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eakout<br />
Local Bands break out, Sponsored By<br />
In this age of Emo, Screamo, Punk, and Indie, the Otters have<br />
come to Provo to restore what has once been lost. Joel Baer,<br />
Collin McDaniel, and cousins Kyle and Ryan Blodgett grew up<br />
together in Kennewick, Washington -- close to a nuclear reactor,<br />
thus explaining their “explosive music.” They dropped<br />
the name Jerk Store and picked up singer Nate Barnes for his<br />
“showmanship skills” and went on a quest to bring today’s generation<br />
out of the dark apostasy of electronica and whiny punk<br />
stars, back to the true faith of pure Rawk.<br />
Guitarist Kyle Blodgett confesses that his favorite part of a<br />
rock show is going crazy. “It’s the only time when people admire<br />
you for doing it.”<br />
I went to an Otters show at the Hollywood Juice Café in<br />
which the Otters were last to play. The heat produced by all<br />
their screaming, sweating, dancing fans fogged up the whole<br />
store front.<br />
While sometimes my ears strain to hear the almost whispering<br />
screams of lead singer Nate Barnes, his actions on stage<br />
and contagious passion for rock would even make Jack Black<br />
“Envy,” and by the end of every gig he’ll be drenched from head<br />
to toe in sweet rock-lust sweat.<br />
Many fevers have been cured by the nourishing clank of drummer<br />
Joel Baer’s cowbell. Baer is in a select group of percussionists<br />
who write songs as well as keep rhythm. He attributes his<br />
talent and fashion sense to his “love of the ’80s, women and<br />
life.”<br />
True believer of Rawk, Dan Gillman, describes the Otters<br />
sound as such: “Imagine Mick Jagger and Van Morrison conceived<br />
a child through an unholy union and it was raised and<br />
coddled by Joey Ramone and Johny Rotten of the Sex Pistols.<br />
This young lad was neighbors with Angus Young of AC/DC and<br />
was schoolmates with the Clash and the Police. He was cousin<br />
to the Kings of Leon, the Hives and the Strokes. But his fi rst<br />
intimate acquaintance was with Weezer.”<br />
The<br />
Otters<br />
The Restoration of ‘Rawk’<br />
Whether you are a true<br />
believer or an apostate<br />
of Indie, you won’t be<br />
able to help fogging up<br />
the windows when this<br />
“... rump shaking, stick<br />
it to the man, Rawk” is<br />
playing.<br />
playing. S<br />
By Ammon VanOrden<br />
Photos By Amy West<br />
<strong>Schooled</strong> 17
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