A stark, flash-lit nighttime portrait captures indie-rock outfit The Runarounds huddled close against an pitch-black backdrop of tangled branches, channeling raw, basement-show energy. — The Runarounds Credit: Photo by Isaiah Pate

In their prime, The Monkees were ridiculed for being considered the first boy-band, despite viciously fighting to compose their own music and play their own instruments. But Davy, Peter, Mike and Micky’s made-for-TV aspect soon became strongly overlooked, and sure enough, there’s a new TV band in town 60 years later.

The Runarounds were formed through a 2021 casting call put out by “Outer Banks” co-creator Jonas Pate, in search of a group of young musicians to appear on an episode of the Netflix teen drama. But enough musical chemistry formed in the new indie band that it began to tour bars in the Carolinas, and last fall, the first season of its self-titled Amazon Prime show aired to rave reviews.

Even better yet, the five-piece didn’t have to squabble with producers to write its own songs, which will be part of the “Mini Van” tour landing in downtown St. Pete on Thursday.

TikTok indie-surf-jazz trio Foxtide opens, and if this show is any similar to The Monkees’ first gig in Florida, where Jimi Hendrix infamously opened, don’t be shocked if you see said three-piece in lights of its own very soon.

Ahead of this show, Runarounds drummer Zendé Murdock told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay about an album that changed his life. Read his full quote below.

An album that changed everything for me was Brand New Eyes by a band called Paramore. Came out all the way back in 2009, so I was only seven years old at the time. My dad showed it to me, and still today, it holds up for me personally as the best representation of an all-around great alternative rock record.

Zac Farro as their drummer is an incredibly heavy-hitting, but creative drummer. He comes up with phrasings that I feel like would just never cross my mind, sometimes in a very complex way, but other times, in a deceivingly simplistic way that almost reverts back to the foundations and the roots of rock drumming, which I think is very cool. And then you’ve got the two guitarists who, despite there only being two of them, sometimes it sounds like there are four of them. They’re very good at creating a wall of sound, and working together to make what seems like one big guitar part with a lot of different layers to it.

And then you’ve got their bassist, who sometimes can, in my opinion, weave his way into the guitar wall, kinda acting as a third melodic instrument. A lot of times, he will refrain from playing the root notes, and will get melodic on you. I really enjoy that. So, the three of them work together really well. The string world.

And then, of course, nobody can forget about Hayley Williams. Absolute powerhouse of a singer, both in Paramore and her solo work. Always has been, always will be. And when you throw her on top of such a well-oiled machine in terms of the instruments, her songwriting and her lyricism is poetry, just on top of a big wall of rock. -Zendé Murdock, The Runarounds

Tickets to see The Runarounds play St. Pete’s Jannus Live on Thursday, June 18 are still available and cost $47.70.