105.7 The Point presents The Urge w/ The Breakdowwns & Dave Grelle’s Playadors | 7:30pm | 6161 Delmar Blvd. | All ages | $39.99 adv, $44.99 day of show, $59.99 reserved balcony
When Thanksgiving approaches in St. Louis it means a few things, and one of those things is an annual show by The Urge. This St. Louis rock tradition started back in the days of Mississippi Nights and has continued long into The Pageant era. Each year’s set leans heavily into the band’s horn-driven punk-metal classics that conquered St. Louis airwaves in the late ‘90s and early 2000s (and manage to remain there to this day), from radio hits like “Brainless,” “All Washed Up,” “Too Much Stereo,” or the #10 Modern Rock hit “Jump Right In” (featuring Nick Hexum of 311) to live staples like their cover of the Brand New Heavies’ “It’s Getting’ Hectic” and “Open All Night,” the party hardy anthem about “goin’ to the liquor store.” But this year’s show is all for a good cause, and promises to include deeper cuts alongside the typical fan favorites. I had the chance to chat with frontman Steve Ewing about this annual tradition and what’s in store for this year’s edition.
The Arts STL: How many years has The Urge been putting on the Thanksgiving shows? Because I know it goes back quite a ways.
Steve Ewing: We been doing it over a couple decades now.
Do you remember the first one?
I do, yeah. We were playing Mississippi Nights quite a bit back in the day, and Pat Hagen [Mississippi Nights’ booker] came up with the idea, and asked us about playing on Thanksgiving night. And I think we were all kind of skeptical about it, but we did it and it was packed. We realized that people wanted to go out Thanksgiving night. Everyone is back in town, and it gives them somewhere to go out to. Now we do it the day after because we all have kids and family so it’s hard to get together and play on Thanksgiving night. We still do it right around that time, with everyone back in town. It has become a tradition. Then we started playing Christmas night and then the day after Christmas. These Holiday shows have become a tradition for us.
I understand the show this year is a benefit for the Ronald McDonald House. [Ronald McDonald House is a charity founded by McDonald’s that offers spaces for families to stay when their child has to travel away from home to receive medical care, alongside other wonderful programs supporting children’s health. Find out more at https://rmhc.org/. –Ed.]
We are donating a portion of ticket sales to the Ronald McDonald House. Donny Fandango at The Point is very much involved and passionate about the Ronald McDonald House. We felt like it would be great to donate to that organization.
Tell me about the opening bands for the show this year.
The Breakdowwns, those guys are friends with Jerry Jost and John Pessoni [the Urge’s guitarist and drummer, respectively]. They are a very up-and-coming band with an old school rock sound. They are great performers so we thought we should put them on there. We always try to get someone local or regional. It’s a great way to showcase niche stuff or stuff that’s kind of different from us.
The Playadors is my buddy Dave Grelle[‘s band] and those guys are just so awesome. I want people to see, I want our crowd to see how great these musicians are. I think they are going to get a treat and it’s going to be a lot of fun. With the musicians he [Dave] has, they can play whatever they want and do a really good job at it. So it’s cool they can tailor a set for an Urge show. I’m curious and excited to see what they come up with and I know they will kill it.
So how will the Urge set look this year, and will you have any special guests?
At this point, we don’t have any special guests. If someone is there, we will bring them up. With the Playadors, I don’t know why we wouldn’t.
So who knows who might appear.
Exactly!
We are playing a lot of songs this year. Typically, we will do an hour and a half, but this year we are playing for two hours. It’s going to be a long show and we are playing a lot of stuff.
Yeah, just the fact that we are playing some older stuff, we are going stretch out a bit. It’s going to be nice. We are going to play some deep cuts that people aren’t used to hearing us playing live or have not heard [us] play live in a while. It will be more fun for us to relearn some of the old stuff. We will play everything people are used along with the deeper cuts and stuff off the [2013] Galvanized record. | Matt Klose
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit thepageant.com. Get the latest news about The Urge at theurge.net and keep tabs on Steve Ewing’s solo shows at steveewingmusic.net. And check out the video below for a special performance by Steve Ewing recorded Live from the Boom Room, courtesy of Blip Blap Video and The Arts STL!
