Lincoln band No Tide to debut new sound, member on Bourbon stage

With no school on Wednesday, the guys of No Tide are treating next Tuesday night like a Friday at the Bourbon Theatre with the other bands on the Western Wolves Pop Punk Tour.

The original three members of the local band, formerly known as Gorrilla Warfare, are playing at the Bourbon for the first time since changing their name to No Tide and gaining a fourth member. They're performing with local band Running With Nails and the other bands on the Western Wolves tour: Our Life Story from Minnesota, and Latin for Truth from Alabama.

"We've never played with any of the bands before," guitarist Will Conner said, "but I talked to Our Life Story online a while back and said we should do a show sometime. So when they were booking this tour he asked me if I could set up a show."

Last year, Conner, along with bass guitarist Evan Mountford and drummer Austin Riffle of Gorrilla Warfare played at the Bourbon, but with their new name, band member and sound, the band anticipates a better experience.

The band changed its name after gaining a second guitar player, Gary Wright. They liked their new style and songs better, so they thought they needed to change their name.

"Our old stuff was more '90s pop punk, like Green Day-, Blink-182-, Sum 41-type stuff," Conner said. "Our new stuff is a bit different. We've started listening to all of these bands from New England and getting into the East Coast sound, so that's influenced our music a bit."

The band came up with the name No Tide to characterize their Nebraska roots.

"A lot of the bands that we grew up listening to, pop punk and pop rock, are from the coasts and we're from Nebraska, so there's no oceans, so there's ‘No Tide,'" Conner said.

Since changing their name and maturing their sound, the band released one EP in July. They played it on their summer tour, where they circled the Midwest in their not-so-extravagant pickup truck.

"We had a topper on it with all our stuff in the back, and then we were pretty crammed in there too," Conner said. "We got the topper from a junkyard, and it wasn't even the right length for the truck. The air conditioning broke, too, and we were in San Antonio, where it was like 105 degrees."

The tour, aside from the truck, was a success, Conner said. They play to tour again in summer 2012.

"We met a bunch of cool bands on our last tour that we're still friends with," Conner said. "Hopefully we can play again with them next time."

The band hopes to raise enough money this year to afford a van for their next tour. A van would also allow them to travel during the school year.

"If we had a van, it'd be easier to set up shows during the year," Riffle said. "Even to go down to Kansas City for the day, we'd just need to be able to get ourselves down there."

To raise money, they spend their time balancing the band, college and their jobs. Riffle plays with the band, studies engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is a manager at Burger King, where he has worked for five years.

"It's worth it when you see people who really like and enjoy your music," Riffle said. "One time this little girl asked for my drum stick after a show."

Conner and Mountford have worked together at Valentino's for the past three years. When they need to take time off for a tour, Mountford said the restaurant has no problem with the two of them taking a couple weeks off. However, weekly practices are difficult for the four band members to arrange.

"We practice at Evan's parents' house," Conner said. "They don't know actually. We have all our gear there and every week we go to the family room in the basement, completely move the couch and the coffee table around and set all our stuff up then put it back when we're done."

The band has been coming together with song ideas and collaborating their musical skills since Conner and Mountford began the band their sophomore year of high school. They were a three-piece with their previous drummer before replacing him with Riffle.

"Austin came in tenth grade," Conner said. "We put out a CD when we were Gorrilla Warfare called ‘Saltine Monster.' That wasn't as good as we thought we could do, so that's when we added another guitar player, Gary, and changed name."

The four members join their musical forces to create their songs. Conner said he often sits down with his acoustic guitar and creates the basic chords and melody then brings it to the others.

"He'll make the structure of the song and then I'll add the drums," Riffle said. "We all suggest things to do, so it's a collaborative thing."

No Tide has been working on its second EP, which will be released soon. The band will play all of these songs at the concert, including Mountford's favorite track, "Edina Weather," named after the town they recorded it in near Minneapolis.

"The name of the suburb the studio is at is Edina," Conner said. "The weather was really cloudy when we were there, and it reminded me of the song."

"Edina Weather" encompasses everything No Tide has to offer, Conner said. It exemplifies the band's new styles.

"We are going to make a music video for that one," Conner said. "It's kind of our single, if you will, for our EP that's not out yet. We like playing our new stuff more because our songs have more to them since we've become a four-piece."

The band is excited to release the new EP, which is the band's best, according to Conner.

"We're going to be sending the EP, once it's all mixed and mastered, to some indie labels and try and get on a smaller label," Riffle said.