The Ongoing Concept

• From: Rathdrum, Idaho
• Sounds Like: My Heart to Fear, Silent Planet, Exiting the Fall

Like their moniker, The Ongoing Concept refuses to cement themselves to any one thing. Dawson Scholz (guitarist/vocalist) says of the band “some bands may say we play heavy music and that’s supposed to be guitar, bass and drums. I look around our music space and see a trombone, a piano, a harmonica and I think, I wonder what we could do with that?” Hailing from Idaho, the band is literally a band of brothers (and one childhood friend) made up of Dawson, Kyle Scholz (vocals/keyboard), Parker Scholz (drums) and TJ Nichols (bass). The band arrived on the national radar via their 2013 debut album Saloon on Solid State Records (Underoath, Fit For A King). The album simultaneously produced plenty of praise and plenty of puzzled head-scratching alike. The songs combined the technical dexterity of bands like The Chariot with strong elements of punk melodicism and utilized unexpected instruments and styles throughout. As highly critical online outlet Metal Sucks summed up “The dusty mine-town barroom conceit isn’t fleeting or kitschy either – ragtime piano, seedy banjo plucking and barbershop crooning have all been smoothly integrated without ever feeling forced or secondary to the screamo.”