’ll just be nice to come back and let people see how we’ve changed and grown a little bit,” he said.

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