February 2001

     It’s been a long time since this writer has seen a local band get an audience quite so stirred up as this group does on a nightly basis.

    They came to our attention when they performed on the bill of a Midwest BEAT bash held at Port Offshore nearly two years ago. I had never heard of the band let alone heard them play.

     They were added last minute to that night’s bill by J.D. Leap of Trauma, who had hosted that particular show for us. I had no great expectations and I also did not expect what I saw happen. It was clear from their very first song, that Inzane was a group to keep an eye on. Dozens of people flooded the floor by the second song, a cover of Kid Rock’s “Bawitdaba,” and frontman/vocalist Bob Szany had the crowd eating from his hand the rest of the night.

    While the band is a remarkably tight unit, it is Szany who wields the power to whip an audience into a frenzy. Since that first incredible night, I have watched Inzane grow musically from a bunch of young guys having fun throwing down songs to a confident collective with a “band” mindset. They have written songs that can and do fit snugly with those now being blasted on radio outlets like Q101.

    Call it “nu-metal” or “rap-rock” or “hardcore” – their heavy sound is clearly flipping the switch on local club patrons. From the South ‘burbs of Chicago, to the furthest reaches of N.W. Indiana’s cornfields, it’s clear that “inzanity” has been spreading as fast and furious as a California wild fire.

     Midwest music fans are going INZANE and there is no way to stop it...as if we would want to dare try.

    The five members of Inzane consider early 2000 as when the band was truly born, even though various incarnations bearing the same name have been jamming backyard parties for nearly four years.

      “Inzane has actually been around for a while, but our style was way different when we first started out than it is now and our line up was much different,” said Szany.   “That first year and a half that we were messing around with this (band) thing really doesn’t count in my opinion, because it had nothing to do with the band you see standing here today.”

    While waxing philosophically, bassist Bill Blackwell, underscores the importance of the sum over the parts when it comes to having a successful and productive band. “A band is like a chain. It’s only as strong as it’s weakest link,” he says. “A band can succeed and rise above the rest, only if all the members are 100% into the music and into the project.”

     Szany agrees and adds that Inzane has been “rock solid” since the addition last year of lead guitarist Palmer. “That guy truly is inzane,” he laughs. “Having Todd hook up with us is just what this band needed.” Palmer swaps licks with Inzane’s founding guitarist, Randy Shumaker, who says that having two guitars gives the band a much fuller sound.

     A typical Inzane show is rife with musicality, personality and
hospitality. “We’re all about the fans and making sure they have a good time,” said Szany.

“We all give 100 percent at every show,” adds drummer Dave “Wildman” Currier. “We break a sweat by the time our first song is done. We want people up on their feet and sweating along with us.”

    As long as their “rip-hop” musical style continues to hit a chord with the ever-swelling fan base that trails them from show to show, Currier need not worry too much about out sweating their audience.

    Any band doing a decent take on Korn’s “Freak On A Leash,” Rage Against the Machine’s “Guerrilla Radio” or Eminem’s “Slim Shady,” generally has no problem getting people pumped up these days.   Inzane stands out from other bands who cover such hardcore/hip-hop radio fare because their original
material is starting to overtake the radio fodder that first won them their audience and landed them gigs.

    That the titles of their own songs now being yelled out from the fans and that self-penned ditties like “It Runs In The Family” and “Straightjackets For Everyone,” are starting to get an even stronger audience response than Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and Papa Roach covers is something not lost on Szany.

    “I’m freakin’ when people start yelling out for our shit like that,” says the vocalist/lyricist. “There’s nothing I love more than to be up there (on stage) in front of a floor full of people and seeing them all screamin’ words that I wrote right back at me.” “That’s just about the best damn feeling in the world.”

    Stoked by the powerful feedback their public has given to them, Inzane has focused all attention to the creative process.

   “We just finished work on our very first CD, Straightjackets For Everyone. It will be on sale at area record stores and at our shows by early February,” said Szany.

    Aside from the adrenaline-pumping title track, “Straightjackets for Everyone,” their freshman album will include 11 other cuts, including such fan favorites as – “Time For Your Medication,” “It Runs In The Family” and “Snatched.”

     There is even an ambitious three-song conceptual opus titled, “Killers With Rights,” linked by musical segues.   “They are each really separate songs, but they carry over the theme from one to the next,” explained Szany. “It’s kind of my doing a big Pink Floyd trip here only with our kind of music.”

     Considering that Inzane has sold nearly two thousand t-shirts (in eight different styles) in less than a year’s time, it would behoove the band to place an order for a second batch of CDs as soon as the first one arrives.

     The kind of marketing fervor that resulted in the massive shirt sales has already begun – “chaa-ching” – for their album. As soon as the band started announcing during it’s shows that a CD of their own songs would be coming soon, the group’s PR gal (Szany’s sister, Missi King) started taking down names from fans determined to be among the first to own the music.

    According to Szany, pre-orders from their rabid following have already eaten up nearly half of the 1,000 copies they initially ordered.

    While his antics as frontman may make him the focal point of the show, Szany is fast to give big props to his band mates. “I’m damn lucky to have these four guys with me,” said Szany. “I can’t think of a better band in the world to be standing in front than the one I have here.”

      “We look at a band like Disturbed who are from right here and who played the same places we’re playing and that inspires us a lot,” said Szany. “Disturbed has opened doors for the rest of us,” added Currier. “They have shown the rest of us that its really possible to make it if you commit yourself and you work really, really hard.”

     Disturbed played at some of our BEAT Bashes once upon a time and Inzane are doing them now.

    Hmmmm... could there besome kind of a connection? Naw... but it sure is fun to think about it for a minute or two.