Prestor Jon

Saturday night opens to me as I maneuver my way into a picnic table beneath the outdoor covering at Enoch's Irish Pub & Cafe in the Garden District of Monroe, La. It's the first of June. Rows of well-worn wooden tables and benches are pushed out of their usual homes to make room for the stage in the center of the patio, lattice-work walls rising up on three sides with the brick building behind us. Beer advertisements decorate the walls and overhead, strings of colored lights wrap around a bike affixed to the roof.

Enoch's is the best bar in Monroe -- I say it as certainly as I would offer my own name -- and the eclectic patrons thrive among their unusual peers as college students, artists, and aging bar flies share the same space.

My friends and I have all braved the coming thunderstorm to see Prestor Jon, one of the up-and-coming local bands for which we have a passion, thrilled for the show at our favorite bar. Enoch's is the most popular venue in town, and Prestor Jon is performing here for the first time.

Glancing about as the sky darkens, the assortment of fans fascinates me. Prestor Jon appeals to members of other local bands and to 56-year-olds in long white skirts, to young girls in sundresses and to gentlemen with rubber bands in their goatees, to administrative professionals from the local colleges and to music aficionados who currently live in their cars. Each pair of lips in the crowd smiles in excitement as the band members situate their instruments and test the sound system.

Jimmie Bryant serves as lead vocalist and guitar player. Mitch Laing stands beside him with backup vocals and bass. Between them, Johnreed Loflin of The Flying Humanoids and Frank Harper switch out the percussion in between the unplugged and hard rock Prestor Jon sequences.

On the picnic table designated for use by the band, a drum covered in panels from Rob Zombie's Spookshow International comics sits top-side open, a piece of paper sticking out, facing the crowd. The Sharpie marks on the paper ask, "What does Prestor Jon sound like?" Beside it, the band stacks dozens of note-cards and pens, urging the audience to help them answer their question.

I cannot stop asking myself.

Unplugged Trio

After the Friday night Karma show, Saturday at Enoch's promises to be bigger, better, and louder -- and undoubtedly wilder, as Enoch's serves alcohol.

Jimmie Bryant's name has been synonymous with Prestor Jon since its inception. To quote Frank Harper, however, "Prestor Jon isn't just a few guys anymore -- it's a community of musicians."

He's come latest to the Prestor Jon assembly, but the addition of Frank Harper playing the djembe as a member of what I will call Unplugged Prestor Jon strikes me as brilliant, with Jimmie Bryant pulling out his acoustic guitar and Mitch Laing on bass. I can't stop swaying as their first set highlights the folk at the base of their forthcoming hard rock sequence.

So what does Prestor Jon sound like? They are the soundtrack of excited dreams. Their songs are shoulder-twisting rock music and dance music, with haunting vocals courtesy of Bryant and vibrant, infectious singalong choruses. Bryant sounds like the voice in my head, the voice I wish I'd hear whenever I try to sing.

Fan Becky Tripp describes them as "a 1960s Rip Van Winkle who just woke up."

Less musically descriptive, but even more enthusiastic, Tyler Stanley insists the band is "bacon bits on top of bacon in a bacon sundae."

And bacon isn't a terrible comparison. There is something meaty and sinful about the music. Prestor Jon offers up fun and sexy love songs, seductive music meant for dancing with dates. Their sound is kinetic, is the best kind of sex -- sensual and friendly and attractive.

Brandon Bowman illustrates perfectly the combination and collaboration of genres at work here: "The clean and powerful chords make for a classic rock sound, but combined with soulful and gritty lyrics and the folky and poetic djembe accompaniment, Prestor Jon is a relaxing and mellow music that walks between the spirituality of Jimi Hendrix and the down-to-earth humanism of Bob Dylan."


Violin & Harmonica

For the second sequence, Harper leaves the stage to Bryant and Laing. Bryant takes up an electric violin that looks to me like an ampersand, while Laing takes his turn with the acoustic guitar. This round, Laing sings lead vocals, offering the crowd several original songs and one cover.

