There's rarely an opportunity for a concert goer to hear Guns N' Roses and Johnny Cash at the same show. There just aren't many bands with that wide of a style in their arsenal.
However, Annie Up is trying to do just that, and they play just about everything in-between.
The seven piece band will be performing at this year's Wheat Fest Block Party. The concert is scheduled for Friday July 10 and will take place on 7th and Washington.
"Basically we started off as a county band and it turned into more of a rock band. We have all kinds of styles. That seems to be what people have been wanting lately. They want to be able to dance and have a good time," said Billy Soto, the band's lead guitarist. "We will do a song from Aerosmith and then go to I dunno Sugarland, stuff like that."
Featured in the band will be a hometown drummer. Steve Levan was born in Wellington and has spent the majority of his 43 years here. Levan plays a combination of rolls for the band. He acts as a road and operations manager when the group is out playing shows.
Levan sees this as a special opportunity for his closest to hear the band play. "This year my mom can't really travel much to hear the band, and she hadn't heard the band in a long time, so I wanted to play a gig locally so my parents could get out and hear the band."
Levan's 25 year class reunion is the following day. Although Annie Up has another concert that day, he's excited that some of his old classmates might be in town for the festival.
"This will be a chance to catch up with them and hang out and see people I haven't seen in years."
The name of the band seems to always draw them attention. When the band formed, manager Larry McKellips had the members come up with a name. At that time they planned to be a country band. Soto wanted something more modern. He said, "I didn't want anything with wagon wheels or anything like that. I didn't want it to be cliche. We were thinking we were going to go to the Casinos and so Ante Up came along. I'm like well we've got girls why don't we call it Annie up? Everyone was like wow thats cool and that was the end of it."
Basically we started off as a county band and it turned into more of a rock band. We have all kinds of styles. That seems to be what people have been wanting lately. They want to be able to dance and have a good time. We will do a song from Johnny Cash and then we will go to Guns N' Roses. We will do a song from Aerosmith and then go to I dunno Sugarland, stuff like that.
Between personal changes and playing close to 15 venues in central Kansas and northern Oklahoma the band hasn't had time to do any recordings, a fact that seems to be Ok by them.
"We are a cover band strictly right now. It's making money. It's amazing. there's no recession here," said Soto.
The group hopes he entertainment they bring will be a success during the Wheat Festival.
"There's a lot of energy. We have a very full sound. We are really strong musically and vocally. It's a pretty high energy band," said Levan. "Hopefully there will be something for everybody."
Wellington, Kan. —
