Local Tuscaloosa band Seymour Blue will be returning home to play at Green Bar, where they have been missed over the last year.
“Seymour Blue performed here at Green Bar a few times a couple of years ago, but because they’ve had shows elsewhere, they haven’t had the opportunity to get back here,” David Allen, Green Bar’s event coordinator, said. “I’ve been trying to get them back for months, and I’m really excited to have them back again.”
Seymour Blue is a three-member band, comprised of singer Caleb Goertz, bass guitarist Tillman Allen and drummer Alex Hinson. Goertz and Allen are both Tuscaloosa natives, while Hinson, who was their former high school soccer coach, is originally from Birmingham, Ala.
“Green Bar is kind of our headquarters in Tuscaloosa,” Goertz said. “We’ve played there four or five times before. There’s always a good crowd, and their staff is pretty awesome too. It’s our first show there in over a year, and the launch pad for the rest of our shows that we’ll be playing this summer.”
The band has been performing together since 2010, and during that year, they released their self-recorded album “One Day We’ll Be Children Again.” They also have recorded a more recent five-track EP called “Lucas.”
“The easiest way to describe our sound is indie rock stuff,” Goertz said. “We definitely have a more defined sound now that we’ve welded together types of music that each band member likes the most — like indie rock, electronica and jazz. We have a piece of each of us in every song now.”
Green Bar’s David Allen has his own classification for Seymour Blue’s sound.
“I’d describe their sound as orchestral rock,” he said.
In addition to their music, Seymour Blue’s name is also distinctive.
“The name Seymour Blue is actually quite random,” Goertz said. “One of our former guitarist brought up the name Seymour Blue, which came from a New York gangster from the 1920s whose name was Seymour Magoo, and his nickname was Blue Jaw. We combined both the nickname and real name for our random band name.”
Seymour Blue’s opening act for the Green Bar event will be followed by local band Looksy.
“Looksy is an interesting band with a sound that I’d describe as psychedelic rock,” Allen said. “They are an ambitious local band that is always trying to go beyond a standard-verse, chorus-verse pop structure.”
Looksy includes guitarist and vocalist Daniel Ingram, bassist Kyle Posten, drummer John Laing and guitarist Rob Keating.
“Looksy mostly grew up in Jasper, Ala., and Cordova, Ala., but have lived in the Tuscaloosa area. They now consider Tuscaloosa to be the band’s hometown.
“[Our sound is] some kind of rock ‘n’ roll,” Potsen said. “We like to throw around words like loud indie, bluesy stuff. A lot of people compare us to the Black Keys or White Stripes, bands like that.”
Looksy will be performing original music from their EP, which is available for download at looksy.bandcamp.com.
Though they have not been playing together long, Looksy is no stranger to Green Bar.
“We played Green Bar a lot in 2012 and have also performed there in 2013 already, back in February. It’s a great environment,” Posten said.
Seymour Blue’s and Looksy’s performances will be Saturday at 8 p.m. The show is free, but concert goers must be 21 to attend.
Seymour Blue’s music is available for download on iTunes, Spotify and Reverbnation.
