exitcity

Great Music Exit City!

99.7 The Blitz - WBZX Columbus

Exit City

By Chris DeVille

Exit City is nothing if not ambitious.
The Columbus modern-rock quartet has secured a boatload of local gigs and tour dates stretching from Chicago to Nashville, mere months after guitarist Bryan Anderson found singer Tim Oliver through a classified ad.

They've played the Newport. Album recording is well underway. And, as you can see, they already got themselves in the paper.

"You've got to make your own destiny," bassist Chad Greenwald said. "You can't just wait for something to happen to you."

If they keep meeting goals at this rate, they may actually live out the kind of starry-eyed dreams Anderson had in mind when he assembled the group late last summer.

Each of the bandmates has devoted the bulk of his time and resources to Exit City, but Anderson's free time and dedicated, practically obsessive, vision allow him to be the band's driving force. Besides a monthly stint with the Air Force Reserve, the guitarist has all the time he wants to write music, promote shows and look for the band's next leg up.

"He's hunting every day, by day and by night," drummer Nathan Parker said.
Anderson is the kind of guy who rocks out without irony to Nickelback's "Rockstar" and envisions similar success for his band. He doesn't want a life of luxury so much as he longs to play his songs for thousands and share with them a "connection that surpasses every moment."

It's a good dream, but a common dream. And in order to achieve it, his band will have to transcend commonality — either develop an uncommon sound or become uncommonly good at what they do.

What: Exit City
When: Saturday, January 26
Where: CBR's, Brewery District
Web: myspace.com/exitcitymusic


Exit City's solution leans a little bit both ways. Their goal is to cook up songs that go down smooth despite complex ingredients. They create mainstream rock tunes that could flourish on the radio but surprise seasoned musicians with their subtle complexity. With a combination of schooled and self-taught musicians, they seem capable of crafting such music.

Sometimes the band aims to bring the convoluted time signatures of Tool and Dream Theater to a mainstream framework, but their greatest musical success comes from keeping it simple and deviating ever so slightly from expectations. The inventive drum patterns in the verse of "November Rain" (not a Guns N' Roses cover) or the interplay between the guitar and vocal melodies in the ballad "Better Off
Without You" come to mind.

However they choose to go about it, each member of Exit City is ready to sacrifice a lot of time and energy to help this band take off.

"A year or two ago," Anderson said, "absolutely none of us would have been ready."

That complete absence of foot-draggers might be enough to set Exit City apart from a sea of similar acts and turn good timing into good fortune.

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January 24, 2008
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