The Revivalists will bring unique sound to State College

For The Revivalists’ upcoming show at The State Theatre, singer David Shaw promises a wild ride around the musical spectrum.

“It’s going to be a little bit of everything,” Shaw said of Tuesday’s show. “We want people to just really feel something — whether it’s feeling really good or trying to feel the emotion that was felt when maybe one of the sad songs were written. We like to put peaks and valleys in the sets. We don’t want to just come out there guns blazing and just fire off grenades the whole time. We like to take you up, take you down, hang you out for a little while and then bring you back in.”

The Revivalists boast a broad and diverse sound that makes it difficult to identify any one specific genre, according to Shaw.

“We play so many different styles of music,” Shaw said. “I think it’s one of those things where (the songs are) always going to sound like us if I’m singing or Zack (Feinberg) is playing guitar, etc. But, we basically let the song lead. ... It’s not really about a genre. It’s about the songs.”

Shaw said his musical influences when he was young came primarily from his sisters, and he grew up listening to alternative music. Bands like the Grateful Dead helped shape his own wide array of musical interests, he said.

“I was infatuated with Tool’s first album, ‘Opiate.’ I feel like I just sang that song to myself in my bedroom for like, years. I think it was one of those things that got in subliminally. So, when I’m writing songs nowadays, there are some vestiges left just from always hearing those songs. It just kind of got in there.”

To say the band grew organically would be a bit of an understatement — The Revivalists were originally formed from a random front porch meeting.

“I moved down to New Orleans in 2007, and I’d been there a couple weeks when I was playing guitar on my front porch, and our guitarist Zack happened to be riding by and stopped,” Shaw said.

The two struck up a conversation and Shaw learned that Feinberg had guitar skills. The rest of the band formed with drummer Andrew Campanelli, bass player George Gekas, saxophonist Rob Ingraham and Ed Williams on pedal steel guitar.

“ Then Michael (Girardot, keyboard/trumpet) joined the band a few years ago so we could basically have the same stuff with us live that we have on the records,” Shaw said.

After their current tour, The Revivalists are interested in returning to the studio.

“I think we’re going to start the recording process (for a new record),” Shaw said. “We’ve got a few buns in the oven, and we’ll see where it goes.”

When not on the road or working in the studio, Shaw prefers to spend his time indulging his new favorite sport.

“I’ve recently been trying to surf as much as I can, and I also love to skateboard,” he said. “I realized that I could surf just a few months ago. It wasn’t too hard for me to get up. I’m just trying to actually get where I can surf like a real surfer. That’s proving to be challenging, but I really think it’s definitely super do-able for me for sure. I’m loving learning.”

Shaw believes The Revivalists are a unique band and well worth the price of admission.

“I think you should come out because we sound like us; we don’t sound like anybody else,” he said. “If they want to come and hear us, if they want to get something fresh, they don’t want what they’re going to hear on top 40 — then they should come see us.”

This story was originally published September 16, 2016 at 8:40 AM with the headline "The Revivalists will bring unique sound to State College."