Savannah’s own Last Call is set to join local un-pop punk staples The Ramages at the Sentient Bean for a night of rock presented by A.U.R.A. Fest, the production team responsible for the beloved rock and metal festival of the same name.
The show, taking place on Fri., Oct. 18, is one of several on the books so far as part of a collaboration between A.U.R.A. Fest and the Bean.
Both bands on the bill don’t play very regularly these days, which makes this particular night all the more special. The Ramages are a unique outfit in that they exist entirely on stage—no recordings have ever been released from the quartet.
The show will be particularly significant for Last Call, a young punk and thrash band on their way up whose roots were planted at Savannah Arts Academy.
“Last Call originally started as me, Kyle [Dietz, drummer], and Caleb [Walzak, vocalist],” guitarist Daniel Lucovich tells Connect. Their current bassist, Josh Upchurch, was discovered by bandmates at a bowling alley—in true punk fashion. They began as a straight-ahead hardcore punk band, but have recently been shifting towards more thrash influences.
“We all like hardcore, and it’s really fun to play. Now, though, we’re going back more to our thrash roots and mixing it with hardore. It’s more of a Suicidal Tendencies kind of vibe,” Lucovich says.
Lucovich and Dietz initially started playing together a few years ago, working for “maybe 10 hours a day” on a daily basis. The project was intended briefly as a more metal-leaning band conceptually, and Walzak was asked to join to provide clean vocals. They quickly realized, however, that punk rock was where his vocals shined.
“One day, he came in, and he started doing vocals. We were like, ‘Oh my god. You’re really good.’ We had no idea he had so much talent,” he says.
Aside from the Sentient Bean show, Last Call is currently working on a few recording projects that include studio versions of older songs in the hardcore vein, as well as an entirely new project that Lucovich feels stylistically similar to bands like Knocked Loose.
“It’s weird, but it’s really, really cool. And Caleb’s vocals have evolved to the point where he can really do anything,” he says.
“We’re wanting to get a lot more technical with our songs. We definitely want to evolve our sound.”
