"Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird. Surrender, surrender, but don't give yourself away, ay, aaaaaaaay."-From the Song, "Surrender" By Cheap Trick
BOWLING GREEN, KY. _ Yes, Mommy and Daddy were up a little late last night. But we intended to because we wanted to see our son, Tony Smith from Sleeper Agent play and we did. We made it and finally went to bed around 2 a.m! And Sleeper Agent killed it again last night along with a Super Garage Rock/Pop band called "Diarrhea Planet" from Nashville, at Tidball's in downtown Bowling Green. I have now officially dubbed Bowling Green's music venue and bar, "Tidball's, "The Ground Zero For Indie Rock Music in Bowing Green, Ky.," or "The Ground Zero For The Bowling Green, Ky., Music Scene." I saw John Tidball, the owner, last night and told him that I was going to write a blog about his little place soon. He said he would like that and that would be cool. To make a long story short, Tidball's is where it all began for the indie rock music scene to take off in Bowling Green. It's also where indie rock superstars and sensations such as Bowling Green's "Cage The Elephant" and "Sleeper Agent" got their start which has taken them on a journey near and far. Both of these bands have reached mega heights in the indie rock recording industry that no one has ever achieved before being from Bowling Green.
Patty and I had a great time last night. Usually, older folks like us don't get out to the local music venues very often not unless Sleeper Agent is playing somewhere in town. However, you can usually find us at Mariah's Restaurant's restaurant in downtown Bowling Green on a Friday night which seems to have become our regular hangout. We've pretty much gotten to know several of the server staff members down there and they know us by name and they always treat us right. Also, they do a great job along with excellent service and great tasting food with reasonable prices. But that will be another blog at a later time.
Anyway, we invited our young friend and Sleeper Agent fan, Kegan Willaims to meet up with us at Mariah's to have dinner before we headed over to Tidballs's. Marilyn Gardner, Scott from Sleeper Agent later joined us at Tidball's along with Scott's girlfriend parents. Tidball's was not very crowded at first when Diarrhea Planet went on but those guys were awesome, let me tell you! After a while, people started to trickle in and the more songs they played the better they got. They are incredibly loud, hard and fast with that super garage rock/pop sound which included four classically trained guitarist playing electrics, a thundering bass and a hell of drummer who bangs the drums like a machine gun- hard, fast and loud! They guys played hard, sang and kicked ass all at the same time. Keep an eye out for Diarrhea Planet from Nashville. I have a feeling that these guys are going somewhere with their band and music career in the record industry. After Diahrrea Planet's set, the members of the band were selling copies of their first record album called, "Loose Jewels" downstairs for $10. I bought one and had them to autograph it for me. I figured it was going to be worth of a lot of money one day when they make it to the big time really soon.
Of course, Sleeper Agent was fantastic like always. Tony, Alex, Justin, Scott, Josh and Lee played their hearts out last night and they are extremely tight! They have practiced tons and tons all summer, fall and winter while writing and recording new material for their next album which is due out soon. They played over 20 songs of their new and old material with new songs such as "Waves," "Get Loud" and "Bad News" and old songs such as "Get Burned," "Get It Daddy" and "Force of Smile." It was just an incredible performance all the way around. Josh Martin, lead guitarist, from Sleeper Agent is a phenomenal guitarist and probably one of the best of the best in the business as far as I'm concerned. Between Tony awesome song writing capabilities and singing, Alex's talented and sharp singing, Lee's bad ass bass playing, Scott's masterful key board playing as well as singing and song writing and Justin's hard hitting, skillful drumming, Sleeper Agent wowed fans again last night and probably gained a lot of new fans too.
I'm going out on a limb here by making some predictions about Sleeper Agent's future. But I strongly feel that Sleeper Agent will probably go gold with their sophomore album on the RCA record label. And we could be talking some Grammies too! Also, I feel that "Waves" will probably be a big time summer hit for sure along with a lot more hit songs off the new album. Everybody is really excited and pumped about this next album and we know it will shoot them straight to the top again with hit after hit. Everybody across the country and the world will know who Sleeper Agent is before long for sure.
So the next time Sleeper Agent plays their hometown of Bowling Green, please do not miss the opportunity to be there to witness and see them in person. You won't regret it. Because when they hit the road to go on tour to promote their next album from RCA, you probably won't get a chance to see them for a long time because they are making their dreams come true all over again. But this time my friends, on a much larger grander scale!