NIGHT OWLS

With their unique blend of 70s "yacht" rock and 80s classics, the Night Owls bring high-quality musicianship and strong harmony vocals to rarely-performed songs for live music fans all over Upstate South Carolina. "A splendid time is guaranteed for all."

"Steely Matt" Jones - keyboards, guitar, vocals
Edgar "Spike" Bonet - bass, vocals
Scott Whitcomb - drums
Darren Sip - guitar, vocals

THE SORDID HISTORY OF THE NIGHT OWLS

Even though the Night Owls were formed in 2017, the origins of the band can actually be traced back to the early 2010s with the mostly-original Upstate South Carolina rock band named Chemistry of 4, which included vocalist / keyboardist Jimmy Stroud, guitarist Bobby Williams, bassist Don Leslie, and drummer Nick Scudero.

In 2013, bassist Edgar Bonet was recruited to replace Don, who had moved to Kickapoo to concentrate on bass fishing. After getting into some trouble with the mob in 2014 regarding McDonald's Monopoly game pieces, Nick had to be replaced by drummer Scott Whitcomb after auditioning 137 drummers.

Plucking a phrase from one of their original songs, "Adrenaline," Chemistry of 4 was re-branded as Spirit Well later that year, which meant "bar" or "well of spirits," though some thought they were a Christian rock band before hearing them. Spirit Well mostly played 80s "arena" rock, with some Co4 originals and polka classics sprinkled in for good measure.

In 2015, Spirit Well added keyboardist Matt Jones (formerly of RetroVertigo) to fill out the rest of the band's lineup. Since the band was already playing a lot of songs by Journey and Styx, in 2017 the band decided to split into two bands: Evolusion (a tribute to Journey and Styx) and Night Owls (70s/80s), with guitarist Matt Nations replacing Bobby in the Evolusion lineup, and guitarist Bill Herrington joining the Night Owls.

In 2019, Bill relocated to Indiana in order to raise his ever-growing collection of alpacas, opening the door for guitarist Michael Parker to take over guitar duties for the Night Owls. Later that year, Scott left Evolusion to focus exclusively on the Night Owls, followed by Edgar and Matt during the COVID-19 shutdown of 2020. The pandemic produced another casualty when Michael left the Night Owls to make guitar-shaped facemasks full-time in Alaska.

In 2021, after an arduous search for a new guitar player, former High Tide guitarist Joe Ballew joined the Night Owls. But, as was becoming a disturbing pattern, the band lost another guitar player when Joe left in 2022 to form a death-metal church band in Statesboro, Georgia. Later that year, the band was complete again when the incendiary ubiquitous guitarist Darren Sip of WPOS became the newest Owl.

Currently, you can find Matt, Edgar, Scott and Darren rocking out throughout various venues in the Upstate!

Update: As of October 2023, the Night Owls are currently hibernating until Spring 2024.