UPTOWN — Minutes before JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound were to take the Sony Stage at Lollapalooza in 2012, the band's soul singing frontman was nowhere to be found.
Months earlier, when the band's manager told the band they'd be performing at Lollapalooza, Brooks, 35, "flipped," remembering the days when he attended the festival — his first — at 14 in the early '90s in New Jersey.
But on Aug 4, 2012, Brooks "wasn't doing much thinking," he said.
"I freaked the band out because I was playing kickball at the 312 Celebrity kickball game [and] I almost missed our start time. ... It was across the field, but I didn't realize the set was about to start until I heard someone ask about me. I heard it amplified like someone said into a mic," said JC Brooks, who's real name is Jayson Brooks.
The band was together for sound check, but went their separate ways after "and I just lost track of time," he said.
"It was like 'oh s---, I should maybe go.' I ran over there threw on my suit and stepped out on stage. It was pretty crazy," said Brooks, adding his long career on stages has taught him to overcome being nervous.
"Every now and again I still get nervous before a show, but you can't let nerves take you. It's unfair for me to say that because I've been doing this for awhile. If you're being nervous than you're probably way to in your head while performing. At least for me, that's not a good place to perform well," he said.
Music has always been a part of Brooks' life. As a kid growing up in New Jersey, his mother would sing jazz around the house. In grade school, he performed in school plays and sang in choir. By high school, he was the front man of his own band, he said.
After attending college in Pittsburgh, Brooks moved to Chicago in search of a career in theater.
"I did research to figure out what was going to be the best place for me to build my resume especially as someone who loves live theater. Chicago was kind of the only choice as far as that goes because there's so many theater companies. There's a great theater-to-actor ratio here," he said.
After starring in the Porchlight Music Theatre's "Ragtime" in 2007, Brooks answered a Craigslist ad from the band's guitarist Billy Bungeroth.
"He wanted to be part of a project that made theatrical music ... that made music that people couldn't help but dance to," he said. " I answered because I used to sing in this band called The Hi-Frequencies that played like '50s and early '20s [music.] I loved the era and just love the music in general, so I said that sounds great. I can get down with that."
Forming the original band was an "immediate affair" done basically after the first meeting, he said.
"We just kind of sat around and talked about music for about 3-4 hours. Then we got together again, wrote some songs and started fleshing them out," Brooks said.
The name JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound was originally a nod to "where we were rehearsing at the time" in their guitarist's garage in Uptown.
"It was more of an aesthetic." But as the band evolved "I think just by virtue of me living here and absorbing some of the neighborhood" it began to reflect the neighborhood's culture.
"It's real. It's still fun and it's how we keep our music. We knocked off a lot of the soul, soul, soul polish that used to be there and just dug in hard and make good music now," he said.
About a year after forming the band, Brooks moved to the neighborhood and began absorbing his surroundings. He would frequent the Uptown Entertainment District, hanging at Crew Bar and Grill, where his friend was a manager, grab food at Fiesta Mexicana and pop in to Ric Addy's Shake, Rattle and Read. The area is featured heavily in the band's "You Can't Break Me" video.
"It shows the neighborhood, but it's also a place I frequented. Not like every Saturday, but it's a place that I love," he said. "It's a little less now. I probably only go once every two weeks, but I used to be there multiple times a week. That's the section of Uptown I interact with most. It's just the natural chemistry of that corridor.
You Can't Break Me:
Addy met Brooks from rehearsals around the neighborhood and because Addy's band, Iggy Yoakim and His Famous Pogo Ponies, were featured on a Bloodshot Records back in 1994. The label now represents JC Brooks and The Uptown Sound.
"JC came in unannounced with a camera crew and I said 'go ahead just work around the customers.' I've had a lot of people show up and do that stuff," said Addy adding Kanye West protege Kid Sister walks through the store and into the underground tunnels in the Count and Sinden video for "Beeper."
Now, the band is throwing a free show — if you RSVP here — for its adopted neighborhood "just because, why the hell not." At 8 p.m. April 9, the band will bring its eclectic sound to the Preston Bradley Center at 941 W. Lawrence Ave. as a kickoff to the second season of Uptown Saturday Nights, which provides free concerts to venues in the Uptown Entertainment District.
"I want to get people in the door especially since their neighborhood's name is on it," he said. "I'm in love with the idea. We haven't really played Uptown before. The closest we've played is a street fest in Andersonville."
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