When Virginia Beach-based The Influence rolls into Blacksburg Nov. 17, attendees of the show at Champs are sure to enjoy a high-energy night. “We work as hard as we can,” said The Influence vocalist and lyricist Archer Stephenson. “You’ll see an unbelievable amount of energy.”The band’s common bond in musical taste is its members’ love of early 90s rock music—“one of the last great rock movements,” according to Stephenson. And from that inspiration The Influence receives a neo-grunge label—with a sound sometimes compared to Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, Nirvana and other angsty rockers. “We consider ourselves a progressive rock band more than anything,” Stephenson said, “but we’re also comfortable with the neo-grunge label.”

The band has been making a name for itself up and down the East Coast in support of its new CD, Pig Radio, an album with most songs steeped in anger and darkness, where themes of pain and loss are common.

“I was coming off three years of bad luck and unfortunate circumstances,” Stephenson said. “The songs are very introspective. I think I’ve had enough of my own experiences and heartache to write some very personal music.” Stephenson that writing the Pig Radio CD allowed him “to come clean with a lot of things.”

And the honest expression pours out of Stephenson in songs such as “Cold,” “Corpse Song,” and “Paint the World Grey” with lyrics such as:

I’d paint the world grey
With just one stroke of yesterday
And see, ain’t much for us here but this sad song
And all that went o’ so wrong

But The Influence offers much more than Stephenson’s existential dread. His raw and intense vocals lead a group of solid musicians. John Zontini and Will Clarke handle guitar duties while the rhythm is kept by Chris Tully, who works the bass, and Collin Cogan, who plays drums.

Each of the five band members bring various influences to the group. “We all listen to very different things outside of the band,” Stephenson said. Zontini and Clarke are originally from Virginia Beach, Stephenson grew up mostly outside of the United States in places such as El Salvador and Egypt, Tully is from New York, and Cogan is from Northern Virginia. As previously mentioned, the early 90s sound is common to all, but the rest of the band’s sound is a mesh of varied influences that somehow come together in rock songs reminiscent of the Singles soundtrack.

The Influence is taking its rock show all across Virginia, with stops in Farmville on Nov. 15, Charlottesville on Nov. 16, Champs in Blacksburg on Nov. 17, and then a few stops in North Carolina and Georgia before coming back to the Commonwealth to play Norfolk on Dec. 4, Charlottesville on Dec. 5, and Arlington on Dec. 7.

For more information, check out www.theinfluenceofmusic.com or contact Champs at 540.552.2233.

Tim W. Jackson loved the Singles soundtrack, which he had on cassette. He is Editor of the New River Voice.