Photo by Charlie Joseph

Park & Ride played covers that ranged from the Dave Matthew’s Band to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at Pocket’s Friday.

The band Park & Ride delivered a solid show at Pocket’s Friday night. For those who attended the VIP room exposé, it was both a treat and an engaging experience with a wide variety of well-executed, cornerstone rock songs played. The songs that the band performed were both tasteful and classic, portraying a complete list of several genres ranging from Dave Matthew’s Band to Coldplay.

Lead singer Dustin Pate played Tom Petty’s harmonica solo “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” with soul, style and precision, ripping through each note and bending notes like the Heartbreaker himself. The few bands who attempt songs like this one and Lynyrd Skynyd’s guitar solo in “Free Bird” can rarely hit the notes and subtle hints of emotion within the song without painfully losing their place and regaining composure. Park and Ride did however manage to accomplish each solo and song without any serious problems.

Add to this an occasional Sublime song (“What I Got”) and you’ve entered the Park & Ride zone. Many listeners who attended sat back respectfully while others continued to shoot pool.  However basic their music selection seems to be, a lot of bands just aren’t playing these songs any more.

The band contains two guitarists, a lead singer, a bassist and a drummer. Two of the members, Dustin and Nick Pate, are two of five brothers, all of which play some kind of music. Dustin cleanly distributes sound from his harmonica when he is not singing lead vocals.

Between the band and the audience several people hailed from Hoover, Ala. Several played football during the 2004 year for Hoover High together, but one thing that continued to grow was their band and music. Now, a few years after graduating high school, the band continues to play music together and view it as way of relaxing as well as a fine art, according to their MySpace page (myspace.com/parkandridemusic).