Cash Machine, a local progressive funk-rock sextet, scored a prime spot at last year’s Fall for Greenville festival. They played on a Saturday afternoon on the festival’s main stage downtown, and by all accounts they played well and attracted a large crowd.
For some bands, that would be a satisfying day. But as Cash Machine wrapped up its set on the RJ Law Main Stage Oct. 14, a surprise was waiting.
Band guitarist Zach Thigpen typically makes it a point to try to record the band’s live shows. He forgot to do so for the Fall for Greenville show.
“We had a huge crowd and we played really well,” Thigpen said. “So I just happened to go up to the sound guy at the end of the show and I said, ‘Hey, did you happen to get a stereo mix of the show?’ And he said, ‘I’ve got multitrack recordings of the whole thing. And you can have them.’ That turned into a really fortunate event.”
Those tracks are coming out soon on an EP called, appropriately enough, “Cash Machine: Live at Fall for Greenville.“The first song from the EP, called “High Note,” comes out April 18, the same day as the band’s Downtown Alive concert series show.
The band also includes singer Joe Power, guitarist Daniel Collins, keyboard player Louis Meyers, bassist Mark Miller and drummer Michael Strassburg. Thigpen said since the band’s members didn’t know they were being recorded, there was no pressure to be perfect onstage.
“I’m glad that we didn’t know it was being recorded,” Thigpen said. “That’s certainly something that would be in the back of your head: ‘I’d better not screw anything up because we’re recording this.’ We didn’t have any of that. We were just playing a show and having fun. And it turns out we didn’t screw up enough to where we couldn’t release it.”
Cash Machine also kept the EP entirely local, having Greenville singer and guitarist Matt Fassas mix the recordings and Niel Brooks master them.
“It’s a Greenville project from a Greenville festival with Greenville people working on it,” Thigpen said. “I think that’s pretty cool.”
