It’s been a dozen years since Mt. Pleasant’s Exactus released their full-length debut, The Trials of Roy, and 10 years since they broke up. But tonight, the quartet will get back together for a gig at the Windjammer. Opening for them — No Wake, a band featuring some members of the Exactus crew.
If you don’t remember, Exactus’ high-energy sound blends chewy, jam-tinged rhythms with touches of organ groove and late ’90s modern rock swagger. Meanwhile, Frontman K.B. Reidenbach’s croon suggests a blend of Rob Thomas and Robin Wilson (Gin Blossoms), and the band displays a similar penchant for big hooky melodies and sweeping drama. The loss of their friend Jonathan Birdnow (aka “Porno Bird”) in an accident at LSU in late 2002 adds greater poignancy to the band’s soul-searching odes to post-collegiate confusion. On “Hi … I’m Gone,” Reidenbach worries, “How am I going to die/ I’ve never tasted failure/ I’ve never even tried.” He fears winding up as uninspired as Budweiser and “Mandy Moore,” then offers the cockeyed perspective of a “Charleston White Boy,” sounding like G. Love doing R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World.”
While you’d never want to live there, the past’s a fine place to visit, and unlike anyone instagrammed in guyliner and pegs, Exactus has nothing to be ashamed of.
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