Columbus native Nick Niespodziani acknowledged that Yacht Rock Revue began far from the limelight of the record industry 12 years ago.
“We played of lot of cruddy clubs,” vocalist/guitarist Niespodziani said. “Early on, it was kind of like being a stripper. Women even would grab at you, though not in a sexual way.”
The band that also includes Columbus native and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Peter Olson has now shimmied its way to a new level of success in recent months. The giant promoter Live Nation marketed the seven-member group’s latest tour in support of the mostly-cover band’s first original release “Hot Dads In Tight Jeans” that landed on the Billboard charts.
The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the concert schedule that included sellouts of venues ranging from 3,500 to 6,000 seats in major cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles.
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The group has also found itself in Rolling Stone magazine twice within three months already this calendar year.
Rolling Stone writer Joseph Hudak praised Yacht Rock Revue’s new soft-rock disc by gushing, “These are tracks that could slide in comfortably next to anything off Tame Impala’s latest, ‘The Slow Rush.’”
Niespodziani, a 1996 Columbus North High School graduate who once sadly left his music dream for law school, sounds as amazed as anyone at the turn of events — those that landed him in a party band doing polished-to-perfection covers of what is known as yacht rock.
The genre consists of soft rock tunes from acts such as The Doobie Brothers, Hall and Oates, and Robbie Duoree from the 1970s to the early 1980s.
Locals know the humor-oriented, Atlanta-based ensemble well from Indianapolis gigs, plus two sold-out performances at the Columbus Regional Health’s Reverse Raffle in recent years. In fact, a few attendees came to those gatherings decked in yacht-inspired captain’s hats, ascots and mirrored aviator shades.
Such a getup became the band’s uniform — along with Seventies-style shirts featuring collars with a wingspan seemingly wider than a 757.
“Who would have thought that all this could finally happen at age 41?” Niespodziani said of he and his forty-something bandmates as he spoke by phone from his Atlanta home.
One of the few signs that he is no longer the twenty-something rocker who hoped his previous band called Y-O-U would find national success surfaces in the form of an interruption of his rock reminiscing on the phone. His 4-year-old wants to know when they are going swimming in the kiddie pool in the backyard.
When the album released in February, the band was ready for a splash.
Niespodziani and his mates acknowledge that the burgeoning success has turned the band into a full-fledged business with a comptroller, an agent, an office staff, a concert crew, backup singers, and a 401K. Waiting to play music is one thing.
“But we also have people depending on us for health insurance,” he said. “But we don’t know if we’ll playing again by July, or even the next July.”
So he and bandmates have been live-streaming solo performances each Thursday evening on the ensemble’s Facebook page.
“We really had some momentum going,” Niespodziani said.
That included radio programmers nationwide making plans to put into airplay rotation the band’s single “Bad Tequila.” Its first harmonies-heavy single, “Step,” included a video directed by sister Gina Niespodziani, now in Brooklyn. She has worked alongside such national acts as Cardi B and Mastadon.
Niespodziani used to collaborate with his singer/keyboardist dad Ed Niespodziani for the annual, local American Pie concert/history lesson at a sold-out Judson Erne Auditorium. Concertgoers may well remember Nick Niespodziani’s emphatic, 2018 performance that included his passionate rendition of The Guess Who’s 1970 hit “American Woman.”
The aggressive, energetic number electrified the crowd so much that even white-haired women seated in the back of the venue stood and shouted.
“That Nick — he killed it,” said audience member Kyra Kenney afterward.
Killer vocals and more — giving Yacht Rock Revue plenty of wind in their sails.
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Columbus ties: Frontman, vocalist and guitarist Nick Niespodziani and vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Peter Olson.
Set lists on tour: Covers of The Doobie Brothers, Hall and Oates, Robbie Dupree, plus three or four originals from the band’s February disc, "Hot Dads in Tight Jeans."
Has performed onstage with: Robbie Dupree, Eddie Money, John Oates and a number of other stars from the 1970s.
Would love to: Come to Columbus and headline the Our Hospice of South Central Indiana Labor Day Weekend Concert.
Information: The Facebook page for Yacht Rock Revue or yachtrockrevue.com
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