On Friday I found a little oasis of rock and roll music in country-hearted Nashville. I headed over to Dinos, a small old-school bar (with the best service) in east Nashville to catch Cheap Time, who had actually been recommended to me by the lead singer’s sister. I rocked up to the smallest bar I’ve ever seen a gig in after a couple of days of walking down Broadway, where every bar is pumping out country music 24/7 and I was unprepared for the gritty rock / punk music I would hear.

Cheap Time were the second band to play and they were obviously playing to a friendly crowd. The best word I can come up with for the band is relentless. They played a roughly 20minute set taking no breaks between songs, rolling straight from one song to the next barely taking time to breathe. Jeffrey Novak is an interesting front-man and I’d be interested to see how he performs to a larger crowd. He’s the first singer I’ve seen in a while whose passion for what he is playing is seriously tangible. He doesn’t snarl at the microphone like Liam Gallagher does, he practically knocks it down with the force of what he is singing. He’s clearly got a message he wants to get across. The band were not on a stage which meant we felt the ferocity of it all the more. Seeing the trio play live did make me want to listen more to their recordings and learn a little more about what they are singing and playing about.

Considering this was their new bass player Cole’s first gig they were pretty tight, I can only forsee this growing once they tour more. They described their influences as being quite English, and this is definitely a band which would fit in very well in the music scene in England. I definitely feel like I saw a bit of the Nashville music scene a tourist wouldn’t normally see.

I spoke to Jeffrey, Cole and Ryan about being a rock band in a country town and where they hope their music will take them:

Watch Cheap Time live here:

The band have a brand new album out soon – Wallpaper Music – which will definitely be worth checking out.

Cheap Time are Jeffrey Novak (vocals / guitar), Cole Kinnear (bass) and Ryan Sweeney (drums). Check out their MySpace and Facebook pages for more information.

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