Trevecca student band Roarshack hosts HookyFest, a Nashville student music festival

By Lauren Steinbrook

News and Engagement Editor

Trevecca student band, Roarshack, is taking the stage tomorrow night with the launch of HookyFest.

HookyFest is a music festival created and headlined by student band Roarshack. The festival kicks off Saturday at 3 p.m. at The Coliseum and will feature 11 bands from Nashville area colleges, including Trevecca, Belmont and Lipscomb.

HookyFest will feature a mix of originals and covers from bands including Sleep Naked and Scuffed Animals. doors opening at 2:30 p.m., with music beginning at 3 p.m., and Roarshack taking the stage at 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $15.

“In April of last [school] year, I was like Why don’t we do like a big back-to-school kind of festival? ‘” said Jack Bahorik, lead singer of Roarshack, a sophomore music business major at Trevecca and organizer of HookyFest. “And so I’ve been planning it, and I mean, thankfully, booking makes it really easier for my band to get gigs, because I can just book us. But this has been like a passion project of mine for a long time.”

Bahorik said he works at the Coliseum, an all-ages, alcohol-free music venue in Nashville. He started “College Nights at the Coliseum,” where local college bands get the opportunity to perform on stage once a month, giving student musicians a chance to connect with a live audience. But started working on putting on HookeyFest in April.

Bahorik started Roarshack with his roommate, Elias Noland, lead guitarist and sophomore music business major at Trevecca, in the fall of last year.

“We met over Instagram before the school year started last year, and he had uploaded a cover from a band called Silver Chair to his Instagram. And I’ve never met anyone who likes Silver Chair, so I was like, ‘Dude, this is an awesome cover.’ And like the next sentence, he was like, ‘Hey, man, you want to room together,’ and it’s honestly turned out wonderful. We get along so well,” said Bahorik. “We kind of started thinking about a band, and then found a bassist. I knew a drummer from high school, and then just over the summer, we added a keyboardist. And we’ve been practicing together since last fall semester.”

Roarshack includes Bahorik, Nolan, bassist Landry French, Keyboardist Jackson McWhorter and drummer Jace Miears.

“We derive a lot [of inspiration] from Deftones,” said Bahorik. “There’s some other bands too, one’s called Low. And a lot of us love the 90’s bands like Alice and Chains, Nirvana and Pearl Jam.”

Bahorik says the band is excited to perform their original songs they have been working on.

“Elias writes a lot of our songs. He does a lot of the guitar parts. I add lyrics, Jace adds lyrics, and Landry adds lyrics. It’s kind of a very communal kind of songwriting,” said Bahorik.

Bahorik says he hopes that people come out to support all the bands, not just Roarshack.

The Coliseum is located at 1015 W Kirkland Ave, Suite 304, Nashville, Tenn.

For more information on HookyFest, or to buy tickets, you can check out The Coliseum’s website or roarshacktheband.com