What if you could go back and do it all over again? What if you had walked across that dimly lit gym-turned-prom and asked The One to dance – to stand with you that night? The latest video from C. SHIROCK, “Stand With Me Tonight,” is a timeless homage to those halcyon days when anything was possible and things could be damn near perfect.
“Stand With Me Tonight” is an entire John Hughes movie packed into five minutes, courtesy of director John Matysiak (who’s also behind Leon Bridges’ video for “Beyond”). You’ve no doubt seen his cinematography in Kings of Leon’s “Walls” and Jordan Davis’ “Single You Up.” Watch the video, and you won’t be surprised to learn that the school Matysiak shot in and around is called Mount Pleasant High School.
C. SHIROCK has held his own onstage with the likes of Manchester Orchestra, Cage the Elephant, and Twenty One Pilots; this is no easy task, but when you mean it, it just comes naturally. He’s provided the soundtrack for shows on MTV, NBC and ABC. He splits his time between Nashville and LA, and you can hear it: “Stand With Me Tonight” combines the utterly honest songwriting craft of The Music City with the production perfection of the City of Angels. This is the second single off the full-length Evidence of Things Unseen, and a killer follow-up to the lead-off, “Confess Your Love.”
A video written and shot like “Stay With Me Tonight” might’ve outshined a less powerful song, but not this slow-dance synth-pop anthem. C. SHIROCK’s raw emotion and total vulnerability are barely held in check by bare-bones melodies and a beat that slowly sneaks up. The lyrics and vocal delivery are left to fend for themselves, to take that chance, to walk across that dance floor almost on their own. And like the kids in the video, they’re all the better for it. You might hear some Bono, some Gabriel, some Buckley. And just when the song’s story becomes too much to hold back, you’ll hear Shirock break out a guitar solo worthy of Prince.
