IF YOU GO¦ What: 423PK launch fundraiser featuring Gold Plated Gold, Future Virgins, Xanax Squaredance and One Timers.¦ When: 9 p.m. Saturday, March 8.¦ Where: JJ's Bohemia, 231 E. M.L. King Blvd.¦ Admission: $10.¦ Phone: 423-266-1400.¦ Website: www.423PK.com.
After suffering through a particularly bad day, most people want nothing more than to go home, kick off their shoes and let an adult beverage or two wash away their frustration.
Blake Callahan just goes mental.
"Sometime around the beginning of the year ... we played at Rhythm & Brews and ... I started slinging my head and jumping around like an idiot," says Callahan, the 22-year-old lead singer of local experimental garage-rock trio Gold Plated Gold.
"I jumped on my [guitar] pedals, fell back and hit my head. I bled everywhere, but we just kept playing. Everyone looked at us like we were crazy."
Risking bleeding out for the music might be a little extreme, even for rock 'n' roll, but Callahan says a little over-the-top, manic behavior is pretty much par for the course for his band, which includes bassist Casey Lovain and drummer Adam Myers.
The trio got its start in Chatsworth, Ga., in 2010. Lovain and Myers still live there, but Callahan says he and his bandmates have performed in Chattanooga venues so often that they're "more of a Chattanooga band than a lot of the people who live here."
Fairly mild-mannered most of the time, Callahan says stepping out onstage feels like letting go of the mental reins. If they don't end the evening sweaty, hoarse and weak-kneed from exhaustion, they haven't lived up to expectations.
"No one would ever believe [it of us], not in a million years," he says, laughing. "I worked in a bank for three years, and none of the ladies I worked with believed it was me when I showed them a video of us playing."
Such enthusiasm comes with their influences, an energetic, blood-pumping mix of blues, punk, hard-core and experimental artists such as Queens of the Stone Age, The Ramones, The White Stripes, Pink Floyd and The Mars Volta.
Saturday, March 8, Gold Plated Gold will perform at JJ's Bohemia for the first of four shows benefiting 423PK, an online database of profiles of local musicians. The service is the brainchild of brothers and co-founders Joel Ruiz and David Ruiz, who runs event photography company 423 Bragging Rights.
Proceeds from these concerts will help cover 423PK's startup costs and its first year of legal service, and participating artists will receive free profiles on the site, Joel Ruiz says.
By offering to create a polished Web presence for local musicians, the Ruiz brothers are offering a leg up to artists who otherwise might languish in obscurity, Callahan says.
"I really respect David and Joel for what they are doing for the community," he says. "It makes a band look as professional as possible and sometimes way, way better than they actually are."
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @Phillips CTFP.