Hundreds of rock band American Aquarium’s fans boarded flights, loaded cars, or crossed an ocean to attend the band’s 10th annual Roadtrip to Raleigh hometown festival at the Lincoln Theatre in early February.
And some just crossed town.
Here are just a few of their stories.
‘You never go to a show without a friend again’
Ashely Scott flew solo from Oklahoma to North Carolina in February of 2024, “not knowing a single soul,” bound for Roadtrip to Raleigh.
But she had connected with a fellow fan, a woman named Lyndsay, on the band’s Facebook fan group page. After due diligence, the pair decided to split a place to stay in Raleigh for the weekend.
Ashley ended up with much more than a roommate for the music festival.
“She introduced me to all these amazing people. We got in line super early every single night and just met new people continuously throughout the weekend,” Ashley says. “And it was phenomenal. I have met some of my greatest friends.”
One of those was Samantha Kniskern, who Ashley now calls “one of my absolute best friends.”
Samantha attended Roadtrip for the first time last year, traveling from Farmville, North Carolina, just to see opener Muscadine Bloodline. In the end, she “absolutely fell in love with American Aquarium.”
And gained some new best pals.
Samantha, Ashley, and other friends have since met up for American Aquarium shows in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas City, and Colorado.
“I was a new fan from last year, and now I have a second family, which is crazy,” Samantha says. “The type of people that are the fan base here is freaking amazing. … They are just so welcoming.
“You never go to a show without a friend again.”
‘We’ve all been able to grow with the band’
American Aquarium had long been on Pittsburgh native Ryan Naumann’s radar.
And then COVID-19 hit.
“They became my covid band. They were kind of my solitary refuge,” says Ryan, who traveled from Pennsylvania for his first Roadtrip. “A lot of the ways that they spoke (about) a lot of the isolation that you felt in covid, I felt that there was a superimposable theme.”
Lonely ain’t easy.
And in a pandemic quarantine, Ryan says, “Sometimes it feels great to know someone is able to speak those words for you.”
For Natalie Eroh of Raleigh, who has been a fan for almost a decade, the depth to American Aquarium’s music “has grown almost in line perfectly with my own growth,” she says.
She was 21 when she first discovered the band — and when “Losing Side of 25,” a song about turning 30, was released.
“It was all fun and games for the first four years that I knew American Aquarium, but then as soon as I started turning 25 and older, that song kind of hit a little bit harder,” she says.
“As I get older, this stuff starts to make more sense to me.”
She adds, “We’ve all been able to grow with the band.”
For Kala Hovater, that growth goes back to 2007.
The Raleigh-area native grew up with former American Aquarium member Bill Corbin. She and their friends stared going to the band’s early shows “at little dive bars in town.”
“And I was like, ‘Oh (expletive), this is good,’” Kala says.
“I think there’s just something special about someone playing music about the same thing that you’re going through,” she says. “We’re the same age, so we’re going through things at the same time.”
Kala has been to all 10 Roadtrips and has seen every iteration of the band.
She has also witnessed an evolution: the maturation in front man BJ Barham’s songwriting over the last 18 years.
Songs about bars and breakups have given way to songs dealing with grief, parenting, and marriage.
That maturity has no doubt aligned with Barham’s sobriety, of which he celebrated 10 years late last summer.
“Sobriety has been a great thing for his art, as well as just being married and having a daughter,” says Jim Nolte, who traveled from Charleston for Roadtrip. “You can see the maturity in his songwriting. You can tell he works at his craft.
“The shows get better and better every year,” Jim says. “Songwriting gets better and better every year.”
The band’s momentum has seen a similar trajectory.
From Raleigh to ‘everywhere’
Kala said she had to convince friends to go with her to the first Roadtrip in 2015. Now, there’s a legion of diehards who fly across the country to see the band. Those fans plan group meetups through social media.
BJ Barham has long been a “hometown hero” to Kala, but after seeing how much his music resonates with fans at shows across the country, it dawned on her: “This isn’t just a Raleigh thing; this is an everywhere thing.”
