By DAN ARMONAITIS
Charleston-based singer-songwriter Matt Megrue hasn’t played The Radio Room since the Greenville music venue moved from North Pleasantburg Drive to its current location on Poinsett Highway in 2017, but he already knows what to expect when he performs there on Friday, March 6.
“I saw Titus Adronicus play there a few months ago, so I’ve seen the new room,” Megrue said. “What’s always been special about The Radio Room is really the whole staff there. They’re super supportive of musicians — local or up-and-coming regional acts — and they truly care. It’s really rare but cool when you come across club owners who put that kind of care and attention into the bands that they bring in.”
Megrue will share a bill with Coma Therapy, Phantom Ships and 72 and Central, the latter of which is led by Greenville-based musician Chapman Suther.
“It’s just going to be a really good night of different styles of rock ‘n’ roll,” said Megrue, who will take the stage with a full four-piece band, including himself. “Chapman and I have been wanting to do a show together since the old Radio Room, so he and I are both excited that we’re going to get to play on a bill together.
“And then Phantom Ships and Coma Therapy; (Radio Room talent buyer) Wes (Gillliam) is a big fan of those guys, and obviously Wes has great tastes, so I’m about as much excited to be in the crowd watching the show as I am to be playing it.”
Megrue will be celebrating the release of a new EP, “Live at Low Watt,” which hits the market the same day as the show in Greenville and follows in the immediate footsteps of last month’s release of his latest full-length album, “The Mourner’s Manual.”
The new EP features solo versions of two songs from the full-length album — “We” (inspired by the 2015 mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston) and “It’s Not Business, It’s Just Personal” — as well as a cover of “Take on Me” by Norwegian synth-pop outfit A-ha, which had a worldwide hit with the song in 1984.
As for the full-length album, it’s wildly eclectic but wholly cohesive.
“It’s funny because a lot of the critiques of the very first EP (‘Phonograph’) that my first band (The Unusual Suspects) ever put out was that it was very scattered and sporadic,” said Megrue, who also led a band called Loners Society. “I mean, we had kind of pop-punk, surf, folk and rock on it, and it was just kind of all over the place.
“To me, that’s always been the most exciting thing about making music, but it’s something I got away from for a long time because I think that critique kind of went to my head.”
With “The Mourner’s Manual,” Megrue delivers 11 songs encompassing a variety of styles, ranging from post-hardcore and punk to indie-pop and Americana, in a way that doesn’t come across as forced.
“All of us working on that record, we’re fans of music first and foremost,” said Megrue, who grew up in a small city within the Atlanta metropolitan area. “One of my favorite things is going to the record store and finding a new album and listening to music, so I think what I wanted to really come through was all of the things that I listen to. It’s a wide spectrum, but hopefully the fact that a lot of those influences were filtered through me — and through Sean and Brendan (Kelly) who played on the record, too — is something that’s appreciated.
“Maybe that sound is a little bit all over the place, but that’s just us as music fans. We’ll listen to a Run the Jewels record and then listen to a Smiths record and then listen to a (Bruce) Springsteen record.”
What brings it all together is Megrue’s knack for thoughtful lyrics. Among the highlights is the album closer, “Here’s to the World,” a folk-driven tune that takes a soul-searching look at truths in contemporary society.
“This was sort like a timestamp of where I am right now,” Megrue said. “You know, people’s truths grow and change and evolve, and that’s OK. But, for me, I think what I tried to come back to especially with that song is that if you are on the side of love and what you’re doing is out of love for other people, no matter what the issue is, you can’t go wrong.”