PHOTOS
Lisa Sokolowski
There's a freedom that comes with Anthony Raneri's solo shows, one the Bayside frontman doesn't have when he's with his band.
When Bayside plays, it has to play "Carry On," and "Blame It On Bad Luck," and many people would be upset if "A Synonym for Acquiesce" wasn't on the set list.
But Raneri won't even
have a set list when he plays Cafe Metropolis on May 15. You may see a paper in front of him, but he's not married to it.
"I'll write down a list every day of things I might want to play or things I know how to play, just so I don't draw a blank," Raneri said by phone earlier this week.
"At Bayside shows, there are songs we're supposed to play," he added. "Songs on samplers, CDs. We kind of already know what we're supposed to be playing as opposed to playing music just to play music."
That thought process makes it interesting that Raneri isn't in a self-serving improv band. Everything Raneri does is for himself. Is it self-indulgent? Maybe a little, but let he who isn't semi-selfish cast the first stone.
Or stand back and watch the haters do it because, for a while, Raneri and Bayside needed to wear stone-deflecting suits.
MTV2 was playing "Duality" and when Bayside's next single, "Carry On" debuted, it scored enough votes to cameo on TRL (you know, that one show on MTV lacking rich girls' scripted fights). That caused the volcano of negativity to erupt, spewing the word "sellout" over Bayside's cred.
So, Raneri posted a long-winded blog on the band's MySpace page.
"I just like to rant when a good topic comes up," he said. "I just love to talk about it. That's kind of what the blog is. If nobody read it, that's fine. Sometimes it's just to get things off my chest. ... Everything I do is for me. That's kind of what the basis of the whole blog is."
He doesn't write songs with MTV in mind, but he also won't say "Screw you" to the network to silence the "fans." He's not particular about who listens to him and Bayside.
"If you don't get it, you don't get it and that's all," Raneri wrote in the blog. "If a 30 year old hardcore guy from Boston or a 20 year old Modest Mouse fan in Seattle or 15 year old teeny bopper from Dallas understands our band, like what we're doing and can relate to it in any way, then that's amazing. That's why I make music, so it can help people and give them something to believe in and smile about. I'm not an elitist. I don't want to alienate anyone and it's got nothing to do with money or popularity. You don't have to be a certain level of cool to listen to Bayside. i just want you to get it"
Sure it's typo-laden, missing a few hyphens and periods, but it makes an extremely valid point. And anyway, Raneri never claimed to be a writer or a poet. He pens the lyrics for his band, but there's a reason the songs are all autobiographical journal entries: Raneri doesn't know quite how to write anything else. He's trying for the new Bayside album - which goes into pre-production on June 1 and the band heads to the studio in L.A. for tracking on July 1 - but he doesn't know if those songs will make the cut.
If they do, there will be more songs Raneri is required to play - and maybe that means more solo shows.
"Bayside is my priority and my first love," Raneri said. "The solo tour is my vacation. I get to let my hair down."