What: The Why Store
When: Saturday, Nov. 8; 8 p.m.-2 a.m.
Where: Be Here Now, 505 N. Dill St.
A homegrown Ball State band will return to play at Be Here Now Nov. 7—almost two and a half decades after first forming.
The Why Store’s Muncie roots are even present in their name—a tribute to a now-closed local men's clothing retailer.
The band formed in the early '90s when two Ball State students joined forces with an Indianapolis-based drummer. Eventually, they met up with another student named Chris Shaffer.
Within four years, the band had released two independent albums and been signed to a subsidiary of MCA Records called Way Cool Music.
Over the years, The Why Store has played with big names like George Clinton, John Mellencamp and Incubus.
The played a college garage rock sound with thick guitars and grizzly singing that would come to define their sound.
Andy Stokes, an organizer for the Be Here Now show, began seeing the band when he was a 19-year-old Ball State student in the early '90s. He had to wait for all-ages shows to catch The Why Store live.
"It was fun to see some fellow Ball Staters make the 'big time' playing their music and taking us all on the ride," Stokes said in an e-mail to the Daily News.
He went from seeing them at Headliners, a bar that used to reside where Be Here Now is, to watching them on Conan O’Brien’s late night show several years later.
The original Why Store split in 2000 due to “creative differences” between the members. Shaffer decided to pursue his personal visions with a solo project.
At first, he performed under his own name, then transitioned into performing under the moniker Shaffer Street. But people began accusing him of trying to steal "The Why Store guy's gig."
"I did about 50, 60 shows, and I had people coming up to me," Shaffer said. "[They] refused to believe I was that guy."
He had to resort to showing his ID to prove who he was.
Eventually, he decided to get the Why Store's name back.
Shaffer had to overcome a few legal obstacles, but he managed to reclaim the name.
Today, Shaffer is the only original band member left. His former musical partners have been replaced by drummer Jerry Rieskamp and bassist Dan Hunt, who have been playing with the group since 2005 and Harvey Moesteller, the band’s second and lead guitar player who joined in 2010.
Shaffer is still carrying out the vision he’d always tried to embody in his music—the good old rock-and-roll long-time fans like Stokes stand by.
Rebuilding the band's lineup while maintaining the classic style has been a hard transition for Shaffer, but it's paid off to see the band come where it has. He said he's fortunate to work with the members who ended up playing for The Why Store.
Perseverance and determination have evidently never been a problem for Shaffer though, who made it through the band's vast transformation and struggles in his personal endeavors as well.
"I'm so blessed to be with guys who will respect me and listen to me, and really try hard to get my vision and make it right," Shaffer said. "It's a dream come true with the guys I'm playing with now."
During Shaffer’s live sets, he chooses randomly from a song bank of more than 130 original compositions. He’s never played the same set of songs in the same order, he said.
It takes vigor to do this and sing with the "intense and emotional" grit Shaffer does. With that in mind, he named the band’s most recent album Vim, which was released in 2009.
It's been about six years since Shaffer has recorded in the studio. He said he’s excited to get back in and lay down some new material that's had time to incubate.
The perfect time for recording The Why Store's upcoming album is closing in, he said. The toss-up, though, is between recording in Bloomington, Ind., with some acquaintances or traveling to Muscle Shoals, Ala., an area famous for putting out the music of notable classics like Bob Seger and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
That, he said, would be dreamy. Shaffer still has goals for his band—even after decades of accomplishments.
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