Left to right: Joe Beard, Patrick Farinas and Austin Smilen of The Flyers. (Photo by Bill Meredith)
Going to a nightclub to see a cover band is practically a time-honored rite of passage, especially in a tourist-driven market like South Florida.
And in many cases, what you’ll witness is unsurprising and reasonably well-played renditions of classic rock material, since most patrons are conditioned to think they want to hear and see only what they already know. Which is often a guitarist, bassist and drummer collective of weekend warriors playing the hits. Been there; done that, nothing patrons haven’t already experienced.
Until, that is, they witness The Flyers, the busy Delray Beach-based trio that offers plenty of chances to become experienced.
For one difference, guitarist Patrick Farinas, bassist Austin Smilen and drummer Joe Beard, vocalists all, are only listed here on their primary instruments. Each, at various points during a Flyers show, can play all three. Farinas, the group’s centerpiece, is a gifted guitarist with practically limitless chops and ideas. He even doubles on guitar and keyboards simultaneously, as in playing unison and harmonized lines with his left hand on the guitar neck and his right hand on the keys. It’s rare musical air, but the New Jersey native comes by it naturally.
“My father [Tony Farinas] is a graduate of the Juilliard School,” Farinas says, “so I came up under good guidance. And he could play all these instruments. too.”
Clearly, this is not your father’s by-the-numbers cover band, even as it covers forefatherly material by the likes of The Beatles, ZZ Top, The Band, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and The Doors, complete with three-part vocal harmonies. A few original compositions occasionally seamlessly blend in from the trio’s four album releases.
Few bands have ever been this figuratively and even literally ambidextrous, but there are even more nuggets that set The Flyers apart. With Farinas, they’re overt. At an early summer show at Rudy’s at Bamboo in Lake Worth Beach, he set his vintage Fender Stratocaster down and sat at the Hammond organ to play and belt out the soulful Ray Charles hit, “Georgia.”
Last month at Two Georges in Boynton Beach, during a Jimi Hendrix medley of “Voodoo Chile,” “Foxey Lady” and “Fire,” Farinas played his guitar behind his back, soloed on it upside-down for Hendrix-approved left-handed authenticity, then soloed with his teeth before going beyond Hendrix’s antics with his two-handed guitar-and-keyboards duality.
With Florida natives Beard and Smilen, it’s more about the Beatle-esque subtleties. The drummer employs Ringo Starr’s economic, tasteful approach on much of The Flyers’ material, and has used his multi-instrumental talents to compose and contribute music beyond the band. Like the soundtrack for the all-topics local podcast The Sloth Doctors (www.YouTube.com/@TheSlothDoctors-e4c), recorded in Boca Raton and hosted by friends Rom Rimland and Chip Tilghman, who’s also an area bassist.
“I just gave them the music, royalty-free,” says Beard. “That might be why they used it!”
Smilen is the newest member and youngest of the three. Five years ago, he replaced Jordan Richards, who’d replaced Farinas’ father in 2012. And Smilen’s intricate bass lines are full of the melodic and harmonic elements that made Paul McCartney the most influential of all rock bassists. All three members of The Flyers are well-versed in taste, tone and technique, which makes for little drop off when they switch to one of their non-primary instruments.
With Smilen on guitar, Beard on bass and Farinas on drums and lead vocals at Two Georges, the trio stormed through a Led Zeppelin medley of “Rock and Roll” and “Moby Dick.” Beard captured bassist John Paul Jones’ unique ideas, and Farinas brought new flavors into drummer John Bonham’s lengthy unaccompanied solo. And Smilen capably sang and led the trio through the Paul Simon medley of “Kodachrome” and “Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard.”
“We have one more 45-minute set, right?” Smilen asked during the trio’s final break at the open-air Boynton Beach watering hole. “We should start soon.”
He might not be The Flyers’ primary drummer, but Smilen’s multiple talents clearly include being an astute timekeeper.
If You Go
See The Flyers at 7 p.m. Sept. 6 and 27 at Rosalita’s Tex-Mex Grill (5949 S. Congress Ave., Atlantis, 561-964-5747), 8 p.m. Sept. 10 and 24 at Johnnie Brown’s (301 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, 561-243-9911) 6 p.m. Sept. 11, 18 and 25 at Tin Roof (8 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, 561-926-9067), 7 p.m. Sept. 12 at DAS Beer Garden (1203 Town Center Dr., Suite 116, Jupiter, 561-776-8669), 4 p.m. Sept. 14 at Two Georges (728 Casa Loma Blvd., Boynton Beach, 561-736-2717), 9:30 p.m. Sept. 19 at Voodoo Bayou Las Olas (715 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, 954-314-0669), 8 p.m. Sept. 20 at Village Music Cafe, 10410 Forest Hill Blvd., Wellington, 561-798-5334), 5 p.m. Sept. 21 at Double Roads Tavern (103 U.S. 1, Suite A1, Jupiter, 561-437-3348), and 8 p.m. Sept. 26 at Sunset Grill (5550 N.W. 40th St., Coconut Creek, 954-977-6700).
Info: www.theflyersmusic.com.