Left & Right began their musical career in Charlottesville while driving buses for the University Transit Service. Since graduation, they became Philadelphians, engaging in the city’s vibrant scene and landing on countrywide touring schedules with another Charlottesville favorite, the Nashville-born, four-guitar rock band Diarrhea Planet. Arts & Entertainment caught up with the band after their show at the Southern this past weekend.
Daniel Merchant and Phil Dameron - guitars/vocals
Andrew Abbott - bass
Zak Krone - drums
Arts & Entertainment: How was your first experience at South by Southwest? This preceded your current touring plans with Diarrhea Planet.
Phil Dameron (guitarist/vocalist): [South by Southwest was] chaotic — very chaotic. We mostly spent the whole time talking crap about it. But then [if we were asked,] “Would you guys do it again?” we would probably do it again. It was a wild goose chase. We had some good shows. It was a lot of fun. We saw a lot of good bands. A lot of bands we’re good friends with were down there, so it was like running into people on the streets which was kind of nice. Austin’s cool.
Andrew Abbott (bassist): We hated it, but we enjoyed it. It’s like a sleepover for bands. Wherever you go you run into somebody that you know from somewhere else. That’s pretty cool. I enjoyed that a lot. Driving down there was a little slice of hell though.
Zak Krone (drummer): We hate driving. We love drinking beer. Those are the most important things.
A&E: What has the touring process been like so far?
PD: This tour in particular has been very good. It’s been crazy. Diarrhea Planet is one of the best live acts in the country, so their shows have been really cool.
AA: Yeah, getting to see [Diarrhea Planet] every night and getting to play the kind of crowds that they draw has been a lot of fun. You know, we’re just trying to make the best of it and capitalize on getting to play these big shows that we haven’t really gotten the chance to do before. I think we’re doing a good job. It’s been fun. We hit a lot of places we’ve been before. We went to Canada. That was fun. A couple of shows sold out.
PD: It’s been a really good [tour]. We’ve been touring for about two and a half years now and everyone gets better. But it takes touring with a band like this to really jump up to the next level. It’s going to be hard when we’re not touring with [Diarrhea Planet] to get used to trying to fight on our own. We owe everything to [them].
A&E: What is it like coming back to Charlottesville after having been on a big tour?
ZK: Have you seen that movie “Shane”? It’s like a classic Western. It ends [with] “Shane, Shane, don’t go.” It’s like that.
Daniel Merchant (guitarist/vocalist): Watch that movie. That’s how it is.
PD: It took us moving away from Charlottesville for our Charlottesville shows to be good. I hate to say it. I mean we had some good shows here. We opened for a lot of really cool bands when we were here, but people cared a lot more about us after we left.
ZK: The town itself is personally very much a bummer for me. I can’t speak for [the rest of the band], but to see Random Row [Books] gone, where probably the two most influential shows that I feel like we played were when we were living here, is gone, you know, to walk down on the Downtown Mall and not recognize a lot of stuff — I don’t know — you expect it to change, naturally.
PD: But coming back here is great.
AA: Every time I enjoy it an awful lot.
PD: Especially the people.
AA: Yeah, that really is the best part.
PD: And we played too many shows while we were living here, too. And now that we’re gone, we get to see everybody at the same time, instead of being all spread out. We have a lot of friends here. It’s great. We love playing here.
A&E: What are some of your fondest memories while still in Charlottesville?
AA: As a band I would say it would have been that LP release show at Random Row Books. That one was awesome. And then after that, it would probably be the second Random Row show, and then I would probably say opening for Diarrhea Planet right before we moved. Right before we moved we found out we were going to be opening for Diarrhea Planet, and we were jazzed about it because [they] were one of our favorite bands already, and to kind of close out living in Charlottesville with probably the biggest show we’ve played here up to that point was a really nice way to go out. And that was actually where we really met [Diarrhea Planet] and started to kind of develop a rapport with them, and that’s why we’re here now getting ready to play this one. It all kind of harkens back to that show. I remember that one very, very fondly. Non-band-related, [the best Charlottesville memory was] probably just sitting on the porch and watching storms roll in over that mountain, or just sitting on any porch in Charlottesville. We miss that an awful lot.
ZK: I miss living with my parents. I miss it so much.
A&E: What are the future plans for the band?
DM: We’re gonna finish out this tour, and then the next one this spring, we’re going to go make money because we won’t have any anymore, and then we’re going to record a record in the late summertime. And it’s gonna be awesome.
PD: Yeah, we’re looking forward to the next [record]. I think we’ve got a good one.
AA: We have a fair amount of material going. We’ve still got a long way to go, but we’re gonna do another tour with Diarrhea Planet heading out to the west coast, and then we’re just going to be grinding real hard on the writing all summer and trying to not get evicted from our house.
Left & Right’s latest LP “Five Year Plan” is out now through Infinity Cat Recordings.
Check out their music at leftandright.bandcamp.com.
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