Twenty-five years is a long time for any band to be together, but considering the circumstances that surrounded the origin of The Beaters, it’s a wonder they made it past the first gig.
Just over a month before that show on Good Friday in 1985 (April 5), there were no Beaters, just an idea dropped casually during a conversation between drummer Terryl Greene and guitarist Randy Johnston at a show for Johnston’s soon-to-be-defunct band, Overland Express.
“He (Johnston) called me a few weeks later, and he said, ‘Hey, man, I got us a gig,'” Greene said. “I said, ‘What do you mean? We don’t even have a band,’ and he was like, ‘Well, we’ve got to get one.'”
Five weeks later, Johnston and Greene joined Randy Clark, David Turner and Tommy Blevins onstage with a repertoire of a few dozen ’60s Motown, rock and pop songs culled from the music they grew up listening to.
Despite the inauspicious circumstances of their formation, a massive crowd turned out at that initial show to fill the Brass Register’s dance floor.
Tonight, The Beaters will take the stage at Rhythm & Brews to celebrate a quarter century together.
Whether they were playing a packed house at the Sand Bar, powering across Norris Lake to a concert on a houseboat or at their annual New Year’s gig at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, The Beaters have always considered the audience’s desires before their own, Greene said.
“When we were young and growing up, we didn’t want to play the songs we’re playing now,” he said. “Now, we basically play what people want to hear.”
So even though it may gall their musical sensibilities to fill out their set list with disco, which they used to loathe, they’ll grin and bear it, if it makes the crowd happy.
“We’re the band that sold out, no doubt about it,” Greene said, laughing. “We really did, but we have fun.”