Sure, the hype for the return of the annual St. Pat’s in Five Points festival is focused on the headliners Blues Traveler and national acts such as Surfaces, Laney Wilson, and Big Something, but what often gets lost in the coverage is that St. Pat’s is also one of the biggest local music festival opportunities of the year. Columbia bands are well represented on the main stages in 2022, and every year there are additional acts playing at unofficial side stages, local bars, and restaurants in the area, and more. To help you plan a locals-focused day at the festival, here’s a rundown of area artists and when to find them on what stage:
Villanova
2:40 pm, Greene and Harden St. Stage
Possibly the most popular local act to play St. Pat’s multiple times, Villa*Nova brings the noise every year. The current lineup includes founding members Bobby Dredd and DJ Able One alongside singer and guitarist Brian Conner. The band released their first new music since 2015 last year, the single “Vipers,” which revealed a commitment to a heavier sound within their melodic funk roots. There’s still plenty of the funk/rock/hip-hop hybrid left in the band’s back catalog to please their longtime fans, however.
George Fetner and the Strays
1:10 - 2:10 p.m., Greene and Harden St Stage
George Fetner has corralled his band of musical misfits into a herd of magnanimous proportions that turns any stage into a groove-laden party. Despite the near double-digit number of band members on stage, tight arrangements make the proceedings chug along purposefully. If you’re into bands such as Lake Street Dive, or the classic jams of WAR, there’s plenty to love in the joy-filled, tuneful workouts that Fetner and the Strays produce.
Stranger Company
12:00-12:50 Harden and Blossom St Stage
A newer presence locally, this young quartet has tapped into a jam band style of rock, blues, and jazz that hearkens back to the 70’s classic rock of acts such as Wet Willie, Santana, and Sea Level, where the grooves and the guitar licks were what mattered.
Ashley Wright and the Vance Gap Ramblers
12:00-12:50 Saluda and Devine St Stage
Ashley Wright and her band have managed to create twang-friendly tunes that transcend stereotypes and cut close to the emotional bone. The band’s delicate arrangements juxtaposed with Ashley Wright’s full-throated alto voice bring to mind Gillian Welch and Watchhouse.
Sourwood Honey Tribute Band
7:00-8:30, Home Team BBQ Stage
The beloved Sourwood Honey was a bar-packing mainstay of the regional club circuit in the 1990s, with the dual front of Ryan Goforth and Chris Conner and ace guitarist Herbie Jeffcoat taking on the wingman position. Their brand of jam-friendly southern country rock was always a cut above the rest due largely to Conner’s songwriting skills, showcased on the pair of full-length albums the band issued in their prime.
Conner passed from cancer back in 2007 but a few years back most of the remaining band members reconvened around Chris’ younger brother Brian Conner (of Villa*Nova), and called it a “tribute,” with Brian taking over his late brother’s parts; the goal is to keep the memory of Chris alive and reintroduce the band’s classic songs to audiences old and new.
The Ramblers
4:10-5:10, Home Team BBQ Stage
Taylor Nicholson logged plenty of miles as the lead singer for the popular regional rock act Atlas Road Crew; this outfit aims to provide plenty of classic rock and blues vibes on familiar material.
Danielle Howle & the Tantrums
2:40-3:40, Home Team BBQ Stage
The nostalgic aspect of this year’s St. Pat’s Festival is encapsulated in the fact that Howle, a former Columbia resident and musician who now calls the Charleston area home, was playing the festival as early as the 1990s with her band Lay Quiet Awhile. The Tantrums was her next full rock band, featuring members from another late great local act, Blightobody, and the group recorded several albums for Daemon Records in the late 1990s, gaining airplay locally and regionally with songs such as “She Has A Past.”
Soul Mites
1:10-2:10, Home Team BBQ Stage
The perennial party band for many Columbia natives, The Soul Mites only come out and play any more on special occasions like this.. The gruff, insistent voice of Tim Davis may be the focal point, but his supporting cast gives him a funky soul drenched rock ‘n’ roll machine to carry his crooning to another level.