MONTGOMERY - Locomotive Disaster, a Williamsport area band, will bring its show to the Mountain Tavern, 5146 Route 15 from 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday.
The band, which is made up of three members, includes Matt Colegrove on djembe, congas, percussion, drums, acoustic and electric guitar and vocals; Joe Reichenbach on bass, vocals and tech; and Greg Sauers Jr., on acoustic and electric guitar, percussion and vocals.
Locomotive Disaster plays a variety of music, including Alice and Chains, Queen, Maroon 5, Michael Jackson and Megadeath.
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Locomotive Disaster will perform from 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the Mountain Tavern, 5146 Route 15, Montgomery. For more information about Locomotive Disaster and the group’s upcoming events, visit its Facebook page.
Sauers started playing solo gigs when Colegrove contacted him to play.
"He said if I ever wanted some percussion accompaniment, to give him a call because he had congas and needed a good excuse to buy a djembe," Sauers said. "So I did. It was so much more energetic with the djembe, which is a small African style drum."
Sauers believes it was the djembe and Colegrove's style that began their success as a band last summer.
They added Reichenbach to the mix shortly after.
"That brought everything together vocally and musically that we needed to complete the sound we were ultimately looking for, which is a rock oriented sounding acoustic group," Sauers said.
All the members of Locomotive Disaster also are part of other local bands.
"Matt and Joe are in a local grunge-style band called Audiobox, which is very successful around the area," Sauers said. "Many people remember me from Flu Shots for almost 15 years. During the summer of 2010, I left to join Skinny Rinkus and play more heavy rock oriented songs, which was always something I wanted to do. I never wanted to be a lead singer but always had a desire to have my own project where I could sing more than just a couple songs throughout the night as I had done with the other bands. So this project fills that void and it's helped me learn a lot about singing, too."
Although Locomotive Disaster is just a cover band for now, Sauers is hoping to collaborate on songs in the future. Colegrove does play his own songs acoustically at some of their gigs and Sauers has his own songs as well.
"I have a few but haven't mustered up the nerve to do them yet," he said.
Taking advantage of the club and bar scene in Williamsport and it's surrounding areas, Locomotive Disaster gives a different show every time the group plays. Because of the different venues they play, Locomotive Disaster switches things up every time they play a show.
Sauers said that they can go to smaller places and be completely stripped down to just the djembe and the acoustic instruments and at bigger venues they will have the full drum set.
"That's the beauty of playing with this group as we can be very versatile," he said. "Bigger bars get the big show and smaller places still get all the energy of the big show, but in a smaller, compact setting. Sometimes I start the night off solo and sometimes Matt does. We've had dozens of shows and not one has been the same."
All the members of Locomotive Disaster grew up surrounded by music. Colegrove and Reichenbach played in worship groups and Sauers played in a folk group, Mariah's Mantle of Annunciation, at church with his family for almost 20 years. Reichenbach's father, Gordy, played bass for a local band called Night Flight and Sauers' brother Aaron is the current drummer for Lumpy Gravy and From Atom.
"We all have roots that stretch back a long way," Sauers said.
Although the band does not make a full time career out of playing, they are content with sharing their love of rock with the Williamsport Area. " We all loved the rock side of things, but we also had a love for the raw, acoustic side of music. We all loved the MTV unplugged music of the 90's and wanted to share that with the area because we know how the Williamsport area likes to rock. Locomotive Disaster makes for a nice balance for our love of music as one weekend we'll be rocking with our electric bands and the next we're breaking it down acoustically," Sauers said.
"It's just a fun thing for us to do and not super serious like a lot of bands. It's a very stress-free environment. I keep saying once it becomes stressful and job-like, I'm out," Sauers said.
You can also check out Locomotive Disaster at Hangar 9, Lock Haven, for Mardis Gras, the Trail Inn, Williamsport on March 3 and Smokey Joe's, Williamsport on March 31.
For more information about Locomotive Disaster and the group's upcoming events, visit its Facebook page.
