Think guitarist Phillip Seaton at Extreme Thing: Adam Knaff recalls the first time he heard Seaton play. “I knew I had to be playing with him and no one else. Thank God we didn’t leave, or we wouldn’t be here today.”
Monday, April 28, 2008 | 2 a.m.
Singer Brandon Knaff takes center stage as the band performs at Extreme Thing. "Brandon was always a rock star, since he was a kid," says Suzi Knaff, his mother.
Think performs at Extreme Thing in April 2009 at Desert Breeze Park. From left: Adam Knaff, Brandon Knaff and Phillip Seaton.
Fans watch as bassist Adam Knaff -- known professionally as Bomb - tunes up at the Extreme Thing festival in Desert Breeze Park. He's the brother of lead singer Brandon Knaff, who taught him to play after a "random guy" Brandon was starting a band with didn't work out.
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Beyond the Sun
Teenage girls cluster at the lip of the outdoor stage as if they have been attracted by some invisible signal, or have texted one another: CUTE BAND ALERT! More girls show up, then more.
Setting up onstage is a local rock band, five guys who glance at their audience with studied nonchalance.
“We’re called Think,” says the lead singer, just before they plug in and play.
After just a song or two, teenage guys are heading toward the stage, too. And they’re all listening.
If you are looking for the next big thing to come out of Las Vegas, the next Killers or Panic at the Disco, these kids may have found it.
Think is a young Las Vegas band that has just about everything it takes to go the distance — looks, charisma, an original sound, ambition, work ethic, musical genes and connections.
Lead singer Brandon Knaff brings to mind Roger Daltry, Bob Dylan and Jeff Buckley all at once. And the other guys are just as camera-ready. MTV-watchers will eat them up.
They have original songs, an energetic, melodic funk-pop sound, top-line instruments and a rehearsal room that would be the envy of any rock star.
They know someone: The Vegas-based production team of dancer/choreographer Cris Judd and songwriter Darren Sher recorded and produced Think’s self-released first CD, “Odyssey,” which will be available on iTunes soon.
And it doesn’t hurt that the music industry is suddenly paying attention to the Las Vegas music scene because of the commercial success of The Killers and Panic at the Disco.
Play that funky music
With their charisma and stage presence alone, the guys in Think have a big head start on many local bands. And they can really play. Guitarist Phillip Seaton, 19, has Johnny Marr’s knack for versatility, handling melody, rhythm and eloquent solos that evoke his heroes Jimmy Page, Slash and Brian May, without once sounding imitative. Bomb, 16, takes a Paul McCartney-style approach to the bass, playing it as a melodic lead instrument, breaking out a finger-popping style on the band’s frequently funky songs. Keyboard player Sam Riddle, 20, is a solid musician, and the energy surges when he joins Knaff at the front line. Drummer Billy Carmody, 21, is an inventive player who can hit hard — it’s not an exaggeration to say he conjures John Bonham. And singer Knaff, 19, with his halo of curls and effortless grace, sounds as good as he looks.
Think big, think different
“Since we started the band, we want to change the world with what we’re doing,” says Seaton. “Like the John Lennons, like the Jimi Hendrixes. We want to make a dent in this music industry and bring it out of all the (crud) that people are listening to. We want to go from this (rehearsal) room to playing worldwide.”
The others chime in with all the strugglingly articulate earnestness and bravado of young men who really mean it.
“The song ‘Day to Day,’ we all wrote that against drugs,” Knaff says. “Against the common teenager drug-alcohol-party kind of thing.
“Our songs also talk about common things that all humans go through,” he adds. “Relationships, having fun, apologies, the city ...”
“Sex,” adds Bomb, who always seems ready to supply the punch line.
Love your bandmates like brothers
It helps if some of you really are brothers.
Bomb (his name is really Adam, but he insists on Bomb, and lives up to it) never thought of playing the bass until his big brother — that would be Brandon — forced him.
“I was starting this band up with a kid down the street,” Brandon remembers. “And I taught him a little bass, how to play the root notes of things. And one day he didn’t show up. So I thought, you know what? I taught some random guy, why don’t I teach my brother? And he turns out he’s this madman on the bass.”
Bomb, 14 at the time and secure in his identity as a soccer player, resisted at first. “Who plays bass and gets the ladies?” he jokes. “But I just fell in love with it.”
Bomb remembers the first time he heard Seaton play guitar. His then-band was up last in a long night of locals.
