L-R: Slick Leg (guitar); Keetchie (vocals); Junie (bass); and The Goat (drums) of Charleston’s Rose City.

I ended up in Kanawha City at an undisclosed location to talk to Rose City, and maybe even catch them practice. As you can clearly see in the photographic evidence, beers were being consumed when I arrived, but I would have expected nothing less from this hard-partying, hard-rocking group of longtime friends. The band was full of energy, pumped for their show at the Empty Glass with The Ghosts of Now and The Cherry Bombs later that evening.

The band went around the horn, talking about their origins, doing shows in Charleston (and soon, beyond), how they work together, recording their new CD, and how their sound was similar to, and/or different from, The Ghosts Of Now.

I also got to check out an impromptu rehearsal in the basement of the apartment complex I had been whisked to in Keetchie’s car. Makeshift soundproofing material and sheets of lyrics lined the wall. More than one of the new Heineken kegs was spotted, indicating that partying may have been taking place when the band finds the time to practice once a week. This is what it’s all about: getting to check out bands in this kind of setting.

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Rocking out, talking between themselves about how many bars or riffs or rolls go into what parts of songs. Talking about bathroom practices and protocol. The little things.

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That Rose City was able to lose themselves in their songs during practice, with a relative stranger sitting in a small room, proved how powerful it is to be in a rock band.

Catching Slick Leg (they use rock names) banging his head with eyes closed as “Mammoth” wound up after a bridge, was kind of sublime for this “reporter.”

— Nick Harrah

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