On the FaSt track at SBC
By Jon Busdeker on Jul. 26, 2007
FaSt is:
A) A quick way to get somewhere
B) The initials for Francis Ann Stevenson Taylor
C) A multi-million dollar printing company
D) A band made up of faculty and staff members from Sweet Briar College.
Unless you failed every multiple-choice test you’ve ever taken (and didn’t see the photo), the obvious answer is D.
FaSt (which stands for faculty and staff) is a five-piece rock ‘n’ roll outfit made up of three professors — Mark Magruder, Steve Wassell and Robert Granger — chaplain Adam White and Tom Marcais, a technology trainer.
On Friday, FaSt will perform at Rebec Vineyards for the Rebec After Hours. The show will mark the band’s first gig outside of the halls of SBC.
Earlier this week, the guys met at Magruder’s secluded house in Amherst County to prepare for their upcoming gig.
As they waited for lead guitarist White to show, the guys tuned instruments and set up equipment.
The band’s practice room doubles as a dance studio. Magruder, who plays bass guitar, harmonica and sax, is a dance professor.
In the wood-floored room, wires from microphones and guitars littered the ground like garter snakes. The drum set was in a corner surrounded by two giant speakers. And around the room were six different guitars — some acoustic and some electric.
Smack in the front were four microphones — one for each singing member of the band. Marcias, who plays drums and doesn’t sing, is the only member of FaSt who is a trained musician. Marcias plays with the Lynchburg College Wind Symphony.
FaSt formed in January for the college’s faculty show.
Every four years at SBC, the faculty and staff put on a show for the students. The event is usually meant as chance for those employed by SBC to spoof the students and popular culture.
The five guys in FaSt decided to do a song called “Hey Roe,” which poked fun at a Hampton-Sydney student and a SBC student.
“We weren’t horrible,” said Wassell, a math professor.
Over the next six months, the band practiced and played a few more shows.
Then, Magruder asked his father-in-law Richard R. Hanson — owner of Rebec Vineyards — if FaSt could play a gig. Hanson agreed, and FaSt accepted the challenge to be ready in time for the show.
FaSt is a cover band that prides itself on playing a wide array of songs.
“It’s all over the map,” Magruder said.
When White arrived at practice earlier this week, the band started on its set list, which began with “All Along the Watchtower,” written by Bob Dylan and made famous by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The band ripped through its set list, playing songs like “Lola” by The Kinks, “Nine Hundred Miles” by Woody Guthrie and “Creep” by Radiohead.
Granger, a chemistry professor, said FaSt plays everything from classic rock and punk rock to acid rock and bluegrass. Granger plays the banjo for those bluegrass favorites. On one song, Granger busts out the washboard.
“We’re four decades,” Magruder said. “That’s why we have such an eclectic mix.”
FaSt’s members range from their late 20s to their early 50s, and all of them have different musical tastes.
When deciding on songs for the set list, each member had his input, which lead to the bizarre mix of tunes. But somehow it worked, they explained.
White admitted that a band made up of professors, a chaplain and a computer guy is about as far away from rock ‘n’ roll as it can possibly be.
But when White shreds on his guitar and goes into shrieking solos, you hear the preacher has some rock ‘n’ roll in him.
When asked if they were going to give up their full-time jobs with SBC and hit the road with their act, every member of FaSt had the same answer.
“No.”
If You’re Going
WHAT: Rebec Vineyard’s After Hours
WHEN: 5 p.m. July 27
WHERE: At the vineyeard, located on U.S. 29 in Amherst County
TICKETS: $5 admission; $7 for wine tasters
INFO: Visit http://www.rebec
winery.com
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