They’re Feeling Okay: The Okay Feeling is considering a name change.

“People getting the wrong impression from our posters—they come to our shows and they end up leaving feeling great.”
    Matt Hudson, bass player for the local band The Okay Feeling, jocularly expects to change the name of the band to something more appropriate.
    “How about, ‘The Awful Feeling’?
    “Aim low so you don’t disappoint.  Of course, we rarely disappoint. You can’t really disappoint, though, when you’re The Okay Feeling.”
    Hudson’s assertion is validated by their recent performance at Champs Restaurant and Bar in Blacksburg on April 3.
    In retellings of the night from Hudson, lead singer Grant Back, rhythm guitarist Justin Doyle and drummer Cody Kesling, their show’s humor was reinforced by their pathetic, half-hearted attempts to pick up women from the couches of Squires Student Center.
    “We’re in a band,” they all shouted.  One time it actually worked, but that was when their other lead singer, Ryan McCardle and their lead guitarist, Gabe McFarland, were present.
    But what kind of band is The Okay Feeling?  For a more definitive explanation, I consulted their MySpace page.
    The Okay Feeling is a potluck rock band.  Due to the large array of sounds and styles the band harnesses, the term “potluck” rock came into use. Calm and down tempo at some points while upbeat and sporadic at others, the Okay Feeling create an overall satisfying and pleasant sound.
    “Glorified jam band,” Back clarified.  “That’s all we are.”    
    And, the above is not a typo—they have two lead singers.  What sort of influences do they have?  A bunch of them.
    Kesling’s influences stem from country music.  “As a band, it’s not going to be close,” he said.  “Mine stem from a lot of country.  After country, I listened to a lot of 311, and after that I listened to metal.”
    Back cited hip-hop as his primary influence, but there are some others as well.
    “Mine is probably hip-hop.  As a band we do a bunch of hip-hop covers, including some Gym Class Heroes, Jay-Z, and even some Fergie.  Also pop punk.”
    “When I learned bass, I learned nearly every Tool song ever.  And then I learned a bunch of metal.  Since then, I progressed to some other random stuff like Taylor Swift,” Hudson confessed.  
    Doyle reaches for inspiration from other places.    “I’m influence by food,” he joked.  “Food and animals.  So, I guess you can say Zebra Cakes have been my biggest influence.”
    He admitted that he listened to a lot of ska when he was younger.  Ska and old-school hip-hop.
    “When I was little, my father had sub[woofers] in his truck, so we used to drive around and he’d blast some old-school hip-hop like N.W.A. and Beastie Boys,” he said.
    Their influences are certainly wide in breadth, and it is apparent in their live performances.  From Jay-Z to The Killers, The Okay Feeling is willing to take on any genre to cover.
    In addition to their original compositions, The Okay Feeling performed renditions of “99 Problems” by Jay-Z, “When You Were Young” by The Killers, “With or Without You” by U2 and “Wish You Were Here” by Incubus.
    “We love singing that [U2] song.  It’s awesome to see people out in the audience singing to it as passionately as we are performing it,” said Back.  
    Matt Clark is a friend of the band who has made time to see them play whenever they are in the Blacksburg area.
    When asked if he was one of the guests who was spotted rocking out to “With or Without You,” his face flushed a bit.
    “Yeah, that was me.  But you gotta give them credit.  That song is fantastic, and I’m pretty sure that everyone knows the words anyway.
    “You don’t make it out of the ‘90s not knowing the chorus to that song,” said Clark.  “They did a wonderful job with that song, much like they do with all of their covers.”
    Back smiled when he heard Clark’s review of the show.  “Yeah, that’s Matt.”
    As it turns out, The Okay Feeling actually is living in “With or Without You,” considering the current location of lead singer Ryan McCardle.
    “He’s in France, dude.  He hasn’t been in the States all semester,” Doyle informed me.
    If he were, practice time would still be difficult to come by.
    With Kesling, Doyle and Back at Radford University as full-time students, McCardle overseas in a study abroad program, Hudson at James Madison University, and McFarland just receiving his transfer acceptance to Radford from New River, the band members are looking forward to the summer.
    “We hope to go on tour.  We have some friends up in Philadelphia, Richmond and D.C., so we’re gonna try to take our stuff on the road and see what we can do,” said Hudson.
    Between April 15 and the end of the semester, they cited finals as the reason for their scant scheduling.
    “All the more reason to count the minutes to summer,” Kesling laughed.