The Sailing

Canal Street was hopping mad, full of pretty girls with darkened eyes and strange hepcats with messy hair and rolled up jeans. Most of the standing room only crowd came to see this years overall favorite to win it all, The Sailing. The Sailing, who ended up finishing [second] overall last year, looked confident that this year was their year.

I entered the bar and was overcome by an energetic assault of high hats, distorted octave chords, and a skinny front man with a brash and blustering voice. Their fans were pushed against the stage and banged their heads along with the 4-piece melodramatic hard rock outfit. I arrived a little late due to work, but I caught enough of their set to know that they had not missed a beat from a year ago. The Sailing plays thought out and meticulous music that combines an interesting arrangement of a powerful rhythm, aggressive guitars, and a keyboardist/singer with At The Drive In range and melody. They finished strong with a song that built from a warm wondering bass line and ended with an exploding snare roll and flashing cameras.

...I circled The Sailing even though I really liked The Mergs, and I was slightly intrigued by the punk rock attitude Hidden Agenda portrayed. The Sailing was the best band of the night and I cannot wait to see them in round 2.

-Kris Neises - Dayton Daily News

"The name The Sailing is exactly what we think we sound like," explains Tech Honors, keyboardist and singer for the Dayton quartet. "Not necessarily sailing on a sailboat, but more like sailing through space." Though they've been together for three years, they're just recently taking the first steps from their formative cocoon. Definitely worth the wait, as the band boasts some amazingly thought-out artsy Rock with big balls. The Sailing has some familiar sounds, but they consistently dodge the "derivative" bullet. A combination of soft/loud/soft guitar-driven grooves recalls Radiohead and Muse, but Honors' vocals are too unique and varied to allow pigeonholing. There's also a greater focus on keyboards, but again rather than fall in line with today's mob of piano balladeers they liberally employ a host of patches, from tinkling toy piano to pipe organ. Plus, there isn't a hint of melancholy in their music anywhere. Even when it's low key, The Sailing's sound is very majestic and cinematic, offering an uplifting brightness to cling to.

"Inspiration mostly comes from anything epic," Honors explains. "Epic video games, movies, books and anything else that makes us want to raise one fist in the air and holler out a war cry while we reach for our light sabers and prepare for battle." Oh yeah, you read that right. The Sailing is not shy about their geeky tendencies. "Gus (Stathes, drums) is a Photo Hunt master, he scored over a million points once," Honors continues. "James (Webster, guitar) has never lost at Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, never. Michael (Kirkland, bass) can do an amazing impression of Golem. Honestly, it's mind-boggling, and really creepy."

Honors himself works at Skyline and won a coney-making competition last year, a title he'll defend this month. "In summary, we're all really big dorks," he clarifies. More specifically, really talented dorks, an Ohio tradition that the local bands on the bill should also be proud to share. (Ezra Waller) - City Beat (Cincinnati)