Guster is ready to groove Spring Fair crowds

Guster, the headlining band at this year's annual Spring Fair, has been playing to college audiences ever since they started out as a college band at Tufts University. "The college crowd is the one who embraces us," said Adam, one of the lead guitarist and singers in the band. Although its audience today is still mainly made up of high school and college students, Guster's music has evolved far beyond the band's original sound produced during its days at Tufts.

The band is excited to be headlining Spring Fair at Hopkins. "We're excited about playing for you guys this weekend since the weather should be great, and the energy from the weekend will make for a great concert."

Many people would say "Johns Hopkins University? Where's that? However, when we asked Adam what he thought when he heard the name Johns Hopkins, he answered that he thinks of two thing: "Doctors and lacrosse." The band does not have a favorite college to play at but enjoys playing in major cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Boston and New York. "The bigger the crowd, the better the concert," said Adam.

Because Guster was formed at a university near a larger city, Boston, they were able to play in local music venues, thus avoiding having to restrict their performances to the basements of frats. As Adam said when asked to give advice to college bands, "It is important to get the hell off campus." The band has gradually grown in popularity since its inception, producing three studio albums and three live albums.

Guster has had some crazy times since it began playing together. Adam recalled Woodstock '99 when the band's bus became the place to hang out for all the other bands that weekend. However, we could not get any wild stories out of Adam because the band is "unfortunately one of the most well-behaved bands of rock and roll." He did say that when he is on the road, he brings his pillow and a felobie. "It cuts your hair, and you attach it to a vacuum cleaner, like in Wayne's World when Garth has the vacuum cleaner sucking his hair, so that's how I cut my hair," he said.

When Guster first started out, their music was simpler, based around the mellow strumming of two acoustic guitars and supported by a steady beat on hand percussion. Since then, their style has significantly evolved. "Our biggest self-criticism was that we were too acoustic-guitar strummy. The whole record [Lost and Gone Forever] was like that," said Adam. He explained how the band's music has changed over the years: "Our taste grew in a different direction, we got more mature and started to listen closely to other bands, like Yo La Tengo and Franz Ferdinand. Before, we wanted to capture the live sound of Guster. Now we wanted to discover ourselves as a studio band by experimenting with different sounds and new instruments we've never even heard of."

The result of their experimentation is their latest album, Keep it Together. In making this album, Guster used a bass guitar and an electric guitar to make its songs more aggressive, complex and rock-focused.

The biggest change in the album was the use of a drum-set, which has never been used before by the band on previous albums. The drum set was introduced for practical reasons. "Brian's playing the drum kit because his hands were falling apart from playing the bongo drums every single night we were on stage," said Adam.

The album represents a departure from Guster's previous material, as shown from the album's first single, "Amsterdam," which is much faster and aggressive than most of the band's previous songs because of the addition of electric guitars and drum set to its sound repertoire. Other songs on the album, such as "Red Oyster Cult," which is reminiscent of the Beatles, and "Jesus on the Radio," with its basis in folksy music, also show Guster's attempts to revolutionize its sound and experiment with its musical creativity. However, Guster members still feel they have kept their core sound. "I don't feel like we have abandoned what is always at the core of our band. It's still a good melody, good sound and rhythmically driven songs," said Adam.

Guster's experimentation has also influenced their live performances. Ryan, the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Guster, plays a bass guitar, while Brian rests his hands by playing the drum set, for certain selected songs from Keep it Together in order to capture their studio creativity in their live sets. Adam said the reason for these changes in their live performances is that "they added a fresh new sound to our live acts. We very limited in creativity on stage when it's just two pairs of acoustic guitars and percussion on stage."

Since they believed that the three of them could not fill out the sound by themselves, they have asked a lead guitarist and close friend, Joe, to make a regular appearance at all of their shows. Adam said, "Joe was needed because he brings a completely new element on stage for Guster. He's a talented guitarist, and playing these shows with him has added to the fun on stage."

Many fans wonder if Joe will officially be the fourth member of Guster, but Adam said, "We're not sure yet if Joe will be a fourth member, but we'll see in time."

It has been a very busy year for Guster, but Adam is looking forward to the evolution of Guster's music in the future. "We'll, currently we are in the middle of a spring tour and plan on touring until August. After that, we'll probably take some time off to relax for a while, but write some more new material during that time off, and whenever we feel ready to hit the studio again, we will." Guster seems to be headed in a good direction. After all, the members are in their prime, experimenting and growing as a band while increasingly gaining popularity. As Adam said when asked what he would do if the band to split up, "I would not want to start all over again. This is it, this is my band. This is what I'm going to be doing as a musician."

Guster performs as part of the Johns Hopkins Spring Fair at the Ralph S. O'Connor Recreation Center. Doors open at 7 p.m.