Pinellas County electro-roots act Shotgun Wedding has put out two excellent discs of its darkly evocative after-hours musings, toured the U.K. and played any number of shows on both sides of the Howard Frankland in the last couple of years. Yet many scenesters haven't even heard of the trio, let alone seen it live. Part of it has to do with guitarist/vocalist James McFarland, bassist Johnny McCarthy and drummer Jesse Martin's admittedly slack approach to self-promotion. But we'll venture to guess that the band's comparative lack of local notoriety stems from their avoidance of easy association with any of the Bay area scene's myriad stylistic cliques. They don't go in for State Theatre bills packed with pop, punk or alt-country acts, preferring smaller, more eclectic and culturally minded shows at venues like St. Pete's ACL Bar & Grill and Globe Coffee Lounge. But local original-music fans hungry enough to seek out new sounds are starting to catch on. Shotgun Wedding has gradually become a favorite with both listeners and DJs at WMNF-88.5 FM, and an August set opening for national act Saturday Looks Good to Me at Orpheum left most of the somewhat thin crowd proclaiming them to be the best band of the evening. And when the band finishes its third disc and starts another round of local live appearances, it will undoubtedly continue to attract new pundits to its killer original sound, one at a time.
This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 1, 2003.