Band promises summer tempo for Bar Harbor

You can leave the brooding songwriters and gloomy rock bands to the depths of the winter months – summer is the time to lose your inhibitions and succumb to the pleasures of the more upbeat side of music. Anyone could be forgiven for shaking a little tail to a funk band, or getting down to one of the many jam bands playing around the state. It’s summer. You’re supposed to have fun.

What better way to spend a June night than on the coast, in the company of a band like Casual Fiasco, whose warm, bouncy, reggae-tinged jam-pop fits right in with the sounds of summer?

Casual Fiasco, playing Saturday at Rupununi’s in Bar Harbor, hails from Burlington, Vt., by way of St. Lawrence College in New York. James Reilly, rhythm guitarist and lead singer, said the band has toured the Northeast relentlessly since their inception a few years back.

“We play 150, 200 shows a year,” he said. “We generally play four nights a week, sometimes more. We play lots of colleges during the year. We’ve only played in Maine once though, about two years ago.”

The band originally featured Reilly and Will Read, lead guitarist, as an acoustic duo. When the pair moved from Canton, N.Y., where St. Lawrence is located, to Burlington, they met up with bassist Josh Cleaver and drummer Joshua Pfeil and started performing as a full band. You can hear the sweet tunefulness of Paul Simon, and the twitchy fun of the Talking Heads in songs like “Admiral Nelson” and “Feather” from their album “Prototype,” released in 2004.

“We’re getting ready to go into the studio next month to record a new album,” said Reilly. “One of the big challenges for us is figuring out how not to sound like other bands. I think with the new songs we’re finding our own sound more. We’re finding our own voice.”

Reilly said the band doesn’t use set lists for its live show, preferring to improvise.

“We try to never play the same show twice,” said Reilly. “We like to keep things interesting.”

Casual Fiasco will play at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 25, at Rupununi’s in Bar Harbor. For more information, visit www.thecasualfiasco.com.

Supporting acts

Fans of Rob Zombie haven’t had much of a chance to see the dreadlocked, horror-movie-loving metal god in concert recently, but tonight you can get the next best at Ushuaia in Orono. Scum of the Earth, the brainchild of Zombie guitarist Riggs, will unleash their industrial heavy rock at 8 p.m. at the Orono venue. The band features fellow Zombie alum John Tempesta, Powerman 5000’s Mike Tempesta and John Dolmayan from System of a Down. Expect plenty of head-banging goodness.

Tickets are $12 and may be purchased at all Bull Moose Music locations.

Emily Burnham can be reached at eburnham@bangordailynews.net.