Back in August, the Clemson community was introduced to an up-and-coming band from the Athens area, Jameson Tank. The band just recently wrapped up their “Too Hot to Hold,” fall tour, and lead singer Jameson Tankersley was eager to share an update and his appreciation for the hospitality his band experienced during their time in Tiger Town.
“The response from the Clemson community has been amazing … I would consider Clemson the first city [aside from Athens] to truly accept us and appreciate what we were doing. That to me is something I’ll never forget,” said Tankersley. “Around the mid-mark of the tour, we had an on-going joke that we would play Clemson every two weeks to keep band morale up. Ended up being fairly accurate.”
When all was said and done, Jameson Tank visited the Clemson area six times, playing shows in venues such as TD’s and Loose Change, with additional shows for Clemson Beta Theta Pi. Originally, the tour was scheduled for 18 shows over the course of three months, but due to the success of the first shows, the band was happy to add 10 additional stops to the schedule.
“The original plan [of the tour] was to plant some real roots in college towns we had never been to,” said Tankersley.
And did they ever. By the end of the tour, Jameson Tank had crossed off 12 cities from Myrtle Beach to Columbia, Atlanta to Buckhead and Birmingham to Tuscaloosa.
If you are wondering which city the band enjoyed the most, it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out. Clemson holds the title as the top destination for Jameson Tank.
“It felt like we had found a hidden gem. A college town brewing with student life and activity, without the downsides of a huge city,” said Tankersley.
Following their first show, the band even took a walk across campus to sneak a peek at Death Valley and “just soaked it in,” Tankersley added.
Playing so many shows in Clemson gave the band a chance to establish some favorite spots in town. “Loose Change quickly became our favorite venue in Clemson… we love playing places where people are dying to see live music,” said Tankersley. The band enjoys playing venues where the crowd can get up close and sing back to them. The crowd often tested how close they could get by stepping over floor monitors.
“We couldn’t count how many people have tripped over our speakers,” Tankersley said. He is grateful to the staff at Loose Change, specifically general manager Alex Webb, for promoting the shows, and Chris Fuller for booking the band.
Clemson Beta Theta Pi also holds the honor of being present for the best show of the tour, according to Tankersley.
“Our second show for Clemson Beta was arguably our best show of the tour. Everyone in the room went incredibly hard. We could hear them singing back to every song. It was hard to keep everyone off the stage. Eventually I just let them all up. After the show ended… there was definitely a universal band feeling that it was a special show. Shoutout to Clemson Beta for making us feel at home,” said Tankersley.
Jameson Tank has already started to plan their next tour, scheduled to kick off in Spring 2022 at none other than Tiger Town’s own Loose Change. The band has already booked shows in Nashville, Charlotte, Statesboro and Washington D.C. “We plan on expanding even wider than our current southern grasp,” said Tankersley. “Maybe one day we will be big enough to book Death Valley like the Stones did in ’89,” he added.
Tankersley would like to share the following words directly with the Clemson community:
“The success of any artist is 100 percent dependent on the audience. We might show up to play shows, but deep down the show is only as good as the crowd. The Clemson crowd has always brought their energy, and for that reason we plan on returning for countless more Tiger Town shows.” Bryce Burnette (Guitarist): “Clemson gets wild. At our second Loose Change show, for some reason, a few girls had brought in grilled cheese sandwiches, and insisted I take a bite of the sandwich halfway through ‘Paradise City.’ That the kind of crazy stuff that only happens in Clemson.”
Javier Solorzano (Bass): “Clemson is a town that does not hold back when it comes to live music and obscure song requests.”
This article appeared in The Tiger’s Nov. 18 print edition. It may differ in formatting or content due to space constraints.