Now the sound is something more of a punk rock whine, the kind that digs into ribs and grabs hold of what's behind them. Laing's voice reminds me of Rise Against lead singer Tim McIlrath. His best song, in my opinion, is a tribute to Batman - the latest trilogy of movies in particular - with the chorus requesting, "I want to be like Bruce Wayne," and continuing to make me giggle and cheer and feel all-around eager to be heroic.

Bryant's violin skills are nothing short of daunting, and though his voice may be my favorite aspect of Prestor Jon's sound, I don't miss it quite so much during this sequence thanks to that soothing, exhilarating violin.

As the sky cracks and releases its downpours, Enoch's employees rush to seal off the open area with tarps and rope, but some of the water still finds its way into our midst, and no one seems to care.

Far more fascinating to this audience, one of the crowd approaches the stage as Laing announces that they will perform an impromptu jam session with the stranger for The Batman Song. The surprise musician whose name I later discover to be Serhat Sonmez produces a case of harmonicas, and the three men proceed to startle everyone dodging raindrops by sounding amazing together. You can hear Sonmez on his harmonica as part of the group Sawmill Gravy at soundcloud.com/sawmillgravy.

I Wanna Rock!

For the third and final sequence, Johnreed Loflin joins Bryant and Laing on stage for the rockin' whirlwind I've come to expect of the band. After being thrilled by the new additions, I am bouncing when Bryant and Laing grab their electric instruments and Loflin takes a seat at the as-yet unused drumkit to give me the Prestor Jon I already know.

Still, each time I hear them, no matter how many times I have heard them, the songs are always a new experience.

The night grows darker and the thunder shakes the wooden roof above us, and I don't know which is louder -- Prestor Jon or the storm.

Though I've seen Prestor Jon with two other drummers, the quality has only improved with the change to Loflin. Fan Paul Boquet concurs, saying, "Johnreed is my favorite Prestor Jon drummer so far!"

Light shines upward into the faces of the band members, making for a ghostly presence as the crowd begs for more, cheering so much that Bryant can barely indicate the next song in a timely manner. Intense eye contact between the band members at specific moments encourages both dramatic and comedic effects, and as the night progresses, more and more fans arrive.

It's too packed to dance but no one stops, fans climbing up on benches at every side to dance with arms stretched into the leaking rain. Girls stand on sideboards with dripping hair just to service their need to move to Prestor Jon, the band that demands headbanging and movement. Some fans are so excited to be nearer to the music that they frequently block my recording video camera, and at every new song, newcomers show up drenched from the rain, still having walked through the aggressive lightning to make it to us before the show ends.

Hannah Roberts said, "Prestor Jon is the beautiful bastard baby of rock and folk, and I love every second of it."

At one point, I stop taking notes for this review, just because I need to drown in the music.

The band finishes by introducing the crowd to its newer tunes, a string of instrumentals that tease us with all the developments Prestor Jon sees in its future. These songs keep in line with the aura and attitude of the band without sounding anything like what we've already heard.


Conclusion

To answer the drum covered in Rob Zombie comic book pages, Prestor Jon sounds like music. The music I've been waiting for, the music everyone has to love, the music everyone wants to hear. Prestor Jon sounds brand new and vintage, the kind of sound that seems to have been plucked from the collaborative human soul. Prestor Jon is energizing. - Julie Landry (the Girl with Blue Glasses

"Constant irrefutable rhythms, soft melodies, and hardcore riffs, strewn together beautifully. From ridiculously funky to ridiculously hard rock, with a handful of soul and orchestral music, Prestor John threw everything into the melting pot and carried the listeners high amongst the majesty of the waving, powerful vibrations."
- April Kelley, The ULM Hawkeye (May 22, 2009) - The ULM Hawkeye (May 22, 2009)

It's good to have another unique awesome addition to the Indie Rock mix, that's not trying to meet, appease or stand up to any status quo,

Matthew Street - Music Director - 91.1 KXUL (Monroe, LA) (On-Air Interview) - Matthew Street - Music Director - 91.1 KXUL (Monroe, LA) (On-Air Interview)