Influenced by pop-punk and emo, Fast Friends reflects the sense of kinship and good times that they deliver sonically a sweet and, at times, nostalgic punk. Sitting with three of the four members, you feel a sense of welcome and ease. This is a band thats a family, one with deep roots in the city.
Those roots manifest a little different for everyone.
I bought the book My Band Is Your Life, said guitarist/vocalist Paul Watkins. Just reading about the ethics of it was influential. I was really into Rachels, even more than The Shipping News. Eventually, I started playing shows.
Guitarist/vocalist Graham Conroy had a comparable experience, one tempered by his relationship to his father.
My dad has been in bands my whole life, he said. I was exposed to live music since a very early age. Hes introduced me to some really weird bands that I would never listen to. The first band I saw was Music for Nintendo at the Brycc House. It was my first experience without my dad.
Those early forays into the punk scene started a fire. Watkins began teaching Conroy to play, and the rest came naturally.
Our old drummer Cullen left a guitar in our basement in a weird tuning, Conroy said. I wrote the first riff of the first FF song, and it sounded really cool. Ive been friends with Paul for eight years, so he was a logical partner in crime. He noted that our buddy Jake Snider was kind of down at the time, and needed a new music project to lift his spirits, and that was the first lineup of Fast Friends.
No one feels entirely comfortable identifying the band as pop-punk or emo, if only as a reflection of the trap that labeling sets. Still, Watkins is quick to accept their responsibility to their audience at their shows, and to create a safe place at their shows. Because we get lumped into pop punk and emo, there have been a lot of shows where there are a lot of creeper shows, he said. But in that wherever were playing, people should feel safe.
The band has a lot on their plate in months to come. Watkins said of their impending release, We decided to name it the Ignorance of Youth. Ive grown up a lot over the couple of years. I miss that feeling. I was a little worried that people would take it in a crotchety way. Were going to have a record out in mid-August. Were going to have a music video out. So that should be cool.
Fast Friends
Saturday, July 9
Poorcastle at Apocalypse Brew Works
1612 Mellwood Ave.
$5; 5:30 p.m.