It’s a bit poetic, too. A band that once struggled to find traction locally now sells out the Lincoln Theatre three nights in a row.
“Lots of things have changed with this band over the years, but the one thing I can tell you that has never changed in 18 years: These guys play just as hard for 10 people as they do for 1,000 people,” Kala says. “That’s the real reason to love them.”
‘Easy to root for’
American Aquarium’s Burn.Flicker.Die album made quite the impression on Adam White.
Well, multiple impressions.
The band’s breakthrough 2012 album was recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, less than 50 miles from White’s native Athens, Alabama.
“From then, I’ve been hooked ever since,” he says.
So much so that he rocks a matchstick tattoo in honor of the album.
At this year’s Roadtrip, White added new ink: an acorn and dogwood bloom, an homage to the band’s Oak City roots and their 2020 track “Before the Dogwood Blooms.”
While this was Adam’s first Roadtrip, it was his 13th time seeing the band live.
“I’ve enjoyed the whole experience, so it’s a good reminder of Raleigh,” he says.
Getting a tattoo must take patience, tolerance for pain.
But identifying with Barham (no stranger to ink, himself) and his songwriting?
“He’s such an easy guy to like,” Adam says. “You know what he’s gone through; he tells the stories. … It’s just easy to root for a guy like that. It’s easy to see a lot of myself in him. He’s married, got a daughter, just like I do. And he just works his butt off and he has fun. He makes it easy to be a fan. It’s easy to support him.”
During Roadtrip, Adam met fellow fans from states like South Dakota and Pennsylvania.
“It’s a little different than a music festival, because that’s just huge,” White said.
Rather, he compares it to a smaller festival, “tied into a family reunion.”
Geoff Corneau, who is from the Charlotte area and has seen American Aquarium around 20 times since becoming a fan in 2019, says, “It’s kind of like a little homecoming. You know Insane Clown Posse and they’ve got the Gathering they do? It’s kind of like that.”
Maybe with less face paint, though.
‘One piece at a time’
The lyrics of “Piece by Piece,” from American Aquarium’s 2024 The Fear of Standing Still album, describe how a soulmate “pulled me out of a hole I’d been digging, smiled and said, ‘You ain’t getting rid of me that easy.’”
Anna heard that song last summer when the album was released and texted her friend.
“I had a whole conversation with her about hoping that someday I find my Rae, like BJ was singing about,” Anna says, referring to BJ’s wife, Rachael.
By autumn, she found that in Brian.
“Although we haven’t been together for that long, it was very clear, I would say from within like the first month (of dating) that I finally found the person that I’ve been looking for for 10 years,” Anna says.
Brian got Anna a Cameo of Barham singing “Piece by Piece” for her birthday.
She, meanwhile, took him to his first-ever American Aquarium show late last year in Memphis.
During the meet-and-greet afterward, Anna told BJ, “When I heard ‘Piece by Piece,’ I was hoping that someday I would find that person. And I did. And here he is at his first American Aquarium show.”
Memphis was Brian’s first show, but it wouldn’t be his last. And certainly not his most memorable.
The couple was waiting in line for the final night of this year’s Roadtrip.
Excitement was building. Positive energy had just filled their weekend of shows. Brian had something on his mind, on his heart.
“It felt like a moment that I didn’t want to let pass,” Brian says. “I have found since meeting her that there have been these moments where you step up to the edge, and you can either step back and not jump, or you can just jump.
“And I have found every single time that I’ve done that, it’s been the right thing. … Things have worked out better than I could possibly imagined,” he says. “And that felt like a time to jump.”
Or kneel.
Brian said he started “babbling incoherently” about how much Anna meant to him and how much he had enjoyed their weekend of shows together. Realizing what was happening, she said in good spirits, “You at least have to get down on a knee.”
He did.
And in doing so, they picked each other up.
Piece by piece.
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