Funky and Fresh

By Jenna Croyle

This week’s featured band is a funky, hard-hitting, progressive Rock band that started out as a one man band called Otis.

Founded by Frank Ferko, Otis now is one of Erie’s top Alternative Rock bands that has swept the city with their distinctive style and music.

Featuring Frank Ferko on Bass and Vocals, Sean Dunn on Guitar and Vocals and Ryan McCall on Drums, Otis explodes with phenomenal original music that teases the mind, and pulsates the senses.

Drawing on their influences of Primus, Stanley Clarke, Dream Theatre, and Rush to mention only a few, Otis delivers up a unique sound that can only be described as a mind-blowingly outrageous experience that takes you on a funk trip around a monster groove to the ends of the musical universe.

Since being formed more than a decade ago, Otis has preformed not only in Erie but in venues across Pennsylvania, Ohio and throughout New York and West Virginia.

In addition, the band has had the opportunity to perform three times at the Midpoint Music Fest in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The MidPoint Music Festival (MPMF) launched in 2002 as an independent music festival and industry conference. The annual three-day event occurs each September in the city’s downtown and historic Over-the-Rhine entertainment district. Founded by Cincinnati musicians Bill Donabedian, of Crosley, and Sean Rhiney, of Clabbergirl, the festival was acquired in 2008 by Cincinnati CityBeat, a weekly alternative newspaper.

With the diverse talents and style of its members fused with many musical genres and influences of each band member, along with their unique and very innovative style, makes for an energetic blend of funky hard driving original tunes that has launched Otis into the stratosphere as a power packed dynamo of musical phenomenon.

For more information on Otis and their show dates, please visit their Facebook Page.