While Movie Knight prepares for their penultimate practice leading to their show at Slainte, another band can be heard in a distant room through the ventilation system. It’s the screams and squeals of Covered in Bees nearing their last note. On Sept. 25, the band played their final show and, exactly one week later, Movie Knight will play their first.
Portland bands come and go, but many of them carry common threads that help them associate within the city’s tight music scene. Luckily for Movie Knight, they have Geoff Smith, a recent graduate from USM’s School of Music.
Besides playing a mean blues guitar and a trumpet that can blast notes over the bar, Smith has some experience playing in the scene with his own solo work under the moniker Geoff Zimmerman, Grant Street Orchestra, and Pete Miller.
For Smith, this is a rather new direction for him to take. His Zimmerman work deals with folk and the blues, Grant Street Orchestra provides his daily dose of hip-hop, and Miller a light mix of folk and rock.
Movie Knight ventures into the sectors of indie rock, as Smith promoted on the show’s Facebook event page. For some, it may be an apt description for a band, but Smith says that most genres are hard to define, especially indie rock. For him, the genre is an entry point to garner people’s attention.
“It’s hard to describe what we’re doing,” Smith said in an interview with The Free Press last week. “It has its harder moments, but it’s still melodic.”
Smith is joined by Nigel Stevens on guitar and Erik Tasker on bass, both USM graduates, and Mike Carrington on the drums.
Movie Knight originated as a series of jam sessions in the spring when Stevens approached Smith about starting a band. They rotated various members in and out until they settled on Tasker and Carrington.
“Erik and Mike just kinda stuck,” Smith said.
They began to practice once a week, and one other night they would watch a movie together, hence their name “Movie Knight.”
This kind of chemistry was evident at a practice one late Sunday night.
Set in a tiny white room adorned with Christmas lights and local movie posters, Movie Knight went down their list of songs to see what they knew and what needed work. Despite a few songs still being incomplete, they didn’t seem too concerned about finishing in time.
“I’m just really excited to play in front of people again,” Tasker said. “I’m not feeling that nervous.”
From the beginning of their set, it was clear they didn’t have much reason to. Their introduction song, otherwise known as “Instro,” “Untitled-ish” or “Beginning,” which may become the real name, started out with calm interweaving melodies from the two guitars and bass while Carrington provided a steady beat with nuanced hits on the toms and cymbals. A brief silence followed but was quickly extinguished by a solid repeating groove from Tasker’s bass. While the same basic rhythm repeated over the duration of the song, the level of intensity grew and then waned at certain times with Smith singing whenever the tempo got fast.
In between songs, they joked, yelled a few movie quotes at each other and discussed any needed improvements.
The standout song of the night was “In My Head,” a high-energy song with Stevens on lead vocals. While the instrumentation was reminiscent of early Radiohead, Steven’s delivery was urgent, interrupted occasionally by the chorus and a few yowls by Smith. As the song petered out, Tasker and Smith harmonized on the “ooo’s” as if from a 90s rock anthem. And when the instruments stopped playing, only their vocals were left.
If Movie Knight can carry out this energy with every song at their first show, they might just be the new hit in town. If you’re at Slainte Wine Bar on the night of Oct. 2, you’ll be the first to find out.