Audio: Jamming to a full house

The Weathered Heads include Craig Weatherhead on guitar and vocals, Chris Bullard on lead guitar, Andy Bauer on bass guitar, Nick Novotny on drums, Trevor Woggon on keyboard and Johnny Birdsall on saxophone.

Photo by Ben Steinquist

The Weathered Heads include Craig Weatherhead on guitar and vocals, Chris Bullard on lead guitar, Andy Bauer on bass guitar, Nick Novotny on drums, Trevor Woggon on keyboard and Johnny Birdsall on saxophone.

This weekend The Cabin featured a full band and a room packed with people. The rocking sound, which included a mix of guitars, vocals, drums, a keyboard and a saxophone, vibrated through the walls. It reached an audience of community members and students as well as their parents, eventually seated in every chair and standing in the back.

In their first visit to UW-Eau Claire on Saturday, The Weathered Heads played original songs including two new songs as well as covers from artists such as Neil Young. Throughout the night, the band, which is based in Winona, Minn., had the crowd jamming and head-bobbing to the music. Frontman Craig Weatherhead even played a song solo as the rest of the band watched.

But the entire band didn’t take a break, sailing through their set.

Garrett Aalfs, a junior music education major, said the band brought a unique style of music that is not often heard at The Cabin, and he appreciated that they used the time well.

“They did a lot of playing and not a lot of talking, which really kept everybody interested and involved,” he said.

The Weathered Heads can now add Eau Claire to the list of cities they have played in around the Midwest in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin since forming in 2012. However, their first gig all together was in February. Three of its six members knew each other from high school, while the three others met in college at St. Mary’s University in Winona.

Before meeting each other, all of the members of the band were making some kind music growing up, from one playing cello at a young age to others playing instruments such as the clarinet or percussion in high school band.

“We’ve all been listening to some sort of music through our lives, whether it be our parents or seeking out music,” Weatherhead said.

Although not everyone in the band currently lives in Winona, they hold practices nearly every week with those who do live in the city, adding the others for rehearsal in the days before shows. Weatherhead said he expects their first album will come out at the end of fall, or by January at the latest.

During the set, The Weathered Heads were not remiss of energy, and the crowd fed off the excitement, intent for every song.

Freshman Kristina Wielgus came to The Cabin with her parents, who visited for parent’s weekend, and said she was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining the band was, adding The Cabin is always a good venue

“It’s a good place for me to socialize with friends and it’s definitely homey for me,” Wielgus said.

Packing up their instruments at the end of the night, all of the members of the band said they liked playing at The Cabin and will return to Eau Claire.

“We want to balance playing at new places, getting new fans,” Weatherhead said, “and also coming back to places we love to play.”