“I'll throw you an idea for Louisville.com,” Kam Franklin (vocals) said to me as we stood in the shade at Forecastle Festival’s media area. “We’re coming back. We’re playing Zanzabar this fall… I think we should do a follow-up interview where y’all come and try and challenge us at some of these games.”
The Suffers, a 10-piece group with Gulf Coast Soul and an energy made for dancing, are no strangers to Louisville. Their Sunday Forecastle set is the third time they’ve performed in town, with Zanzabar a memorable landmark for the Houston band.
“[It] has one of the most unique green room experiences of any of the venues we’ve ever played,” said Nick Zamora (drums). “The green room is across the street. All the games are plugged in there, and some of them take quarters still. Some of them you just hit start and go. And so, like, every time -- both times we’ve played there literally with two minutes left to be on stage, there’s still someone playing.”
“I’m pretty badass at Ms. Pacman,” said Kam. “No Paperboy. I think that game is evil.”
“Maybe we need to pick the games, because they’re going to be able to go in and pay someone off to go practice,” suggested Nick for our ZBar competition (an epic battle that is absolutely going to happen). But we vow not to rig the game - we’ll choose one when the band comes to play as a stop on their fall tour.
You’re sure to find The Suffers playing Louisville more in the future, as they’ve found pieces of home here. “The second time we played here some people…saw the first show by accident and showed up to the show with all their friends and they knew, like, all the words, and Zanzabar isn’t that big of a stage...the amount of noise from the front of the stage was insane. It was, like, drowning out some of the instruments at some points,” recalled Nick.
Kam: “We felt like we were playing a show at home, which was really great.”
Adam Casteneda (bass): “You’ve got to rep your city."
Kam: ”Yeah, you’ve got to be proud of your city and where you’re from. And the people we meet from here remind me of Houston because even though people try to discredit it, they tell you what’s up and I really like that.”
Nick: “And then bourbon.”
Kam: “And bourbon, yeah.
Check out our photos from The Suffers’ Forecastle set in the slideshow below:
