Spotlight: Rooney

We recently got a chance to talk to Ned, the drummer and back up vocals for Rooney, to get the latest updates on the band. We also recruited one of the biggest Rooney fans we know, Josie, to check out the band at the Residency @ The Roxy (4/23/07). Calling the world! Check out Josie's review from a fans perspective and Kathleen's interview with Ned!


I am a huge Rooney fan. I’ve been one for maybe three years now. As soon as I heard Rooney was playing at The Roxy, I jumped at the chance to see the show and hear new songs from their upcoming album. Tonight was my second time going to their residency and I loved it just as much as the first night! The first song Rooney came on stage with was “Are You Afraid” and it’s one of their new songs. It’s a great opening song and I really do like it. One of my favorite songs so far off of Rooney’s new album has got to be “Calling the World”. I just love it and Robert Schwartzman is great because he likes to get everyone involved and sing along with him during the song. It’s a really cute love song. The highlight during that song was at the end of the song when Robert walked over to my friend and looked right at her and was singing “oh oh oh oh” and she just stood there. She froze and had no idea what to do. She said “that was the longest ten seconds in her life”.

 “When Did Your Heart Go Missing” is Rooney’s new single and it’s a great song to dance and even clap too! I personally think I like that song better live than recorded. It’s one of my favorite songs right now and I think I’ll be listening to it all summer.


 “Paralyzed” is a song that I love so much. This was the third time that I’ve heard this song and every time I hear it, I can’t help but dance and sing. The rest of the songs during the night were great. I loved hearing the new and old songs as well. Rooney has a great presence on stage and they just have fun with it.  


I have to say my friends and I were really impressed with Taylor Locke’s skills with his guitar! He really is an amazing guitarist. I love seeing him play! He’s full of energy and you can tell he loves playing. “I’m Shakin” was another crowd pleaser and Rooney did a wonderful job!


Later in the night it was time for Rooney to be bringing guests on stage with them to sing cover songs. The first song was “Movin’ Out” by Billy Joel. Rooney had Alex Greenwald from Phantom Planet come on stage with them (and just to let you know this was the first time I’ve ever heard this song before). Alex came on stage wearing a pacman hat or mask. I don’t know what to call it because the opening of pacman’s mouth---you see Alex’s face. It just looked like he was wearing a yellow helmet.


 



 
 

So back to the song, I really liked the song a lot! I loved the sound and I think Alex did a good job singing it. I loved the interesting instrument (sorry I don’t know anything about instruments) Robert was using during the song.


The next cover song was “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie. I did know this song and I’m a huge Queen fan so I was a little scared at first to hear it because I love Queen so much. I didn't want to hear one of my favorite bands kill this great song. Rooney had Dan Gillespie from “The Feeling” come on stage. As soon as I started to hear that very first part of “Under Pressure”, I start to get excited because so far the music is good and then Dan starts singing. I really did love the way this song sounded. Dan and Robert did a wonderful job singing and Matt, Ned, Louis and Taylor did a great job performing it. They were full of energy and I think everyone in the room was really into it.

I had a great time at The Roxy, and its one of my favorite venues because it’s small-- I love the intimacy too. You can pretty much reach out and touch whoever is performing. I did touch Ned’s arm when Rooney was leaving the stage (that was another highlight from my night).


The great thing about Rooney is that their songs sound just like the recorded versions---actually even better.  Rooney did have a great show and I hope they never change and keep making great music that you can sing, dance and clap to during their shows.


Written by: Josephine Sotomayor
 *All songs on Artist Site.
Tracks from "Rooney"
Rooney WebSite
Rooney WebSite
This month, Ned of Rooney.
Why don’t we start off by introducing yourself to our readers?
My name is Ned Brower. I am the drummer and back up vocals for the band Rooney.
I know you just finished up your last Monday at the Roxy. How was the fans reaction to the new music? Were you nervous at all performing the new stuff?
It’s been really great. We have never down a residency before so we decided to try it out. It’s been awhile since we played a bit shows so I was kind of nervous of playing 4 shows in a row. It worked out great and the fans loved it. We got to debut the new material and we would do two covers every night with special guests.

How would you describe your music?

I would call it rock and rap with a tinge of country. That sounds like a lot to take in, and it is, but we don’t force these genres together, it somehow is the natural way we write songs. Our music is closer to rock then anything else, at least the mood of it feels like rock/ southern rock. We do a lot of rapping but we don’t do much of the typical rap themes. We’re not hustlers or anything, we’re just a bunch of guys that love to play music and that’s it.