Riverbend 2015 online
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IF YOU GO
What: St. Paul & the Broken Bones When: 6:30 p.m. tonight Where: Coke Stage Admission: Riverbend 9-day wristband ($55); one-day wristband ($25)
Brad Arnold formed 3 Doors Down in Escatawpa, a small town just north of Pascagoula, Miss.Also on the Coke Stage
3 Doors Down is an alt-rock band formed in the mid-'90s by vocalist Brad Arnold, guitarist Matt Roberts and bassist Todd Harrell in Escatawpa, a small town in the deep southern reaches of Mississippi. By the early 2000s, the band had grown from hometown glory to worldwide acclaim, packing its trophy case with multiple Grammy nominations, two American Music Awards and five BMI Pop Awards, including for "Songwriter of the Year" in 2002. In all, the band's reported album sales have topped 16 million - 6 million just for its debut album "The Better Life" - and it has produced three Top 10 singles: "Kryptonite" (No. 4, 2000), "When I'm Gone" (No. 4, 2003) and "Here Without You" (No. 5, 2003). The band now consists of Arnold, lead guitarist Chris Henderson, drummer Greg Upchurch, guitarist Chet Roberts and bassist Justin Biltonen. They'll take the Coke Stage tonight at 9:30 p.m.
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Faced with the kind of breakneck success St. Paul & the Broken Bones has experienced in the three years since its inception, some frontmen might preen like roosters on the catwalk.
Paul Janeway, on the other hand, almost sounds embarrassed by it.
In the course of 30-odd minutes on the phone, the soft-voiced Birmingham, Ala., native frequently describes the seven-piece soul ensemble's frenetic race to national acclaim as "bizarre" and "weird"; "surreal" pops up occasionally, too.
"It doesn't make sense," he says, his head shaking practically audible. "It just simply doesn't."
It's not that being gushed about on national TV by David Letterman or a forthcoming pair of gigs opening for the Rolling Stones is necessarily undeserved, Janeway says, but it most definitely was unexpected, especially so soon.
Three years ago, he likes to tell people, he was just a part-time bank teller working toward an accounting degree. Now, he's on friendly terms with Elton John and had to turn down extra dates opening for the Stones because it would conflict with a European summer tour.
"I was talking to our booking agent the other day ... and he said, 'You've got to take a moment and try to enjoy it,'" Janeway laughs. "I struggle with that. I'm like, 'OK, what's the next step?' I have a hard time just sitting back."
Tonight at least, the group's next steps will be onto the Coke Barge as the first headliner of this year's Riverbend Festival. In a change to the way the festival's largest stage is managed this year, each evening of the festival will feature two headliners. The barge's second act this evening will be alt-rock group 3 Doors Down.
For an artist who was more willing to stop and smell the roses, the last three years might have been a case of sensory overload as St. Paul's milestones have come and gone like a machine-gun salvo. There have been the international tours, the shows at major festivals such as Coachella, Forecastle, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo and -- in February -- back-to-back sell-out shows at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore.
Despite being recorded just five months after the band's formation, the band's soulful, lo-fi spectacular of a debut album, "Half the City," has only added fuel to the fire. The record peaked at No. 56 on the Billboard Top 200 and was praised by national outlets such as PopMatters and Paste magazine, who pegged it as one of 2014's best albums, citing its ability "to make you weep, dance and rejoice, sometimes all at the same time."
For all the modesty he exudes off the road, Janeway's charisma and energy achieves volcanic levels as soon as he steps out on stage, especially with the support of his exuberant, drumhead-tight backing band.
Raised in Northern Alabama in a heavily Pentacostal household, Janeway spent much of his childhood believing he was destined to stand behind a pulpit, not a mike stand. Although he long ago was wooed from that path by the intoxicating thrill of live music, his performances still exude evangelical fervor. When he sings out with almost painfully soulful intensity, his eyes usually are squinched shut, and his arms flail in constant motion as if he's casting out devils and praising the heavens.
"Looking back at it now, I think that it's definitely the performance aspect of [ministry] that I loved," Janeway laughs. "I never shied away from it. We try to feel like we're bringing people to the church of St. Paul & the Broken Bones.
"There's a lot more cursing and a little sex appeal going on, so it's a different kind of church -- and probably one my grandmother wouldn't be proud to go to -- but we kinda feel that's the way it is."
Janeway says he's constantly striving to improve his showmanship in an effort to close the gap with his musical idols, crowd-captivating showmen like Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Prince. In typical self-effacing fashion, however, he feels like he still falls well short of that finish line.
"That's my aspiration -- the way they control the crowd in the palm of their hands," he chuckles. "I don't think I'm smart enough or cool enough for that mystique, but it's definitely something I aspire to."
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter on @PhillipsCTFP.
With a lead singer — Paul Janeway, laughing at center — who was raised in a heavily Pentecostal home, it makes sense that St. Paul & the Broken Bones tries to inject a little religious fervor to its performances.