Sceneazine.com
Sixtensplit: Gone 10 Years
Too Long
By John Huiett
“I
n case you missed our CD release party, it was
14 years ago!” Sixtensplit bassist Jay Matheson
says from the Art Bar stage in Columbia, SC, on February 28. The band is playing its first show after a 10-year
absence. The house: packed. The crowd: rabid. Hopefully, it won’t be another 10 years before they do it again.
Sixtensplit – Matheson, along with lead vocalist
Patti Davis, guitarist John Sease and drummer Stan
Gardner – delivers a 45-minute set of crunchy, pop-infused punk that is equal parts sawblades and sunshine.
The band powers through some technical difficulties
(such as a constant, shrieking feedback for a tune or two
from the lead vocal mic) to keep the mood light and the
tunes intense. The crowd cheers and dances with enormous grins to songs such as, “Separate But Equal” and
“E=MC2.” When the band gets to their raucous send-up
of the 1979 Blondie classic, “Dreaming,” the audience
goes ballistic.
“I guess we brought the roof down with that one,”
Matheson says from stage left.
Matheson is a wall of bottom-end intensity, keeping his head down while wearing his signature ball cap
and thick-lensed glasses, the back of his Music Man
bass adorned with a massive Budweiser sticker. Gardner
is all smiles and sweat behind his vintage Ludwig kit as
he pounds his way through the set, effortlessly blending
straight beats and intricate fills with a look on his face
like he is constantly telling himself the world’s funniest
joke. Sease is the chord master, parking solos at the door
in exchange for complex chord voicing and razor-edged
tone. And out front is Davis. Balancing powerful frailty
with soaring vocal muscle, Davis conveys the rougher
edges of Sixtensplit songs without ever needing to get
gritty. Her voice is clean, but forceful, and her stage
presence demands control of the room.
The Sixtensplit style is casual and loose on the surface, with subtle intricacies within. The songs swivel
and reel, but never derail. The band hugs the curves
of their tunes tightly as they round each verse-chorus
bend before stopping on a shiny dime. The songs are
short and catchy melodic-punk hymns, the sonic equivalents of Pop Rocks – the taste is sweet as they explode
in your face and leave.
“My approach to a live show is definitely an attempt
to create an aggressive, pounding bass and drum sound
and have a very good time,” Matheson says. “I really
like playing tight, powerful, and occasionally intricate,
bass parts along with a good drummer and guitarist
in the old school tradition of my favorite influences,
from Black Sabbath to the Sex Pistols. Sixtensplit is a
punk band with some really tight players, so mechanical speed and accuracy is fairly important, along with a
lot of dynamics to go along with the vocals to shift the
mood during songs.”
Sixtensplit formed in the late 1990s. They had
a solid run as a regional act for several years and released a self-titled debut album before life
pulled them apart in
2005 or so. Their hiatus ended when Sease
received a spark of
enthusiasm indirectly
from Matheson, who
owns the Jam Room
recording studio and
is a driving force in
putting on the annual Jam Room Music
Festival in Columbia.
“I saw John at
the festival last year,
and he was inspired
to want to play again
that day,” Matheson says. “I contacted Stan and Patti,
then booked the date.”
“We decided to play again because John wanted
to do it again,” Gardner adds. “He’s been raising kids
and working on starting a business and hasn’t played
out in 10 years or so, so we really wanted to play with
him again. He’s the engine behind the music, and Patti writes all the lyrics and
melodies.”
Even though 10 years
have passed, Gardner
says everything he loves
about the band has stayed
intact, even if they had
to work a little harder to
catch up to their younger
selves.
“When we got back
together to practice, we
played a little slower at
first, especially me,” he
says. “But we fell back
into it pretty quickly. Personality-wise,
nothing
has changed.”
Matheson and Gardner have a storied musical
past together, from Confederate Fagg in the early
2000s to The Mercy Shot
with Space Coke’s Reno
Flowers Gooch just last
year. Both have a journeyman-like
approach
to music, often ha ٥