“It was so late and I told Brandon I wanted to leave,” Bomb says. “Then (Phillip) played, and I knew I had to be playing with him and no one else. Thank God we didn’t leave, or we wouldn’t be here today.”
Be up for anything
Think’s first gig was in front of five people at a place called the Fade, in a church off Warm Springs and Durango (they’ll play there again on May 9). There aren’t many places in Las Vegas for their style of music, they say, so they take almost any gig they can drum up.
“There are a lot of 21-plus but there needs to be more places for all-ages shows,” Bomb says, urgently.
“Jillian’s is a good place to play, but once a month isn’t a good thing for a local band,” Phillip says. “Then you start building those fan bases, and that’s important, because if you die down for six months, everyone’s like, ‘Whatever, I’ll find another new band.’ ”
Last month, Think surprised themselves and the audience by showing up at unusual booking, the Composers Showcase at the Liberace Museum, a monthly gathering for Strip performers. Phillip and Brandon performed unplugged versions of two Think originals, and they owned the stage, stunned the crowd of pros, even had them all singing along. In harmonies.
Have your parents in your corner
“Brandon was always a rock star, since he was a kid,” says Suzi Knaff, who manages Think with her husband, Brian Knaff. “And he was born with that hair, swear to God. That’s him naturally.”
She should know. The Knaffs have another, more basic role in the Think tank: They are mom and dad to Brandon and Bomb. Both of them were professional drummers in rock bands and Vegas shows, so they know the business. And they love the boys in this band as only parents can.
“Brian and Suzi do all the dirty work, the booking and money stuff,” Seaton says. “They make it possible for us to work on writing and playing. Without them, there wouldn’t be this room, we wouldn’t be anything right now.”
Practice, practice, practice
Thanks to the filial connection, Think gets to use the Knaff’s totally sweet rehearsal room, where they write songs and rehearse for several hours each day. It’s bright and spacious, with two big picture windows, and a kitchen, swimming pool and pingpong table nearby. The room is ringed with framed drawings of rock titans — Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix — many of them drawn by Ron Wood.
“We agreed that if we keep (the room) clean, we can use it,” Bomb says.
Location, location, location
Think headquarters is in a romantically named West Vegas neighborhood called Section 10.
“This is the entertainment capital of all the Las Vegas neighborhoods,” Brandon says. He laughs, but he’s serious. “This is the best area in town to have a band. There’s no noise ordinance, we can play as loud as we want any time of day.”
Luckily for everyone, they sound good.
“And we know all the neighbors,” Bomb adds. “There’s this circus performer guy who lives behind us, who makes more noise than us. He’s got motorcycle cages. Once in a while we hear him out there, rehearsing in his back yard.”
The guys reminisce about one of their first fans, a pool-service guy with long white hair and a white handlebar mustache, who used to stand in a neighbor’s back yard and listen to their music.
Believe in the power of positive thinking
Think’s concentrated focus and willingness is paying off: Last week, they played in a Battle of the Bands at the Cheyenne Saloon and bested three other local groups; they move on to the next round on July 10. On Friday, Think headlines a midnight show at the Freakin’ Frog. On June 6, they open for the Charlie Daniels Band at Volunteer Jam in Indio, Calif., and on June 9 they play the Whiskey A Go Go in Hollywood. On June 30, Think will co-headline at the new 24-hour Puff Lounge in Las Vegas. And one of their songs, “Apollo,” is on the soundtrack of the upcoming movie “The Outside,” alongside songs by P.O.D. and Linkin Park.
Think again
Remember those aforementioned girls swarming the stage at the outdoor show? The guys in Think would like readers to know that they weren’t friends of theirs from school.
“We don’t even know them,” Brandon says. “We didn’t know anyone in that crowd. I think we got some new fans out of that show.”
And Think earned the right to be on that stage — they were voted in, along with six other Las Vegas bands — from a field of 80 other local acts in a Battle of the Fans contest.
Think did a 30-minute set of original material, and though you wouldn’t know it to look at them, it was their first time performing before such a large crowd. The daylong Extreme Thing Sports and Music Festival attracted 12,000 young locals to the Desert Breeze Skate Park in late March.
Playing a big gig like Extreme Thing is a signal event for Think — for any aspiring young band.
“It means we’re one step closer,” Knaff says. “One step closer to many steps to come.”
“One step closer to being the biggest band ever,” says brother Bomb.
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