John R. - guitar
Tommy M. - drums, vox
Dan J. - bass, vox
Bob M. - vox
Joe V. - guitar, vox
Fred T. - percussion
NEW VIDEO OUT-TAKE from the Radio Free Charleston rehearsal! - GOMEC!
TIRED OF SINKING
MYSTERY HOLE
Influences
Giant reptiles, blue turbans, F#s, Bankrobbers, Islands Somewhere Out to Sea, Blinded Babies in Cages, Government Men in Government Cars who come to Take You to Some Government Farm, Punky's face, Ren and Stimpy (the dogs, not the cartoon characters), Kroger meat stickers, Miss Lady of the Whitewater, and of course, Kimball.
Sounds Like
"You guys sound just as great as my dad said you did."
"Now I really get what was so great about The Feast Of Stephen. Those guys are amazing....Every member of the band was incredible. The singer blew me away, and the twin guitars threw up a wall of sound that was spectacular. And that rhythm section….world class."
"The boys sounded great. It was like riding in the wayback machine. What the hell happened to Rad and Joe’s hair?"
The Feast of Stephen formed in late 1991 in Montgomery, WV, while John, Tommy, and Joe were all students at WV Tech. Part of the first wave of original rock in the area and known for hard-rocking anthems about giant reptiles and trippy journeys into mental wards and Nostradamus' futurescapes, FOS played alongside acts like StrawFyssh and Mother Nang and brought original alternative rock to the Valley for the first time.
Tommy and John had played together with Bob in a prior band, The Swivels. Joe had broken up his band, The Blind Blue Leper Society, the year before when he went to study in Spain for a semester. Upon his return Joe and John became roommates due to the fact that both played guitar, and the seeds for FOS were planted.
Tommy and John knew that they wanted to form a new band, and after recruiting Joe, Bob, and bassist Dan J., the band began rehearsals in Tommy's house on Fayette Pike. John and Joe brought several riffs and loose song structures that they had worked out together beforehand, and with the contributions from the rest of the guys, the first two songs, Fall and Gomec, came together quickly.
The band's first gig was at the WV Tech Ballroom. Aided by flyers that were plastered on every flat surface in Montgomery, FOS packed the place and rocked the house. At this time the band was still going by its original name, Soul Explosion. After finding out that that name was already taken by another band, Joe scoured some old poetry books and came up with The Feast of Stephen. It stuck.
The band had been practicing like mad and had a setlist of around 12 originals and some obscure covers to fill things out. It was time to record.
Booking time in the home studio of Poca's own Dave M., the band recorded its originals in the course of two nights. All songs were played live with the entire band in the studio and the vibe was fantastic. Pressed in a cassette-only run of 600, the self-titled debut sold out almost immediately.
By this time the band had been playing in Charleston and the surrounding areas, most notably The Levee and the Empty Glass, and were regularly packing everywhere they played (with the exception of a disastrous Thanksgiving gig in a mostly deserted Morgantown that basically served as a paid rehearsal). They had expanded to two full sets of original material and were hitting their musical prime.
The band returned to the Poca studio with now full-time percussionist Fred in tow and recorded what would be their second, and last, disc.
The songs on the second, never-named record were much more complex and serious than those the first tape, reflecting the maturation of the band's songwriting and the growing interpersonal frictions that had developed within the group. But those frictions also served to enhance the music; some of the band's most classic numbers were featured on the disc, including Forbidden Dance, Watch Me Plow, Needing Only Me, and Mystery Hole.
When Joe graduated in 1993 and moved to Washington D.C., the band decided to call it a day.
