[show_avatar email=jess@iwenttoashow.com align=left avatar_size=62]We thought that offering up four of St. Louis’ brightest and fanciest pop/rock bands alongside our favorite music writer/DJ and a g-d taco truck would be reason enough to join us at our first blog-hosted showcase. But today, we get to drop this three-man bomb on ya: The Blind Eyes are our FIFTH band playing on Saturday. The guys recently completed a new record called “With a Bang”, scheduled for release in June.

Matt, drummer and media darling for tBE, answered our five probing Showcase Preview questions:

Name: Matt Picker.

Instruments: I play drums in the band. I also play guitar and bass very poorly, but luckily for everyone, not in public. I can also play “Hot Cross Buns” on both the recorder AND the piano.

IWTAS: Do you have a day job? If so, tell us all about it.

MP: Yes, I work in inside sales for a company called St. Louis Music. We do wholesale music accessory and instrument distribution all over the country. I actually work with Seth (guitar/vox in tBE), but he works in the violin shop setting up instruments. The Blind Eyes ain’t exactly paying the bills or anything like that (not that we wouldn’t want it to be that way). As far as day jobs go, it’s a good gig.

IWTAS: Name a memorable moment from your band’s history.

MP: One [memory] that really sticks out is when we were on the cover of the Riverfront Times. That was pretty amazing and surreal; I just never thought that would happen. There were some really bad memorable moments, too, like our first show at Off Broadway where we played to literally three people. However, that experience became the impetus for the song “Hot Silence” from our first record, so I guess it wasn’t all bad.

IWTAS: Locally speaking, who has influenced your music?

MP: At the risk of sounding cheesy, I guess it would be Kevin (bass in tBE). We’ve been playing together since we were 15, and he’s the one that taught me how to play guitar. Before that I wasn’t interested in playing music at all. We kinda kicked this whole thing off together, and here we are many years later, still at it. I remember when he got his brother’s old drum kit (we were both about 16 at the time) and we played “Blitzkrieg Bop” and it was like a revelation. “This sounds like something!” Up until then we were basically Bill and Ted – no joke. We were both playing our cheap electric guitars. It was The Wyld Stallyns, but worse.

IWTAS: What’s your favorite place to eat/drink/socialize in St. Louis?

MP: For me it’s the Royale, without a doubt. Great food, great cocktails, awesome patio. Good atmosphere. There’s always someone spinning tunes. Also, they’re totally rooted in the community, and it’s an easy walking/biking distance from my house.

IWTAS: In your opinion, what’s the best thing fans can do to support local music?

MP: Go to shows. Period. Just go out and see local bands, and bring your friends. Maybe try to turn friends in other cities on to what’s going on in STL. Every little bit helps, but at the end of the day, the best thing you can do is go out and live it.

Hear two new Blind Eyes tracks streaming on their Facebook page – “With A Bang” and Hermetically Sealed”. If you listen to them the entire time you write a single blog post, like I just did, you’ll know them by heart and will be able to sing along on Saturday.