08/21/2025
𝕂𝕣𝕚𝕤 ℝ𝕦𝕤𝕤 𝕒𝕥 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕒𝕤𝕚𝕟
If you’ve been a follower of this page for more than a few days you will recognize the name Kris Russ. Even if he’s not from Baton Rouge directly, he is more or less a local, and we’ve talked about him before, run a song or two as our 🅃🅁🄰🄲🄺 🄾🄵 🅃🄷🄴 🅆🄴🄴🄺, and basically marked time waiting for him to get a show somewhere close enough for us to cover. When I saw the flyer for this show, I almost did a backflip. In a sound he describes as “alt indie core”, there is just something about his music I don’t hear everyday. With a heavy EMO influence throughout this show, by all the bands, he added another layer I wasn’t expecting.
I mentioned we’ve covered his music before, and his voice had me excited to see his show. A good vocalist on everything he’s recorded, I wanted to see if he could do it live. Studio magic is a real thing, and I’ve heard more than one vocalist come out sounding mid without an engineer at the k***s helping him out. Of course, without tracks, the magical façade quickly dissipates on stage and being my first show with Kris I could only hope there would be no “Wizard of Oz” reveal tonight. Well, again for those who haven’t been around, the fact that I am writing this is all the confirmation you need to know that he does in fact live up to the hype. I don’t do negative pieces, so if he wasn’t just as good live I would simply move on, but make no mistake, this kid has some real pipes!!
I could just say he has a good voice, as good live as he was recorded, but this boy was downright impressive. His highs are CRAZY, and he can hold them indefinitely!! OK, maybe not indefinitely, but more than once I stepped back and simply marveled. Voice aside for a sec, he also commands the stage like a seasoned veteran, plays the guitar, and by the end of the show had the crowd eating out of his hand. From the rail to the riser, to writhing on the stage floor, if you take your eyes off him, you are likely to miss something. Hickman was on the kit tonight, a guy I’ve shot before, and he is the consummate professional on drums. Hickman the stickman. It was my first time working with Alexander though, self professed ax for hire, I found myself fixated on his Smurf guitar strap for some reason. Jose on the bass had the dark side of the stage, and just kind of chilled and busted it out on the fat strings. All in all, it really was a cool set.
Lighting at The Basin can be suspect to say the least. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s not. It really depends on the band’s request and what else Paul has going on. He does sound and lights, and sound will always take precedence. I try not to complain and use it as a challenge to improve; lord knows I need to improve. Tonight, the weather also had the crowd a little sparce, but after all was said and done, I still drove home with a smile. I will never understand the Baton Rouge rock fans. There were no other shows in town tonight, the rain was already letting up as we drove in, so there was no excuse not to get out for these kids. I’ve heard more than one complaint this year about lack of big shows, and as I sit here in August, I’ve worked ZERO shows at The Rivercenter this year and honestly can’t say I’m surprised. If I were a promoter in this area, seeing the turnout for the smaller rock shows, I wouldn’t gamble my money on an audience to support a larger act. If you think that doesn’t matter, you’re wrong. Being in the room with the decision makers when they’re discussing routing for the Disturbed and Breaking Benjamin level acts, they are going to choose Biloxi or New Orleans 99 times out of 100 because of that reason alone. We only have ourselves to blame.
Another positive tonight was meeting a young up and coming photographer, Rian. I’ve seen her pics, we cover some of the same bands, and I’ve already seen some of her grabs from this night and will just say the girl is GOOD! I mentioned the lighting above, she made the most of it. If you get a chance, check her out on some of these band’s socials. I know she has me on my tip toes right now. lol
Bottom line, check out Kris’ music. He has some hard rock tunes, some that sound grungy to me, the EMO stuff is in there, he really does have something for everyone. He has a new song coming soon and a few more shows in the area, so get out there, find him on a stage, and let me know what you think.
𝒦𝓇𝒾𝓈 𝑅𝓊𝓈𝓈 – 𝓋𝑜𝒸𝒶𝓁𝓈 / 𝒶𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓈𝓉𝒾𝒸
𝒜𝓁𝑒𝓍𝒶𝓃𝒹𝑒𝓇 𝒱𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝒻𝒻𝑒𝓃 - 𝑔𝓊𝒾𝓉𝒶𝓇
𝐻𝒾𝒸𝓀𝓂𝒶𝓃 𝒫𝓁𝒶𝒾𝓈𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒 - 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝓂𝓈
𝒥𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝒢𝓇𝑒𝑔𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑜 - 𝒷𝒶𝓈𝓈
