The Main Squeeze is coming to Gainesville and bringing along their eclectic sound — a mix of funk, soul and rock ’n’ roll.
The group is performing at 9 p.m. Saturday at The JAM, located at 817 W. University Ave. Tickets are $13 at the door or $10 online, which can be found on The JAM’s Facebook page.
According to their website, The Main Squeeze is known for their infectious, feel-good musical gumbo. They’ve successfully blended soul, funk and rock ’n’ roll in what they describe as "Stevie Wonder meets Red Hot Chili Peppers."
The band is making a stop in Gainesville during its "Mind Your Head" tour, named after its most recent September release. With no time to waste, the tour kicked off Aug. 29 in Wisconsin.
The group then played in Chicago on Sept. 4 and 5, where the members have lived for the last three years.
"It’s been awesome, we are extremely excited to have the album out," said Ben "Smiley" Silverstein, the band’s keyboardist and co-founder. "We’re only about nine or ten shows in; we’ve visited about ten cities and still have about 25 more to go."
Having previously performed in Bonnaroo Music Festival, High Sierra Music Festival and Electric Forest Festival, the performers are no strangers to the festival world.
Performing at these popular festivals has helped the band grow its national fan base. On its current tour, the band played a show at the North Coast Music Festival in Chicago.
This isn’t the band’s first time in Gainesville — or Florida for that matter. Silverstein is actually a South Florida native, and he said he owes a lot of The Main Squeeze’s success to the festival scene in Florida.
"(Festivals) have really helped us jump-start our fan base here," Silverstein said. "Gainesville was actually one of those cities that from the very first time we played there until now — it’s been great."
Part of that fan base is local female vocalist Chelsea Oxendine of Savants of Soul.
"I have been following The Main Squeeze for about three years; I was at a party and heard one of their songs, ‘Dr. Funk’ come on loud over the speakers," Oxendine said. "The next day, I downloaded their whole album on iTunes, and soon began attending any show they played in Gainesville."
The band formed in 2010 at Indiana University in Bloomington. In the last five years, the band has released two albums: "First Drops" in 2011 and a self-titled album in 2014.
Silverstein always had a passion for music.
He met the band’s guitarist and co-founder, Max Newman, while they were both counselors at a sleepaway sports camp in upstate New York. Silverstein was a basketball counselor and Newman was a tennis counselor.
From that sports camp, a musical fusion was to be born.
"Me and him ended up forming ten bands ranging from ages 6 to 16 and at the end of the summer, we made like a festival with all of these bands so they could perform in front of the camp….in our free time, we would write music," Silverstein said.
The two reunited once Newman got accepted into Indiana University, where Silverstein was already studying. The idea to form a band continued, but a guitarist, drummer and vocalist were missing.
Newman met drummer Reuben Gingrich while living on the same dorm floor his freshman year.
Silverstein met current vocalist Corey Frye at a dueling piano bar in Bloomington, in a peculiar but fitting way.
"Once the two dueling piano guys took a break, I stumbled onto the stage and started playing…then Corey ended up getting on the stage too and just started singing," the keyboardist said.
The two exchanged numbers and the rest was history.
Gingrich met bassist Jeremiah Hunt in California while they were playing in a jazz band at Disneyland. Hunt ended up moving from Singapore to Bloomington to be part of the funk band.
When it came to forming the band’s sound over the last four years, Silverstein said it has evolved over time.
"We were five different people from five completely different backgrounds, we all listened to and drew inspiration from different music," he said.
The members managed to put together their likes and met in the middle. Also uniting the members was the importance they gave to the performance aspect of the music.
"We started as a live band, and it’s where we strive the most…when we get to the studio the hardest thing is to try to capture the live energy we have on stage in a studio environment," Silverstein said.
The Main Squeeze has been touring steadily for the past three years with about 160 shows a year.
According to the keyboardist, the band is out on the road for about 200 days out of the year.
The audience can expect music from old albums, recently released albums and even new music for future albums. And according to Oxendine, showgoers will probably catch Corey spilling "every bit of his heart and soul into every note he sings."
"His vocal range is very expansive and their songs showcase it," she said. "As a vocalist myself, I need occasional inspiration — Main Squeeze provides that for me in their live shows."
The Main Squeeze will bring their mix of funk, soul and rock ‘n’ roll to Gainesville on Saturday. The group will perform at 9 p.m. at The JAM, 817 W. University Ave.
