Put Nick Niespodziani in the group of people who will remember Ruoff Music Center as Deer Creek.
The Yacht Rock Revue lead singer grew up in Columbus, Ind., and has many fond memories of concerts at the Noblesville venue, originally called Deer Creek Music Center.
“I remember seeing Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Lenny Kravitz and so many great concerts,” Niespodziani said. “It was a core memory-forming place for me.”
So Niespodziani is delighted his band will open at 6:25 p.m. July 10 for Train and REO Speedwagon at Ruoff.
“I’m so excited to play Deer Creek. This is a childhood dream coming true,” he said. “It’s going to be a really full circle moment.”
Niespodziani, 45, is a founding member of the Atlanta-based band, which started in 2007. Six of the nine members have been there since the beginning.
This is by far the biggest and longest tour for the group.
“I’m in my 40s and I’ve never been on a tour bus before,” Niespodziani said just before the tour started July 1. “We’ve always done vans and trailers and flown out to regional and done a little run and then flown home. This is 40-plus shows in 2 1/2 months. This is new territory for us.”
Niespodziani said the group must narrow its long setlist down.
“People want to hear all the greatest hits of the 1960s and 1970s and we have 45 minutes to do it, which is a lot different than 2 hours and 20 minutes, so we have to be efficient,” he said. “I would guess if we don’t play ‘Baker Street’ at Deer Creek (people will be disappointed). Maybe ‘Brandy’ by Looking Glass, ‘What a Fool Believes’ by Michael McDonald and ‘The Pina Colada Song.’ You start naming them all, but you want to have some surprises.”
Niespodziani said the band will perform some of its original songs.
“When we get to Ruoff, we’ll be just about to release the second single from this new collection of songs we recorded,” he said. “At first, it was kind of nerve-racking to play our own songs not knowing how they were going to react. I think we’ve earned their trust at this point. We try to stay within the genre and stay within ourselves and give it a little something you haven’t heard before.”
Prior to joining Yacht Rock Revue, Niespodziani and the several band members were in the indie rock band Y-O-U,
For more, visit yachtrockrevue.com.
