Tulsa
Tap Dancing On The Edge Of The Earnest: Self-Aware Pop Rocker Nicholas Foster Finds His Stride
by | Aug 9, 2023 12:15 pm
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Posted to: Music
Winston Churchbus performing at Mercury Lounge.
Winston Churchbus & Silo Trees
July 26, 2023
Mercury Lounge
Forgive my bias, as I’m a drummer myself, but here’s a claim: Rhythm is the backbone of musical enterprise. Melodies can warble, and harmonies can falter, but if rhythm fails, hips don’t sway, hands don’t clap, and toes stay glued to the floor. So it’s no surprise to me that one of the musicians enjoying a spotlight in the Tulsa music scene, Nicholas Foster, is first and foremost a drummer.
One of the percussionists and creative masterminds behind the ever-present and ‑jubilant King Cabbage Brass Band, Foster is a lifelong Tulsan who drums, composes, sings, and plays guitar in the bevy of acts he works with, lending lightness, humor (anyone who follows him on Instagram knows the consistent hilarity of his self-promotion), rhythm, and a surprising melodic heft. He plays in the duo Knipple (with bassist Jordan Hehl) and the trio The Earslips (with Hehl and John Langdon), sits in with Jacob Tovar, and helms the solo project Winston Churchbus, a vehicle for Foster’s original songs, an album of which he released back in 2021 (the very good Trophy Husband). I’ve seen Foster play at Mercury Lounge (with King Cabbage), and I’ve seen him do Winston Churchbus songs as a solo act (at Whittier Bar), but I’ve never seen him play Winston Churchbus songs with a full band at Mercury Lounge — a fact I was happy to remedy on a hot Saturday night.
Under the taxidermied menagerie and dark red string lights, Silo Trees — the solo project of cellist, guitarist, and singer Matt Magerkurth, lately just as busy as Foster on the local scene — opened the night. His backing band brought quietly complex grooves under his whispered and romantic lyrics. The music somehow felt both new and ‘90s, and was at its strongest when the vocals and the instruments ran wild, drowning out the Merc’s pinball machines and crowd with a wall of sound that pulled the heartstrings.
Winston Churchbus took the stage with an uptempo tune, and feet immediately began to tap across the bar. (Click here for a video to sample the performance.) Foster’s frontman persona was restrained and calculating, letting moments build before cutting the volume for dramatic effect. Generally, he’s someone who has found a way to turn awkwardness to advantage, putting together soft, funny moments with his high voice and enunciated vocals before building into a screaming match between him and his guitar.
Foster’s vocal delivery scratched the same itch for me that The Weakerthans or Death Cab for Cutie scratch. He tap-danced on the edge of the earnest, with lyrics as dazzlingly generative as Courtney Barnett’s, but in his more mature moments he came off more like a young Michael Stipe, with a high-art irony always complicating what was being said. Fountains of Wayne fans would find much to love here; the songs weren’t inherently funny (though sometimes they were), but there was indeed a knowing wink behind the delivery.
At the end of the night, that spirit is where Foster found his stride: in fun, self-aware pop-rock with catchy choruses and singalongs. He closed the show with a tongue-in-cheek, lyrically dense country song. “Why be an L.A. 6? I’m a Tulsa 8,” he sang, bringing the whole night into cohesion: We’re here, in Tulsa, aren’t we? We might as well dance.
Next at Mercury Lounge: Stepmom with Audiobook Club and Kee-rah.
