Soul bands to play at The Bishop tonight

Soul and motown are two genres associated with sounds of the 1970s. Tonight, three bands hope to make this music come alive in The Bishop.

Chicago’s JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound will headline, with the Green Room Rockers and The Vallures opening the show.

The doors will open at 8 p.m., with performances starting around 9:30 p.m. The show is open to individuals 18 years and older, with a $10 cover.

“It’s three high-quality bands just bringing back an old-school soul flavor to the mic,” said Dan Coleman of Spirit of ‘68 Productions. “There’s been criticism that the return to retro soul the past couple of years comes off too polished and manufactured. With JC Brooks, they’re more genuine about what they’re doing. There is some grit to their sound.”

Band members include lead singer JC Brooks, guitarist Billy Bungeroth, drummer Kevin Marks and bassist Ben Taylor. The group has been on tour the past few months, but this will be its first performance in Bloomington.

“It is a show designed to get people to dance, to really have a reaction,” Taylor said. “It’s definitely high energy.”

The group is often mentioned in the same sentence as defining music of the 1970s, but Taylor said the group’s music cannot be labeled exclusively soul.

“We are very much not tied into recreating something that’s already been done,” he said. “We were all born after 1972, and we like music made after 1972. For us, it’s very personal music, and we’re just drawing from a lot of things that we grew up with.”

Taylor said the band is very excited to play another show with friends the Green Room Rockers. The Rockers, a group of Indiana musicians, have a more reggae sound.

The Vallures will perform first. Lead singer Jes Franco said their sound is similar to The Supremes. This band is a group of musicians who each play their own instrument and often dress alike, wearing 1960s-inspired clothing, full hair and makeup.

“It’s a lot more of a production in a way, which makes us a band worth seeing live simply because of our show,” Franco said. “I feel like this is something you can’t really see anymore.”

“I’m very excited to play with bands that are just like us and put all this music out in the world,” Franco said. “It’ll be a little bit of a history and a little bit of fun.”