PHOTOPHILE- Look ma, no amps! Fiction Plane goes acoustic for The Corner

Sting's son, Joe Sumner, right, fronts the band Fiction Plane.
PHOTOS BY BILLY HUNT

On Tuesday, November 6, concertgoers had to pay the big bucks to hear them open for The Police at John Paul Jones Arena, but earlier in the day up-and-coming rockers Fiction Plane threw Charlottesville a bone. At about 2pm, they recorded an exclusive acoustic "Corner Lounge" session for radio station 106.1 FM The Corner.

After warming up and poking fun at their hosts' American accents, the two-thirds English trio played MTV Unplugged-style rearrangements of their songs "Anyone," "Everything Will Never Be OK," and the hit single "Two Sisters" in the stripped-down setting.

In between tunes during the roughly 15-minute segment recorded at Virginia Arts Recording Studio, Corner DJ/manager Brad Savage asked frontman and bassist Joe Sumner– a.k.a. Son of Sting– what it was like growing up with a music legend for a father.

"I loved video games growing up, and for years, music was just this cheesy performance thing to me," said Sumner. "Then in 1991, Nirvana came out and I was like, 'This is real.' I immediately bought a guitar and went cold turkey off video games."

Sumner also dished about life on the road as the warm-up for the year's biggest tour. "With most opening acts, it's ‘I'm eating my hot dog, sitting down, and ignoring you guys,'" he said. "We go out of our way not to act like an opening band and put on a proper show." 

Sumner also promised Fiction Plane would be coming back to Charlottesville as a club headliner in "March or April."

Afterward, Sumner, guitarist Seton Daunt, and drummer Pete Wilhoit posed for pictures, signed CDs, and recorded several promos for the year-old FM station.

#