Nancy's Fury voted # One local band in northern Michigan 
Glen Young
Rock and roll has long been implicated as a cause of the generation
gap. Fathers, the argument goes, champion the Rolling Stones and the
like, while sons bang their heads to hip-hop, Saliva or The Killers.
Scott
and Dave Bachelor of Petoskey have instead used the thumping sounds of
rock rhythms to forge a stronger father-son relationship. Scott plays
drums and Dave sings lead vocals for the Petoskey-area band Nancy’s
Fury, more popularly known as Footloose.
Appearing regularly at
Petoskey’s Papa Lou’s, Northern Lights Recreation Center, and the
Stampede in Gaylord, Nancy’s Fury has won a regular following, thanks
in part to Scott’s cohesive drumming and Dave’s rangy singing.
The two are joined on stage by lead guitarist Dave Misale, guitarist Eric Wilson, and bassist Ken Reedy.
Footloose
formed in the mid-‘90s, playing largely country-flavored sets. Scott
eventually sat in as a back-up drummer, and ultimately took over the
job full time. With a few other personnel changes, his son Dave also
came to be a regular member of the band.
“It definitely wasn’t
planned,” Scott says. “He asked if he could come up and sing a song
sometime,” Scott, 43, says of his now 18-year-old son. Crowds responded
appreciatively. “So, we started making his guest appearances a regular
thing,” Dave’s proud dad continues.
Dave, who says he wants to
eventually “become a rock and roll superstar,” recalls his early days
vividly. “When I started I was 15,” Dave says. His appearances had to
come early in the band’s sets, because “I couldn’t stay in bars that
late back then.”
RECENT GRAD
Before performing with
Footloose he sang with some bands made up of other Petoskey High School
students, from where he recently graduated, but only because he fibbed
to some friends in ninth grade and told them he could sing when they
needed a front man. “I didn’t know how to sing at all,” he admits with
a laugh.
Dave says he and his father, who has been involved in
rock and roll since he was a teen himself, “have a friendship as well
as a father-son relationship.” He does admit as well however, that “any
son knows that when you work with your dad, this ‘I’d do it this way’
response sometimes comes out.”
Scott says that the two sometimes
disagree because Dave “expects things to happen faster than we
realistically know they will. He’s kind of like a wild horse; you have
to tame him sometimes.”
Lead guitarist Misale, who joined the band
almost a year ago, after answering an ad in the newspaper, says the
band has found a comfortable groove. “We’re all equals here.”
The
band, which is slowly changing its name to Nancy’s Fury in order to
distance itself from the country roots of Footloose, enjoys an eclectic
audience at its regular venues. On a recent night at Papa Lou’s, the
crowd included both the Harley set as well as local real estate
professionals. Their combination of classic and contemporary rock
weaves itself well into the memories of all stripes of music fans.
Their newest CD, simply titled “Nancy’s Fury,” features covers of “No
Sugar Tonight” by the Guess Who, as well as “Basket Case” by Green Day.
DANCE READY
Johnnie
Walker, bartender and booking agent at Papa Lou’s, says the band “has a
good energy to them” and they “have a good clean sound.” He says that
crowds react enthusiastically and that at times “we can’t get people
off the dance floor.” He also likes working with the band, which he
books about once a month, because “they’re all really professional.”
Scott
says Nancy’s Fury is hoping to record a CD of original material
sometime before next ski season. When they are onstage, up to four
nights a week, adding Boyne Mountain’s Snowflake Lounge to their
regular venues. He says they have more than a half dozen tracks to
date, and need maybe that many more to fill out the disc. All five
members collaborate on songwriting.
For more information about Nancy’s Fury visit their website at www.freewebs.com/footlooseband
