Over the past 13 years, brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall have spread their swirling two-piece psych punk to the masses as JEFF the Brotherhood, whipping every show into a bodacious mosh pit freak-out that leaves you partying with your fist in the air until the wee hours of the morning.
Such shows are a local pastime for Nashville rock fans, having long crowned JEFF the flag bearers of Music City's now-globally respected punk scene.
This weekend, the J-Bros take up residence at The End, playing three shows to almost assuredly sellout crowds of freaky-deaky local rock fans. "It's gonna be a party vibe all three nights," singer-guitarist Jake Orrall promises the Scene. "We'll be doing something totally different [each night]."
Now take a walk down memory lane with us and the Bogus Bros. themselves, as we reminisce about some of their most explosive local gigs in recent years.
Next Big Nashville at The End, 2007
When Next Big Nashville sprawled itself across Music City clubs in its second year, Infinity Cat set up shop at The End for a blowout rager featuring Cake Bake Betty, The Mattoid and Deluxin' and, naturally, headlined by JEFF (pre-"The Brotherhood"). This Castle Storm-era show had all the two-brothers-rocking-out-in-a-basement hallmarks of early JEFF — trance-y ADD rock that spun the crowd of young punks into a sweat-soaked quasi-mosh pit.
"I don't really remember [it]," Jake Orrall says with a laugh. He rarely ever does remember actually being on stage. "I kind of go into a different place," he explains.
Next Big Nashville at Third Man Records, 2010
Oh, how things can change in three years. That quasi-mosh from 2007 roared to full-blown life with chants of "Beastmaster! Beastmaster! Beastmaster!" from a packed crowd of die-hard Nashville's Dead devotees at Jack White's Third Man Records. The band mounted the TMR stage and proceeded to lay waste to the Blue Room, playing one of its most explosive yet tightly focused gigs to date, and one whose glory was captured in live-album form and released as part of Third Man's Black and Blue series.
"That was a good one, that was crazy," Orrall recalls. "I just remember being completely shitfaced, and then continuing to wreak havoc long into the night."
We Are the Champions Record Release Show at The Other Basement, 2011
It's not every day that Jay Z's arts and culture website, Life+Times, shows up at a house show near Belmont to scope out some Nashville stoner punks making a ruckus. The Other Basement jammed more than 100 sweaty JEFF fans into their, well, basement for a riotous party that encircled the band and crowdsurfed Jake Orrall during "Mind Ride" while the cameras rolled.
"It was like the entire audience was ungluing," Orrall says. "There was, like, a waterfall of kids; people had to hold me up and hold the microphone in front of my face for me to be able to [play]."
Opening for the Raconteurs at the Ryman, 2011
"I've had dreams about playing here," drummer Jamin Orrall said from the Ryman stage in a rare moment of between-song banter. It was a massive moment of reflective glory for local JEFF fans when The Raconteurs tapped the band to open their Mother Church comeback show in 2011. Like champions, the Orralls admirably took full advantage of the opportunity to win over a couple-thousand stony Third Man superfans, leaping off the stage to wail right in their faces, garnering a standing ovation at set's end.
"The Ryman was probably [one of] the coolest venues we've ever played," Jake Orrall says. "[But] I don't really remember that one, I just remember that it was a great show."
Record Store Day at Grimey's, 2012
On a blustery Record Store Day in 2012, an all-star cast of local-rock ringers including William Tyler, Loney John Hutchins and Joey Plunkett joined Jake and Jamin for a psychedelic freak-out rarely heard since the dudes' earliest days as a band. And what did they do with that expanded lineup of virtuoso local talent? Crush a Hawkwind cover, duh.
"We are at a place where our Nashville shows were starting to kind of repeat themselves and it was like, 'Let's just do something weird,' " Jake Orrall says, explaining that the one-off performance galvanized the band's decision to permanently expand its live lineup, adding guitarist Karl Bergman and keyboardist Christina Norwood.
Bonnaroo, 2011 and 2013
Though JEFF's first foray into Manchester had them unluckily scheduled against Arcade Fire, their fraternal kraut punk on the On Tap Lounge stage captured the attention of Spin and a swelling swarm of crowd-surfing, barricade-toppling Bonnaroovians. Two years later, they landed at This Tent, blasting Sunday afternoon with psych jams and wacky waving inflatable tube men.
"[The 2013 show] we all consider to be one of our crowning achievements as a band," Orrall says. "It was thousands of people, we were on a big stage, it was a big production — we brought those air dancers for that show. We'd toured as a four-piece for a little bit and had started to get tight with it, and I think that was, like, the climax of that lineup and era of the band."
Freakin' Weekend IV at Exit/In, 2013
We're not sure if we've ever seen as many people packed inside Exit/In as there were for the final show of Freakin' Weekend IV — which came mere weeks after the tragic loss of festival founder Ben Todd. As JEFF bashed through their set, the crowd onstage swelled to support its own crowdsurfers before crashing into an ultra-emotional, cathartic climax that left kids in actual tears.
"I just remember being really, really emotional," Orrall recalls. "I remember there were people crying, but it was also super positive. ... I think it maybe brought everyone out of their funk for a minute and made people celebrate."
Email music@nashvillescene.com.
