A Little Rock rock 'n' roll tradition returns after a two-year layoff.
The Big Cats -- Burt Taggart, Jason White, Josh Bentley and Colin Brooks -- are back for their (mostly) annual December show. Vision Control, featuring Little Rock native and former member of the band !!! John Pugh, will open.
The Big Cats
Opening act: Vision Control
9 p.m. tonight, White Water Tavern, 2500 W. Seventh St., Little Rock
Admission: $8
(501) 315-8400
"We had to take two years off," says singer-guitarist Taggart. "In 2014, Jason was about to have surgery for throat cancer and that sidelined him for a while." The birth of Brooks' first child scuttled last year's show.
It also doesn't help that the band members are so far-flung. White lives in San Francisco and his day job is the second guitarist in a little pop-punk outfit called Green Day, Brooks lives in New York, where he plays in the interactive Broadway play Sleep No More, while Bentley and Taggart hold down the fort in Little Rock.
Now with White healthy and drummer Brooks back in the groove, the quartet of longtime buddies is ready to hit the stage.
The Cats got started in Little Rock in the mid-'90s.
"We were all friends and had played in different bands," says Taggart, who played in Chino Horde with White. "We decided to put this together and we've been doing it ever since."
The group is also a memorial of sorts to original member Shannon Yarbrough, who was killed in a 2000 car accident.
"We always carry [his memory] with us," says Taggart, 41. "He's always on our minds and always will be."
Though their paths have diverged, the annual shows and occasional recording sessions have kept Taggart and the other Cats close.
"We trade group texts and, individually, we all keep in touch," he says. "We're close friends."
In 2012, the band released The Ancient Art of Leaving: Two Parts, a companion to 2011's The Ancient Art of Leaving: High and Low, on Taggart's Arkansas-centric Max Recordings label (which is also home to, among others, Vision Control's 2015 "Blaspheme"/"Outer Outs" single). The two albums are perfect showcases for the Cats' brand of shimmering, indie power pop.
Don't expect any new recordings this year, though.
"We might do something next year, now that things are evening out," Taggart says. "I have some songs. Getting together to rehearse and play this show will give us a chance to talk about our next set of plans."
Style on 12/20/2016