URI bass player puts in 'Effort'

11/21/08 - In a Pawtucket, R.I. basement with dangling wires, exposed insulation and a concrete floor for a stage, the Massachusetts-based band The Effort exploded with energy. Meanwhile, drums pounded the room, guitars wailed away and the singer screamed into the microphone as Jordan Pailthorpe, who just hours earlier was sitting around in philosophy class contributed heart-thumping bass.Pailthorpe is like other URI students. He commutes from Pawtucket, goes to class, works at the 193 Degrees Coffee House and returns home. But in between school and work, he goes on tour and plays bass with The Effort.

Currently, The Effort plays shows mostly on weekends, but after the fall semester, it is slated for a tour of Europe.

Unfazed by how busy he is, Pailthorpe downplays his schedule. "Honestly, I'm not going to say that I really stress that much, because there are people that do way more than me.," He said.

A 21-year-old freshman at URI, Pailthorpe is in school to become a teacher, after having an unrewarding experience as an audio technician. His previous job left him bummed out and working as a hotel A/V manager.

"I realized how I wasn't making an impact on anything - on anybody, on anything. I was basically just a tool," said Pailthorpe. "I just decided that I can't do it anymore."

Before that, he himself enlisted in the National Guard - though he would later drop out - but now his views seem to be more clear.

These same views are grounded in his desire to impact people, which is partly what drove him to teaching. One of his more ambitious plans is to teach English in South Korea after he receives his bachelor's degree.

"A lot of my moral views have changed between then and I figured that teaching is probably the most ethical thing I can do between all of my different kind of viewpoints now," he said.

That same desire to make an impact extends into why he plays music. Pailthorpe and his band play a brand of music that is significantly complemented by the people that come to see them perform.

"The crowd and band are one and basically we feed off each other. So if I'm playing a show and there's 10 kids - just 10 kids screaming their lungs out into my singer's face, that's going to make my adrenaline go through the f***ing roof," he said.

The Effort, a band that prides itself on being straight-edge, has quietly inspired a following of people that are moved by the band. "We get messages on Myspace - sometimes that say we've changed their life and to me that's crazy," Pailthorpe said.

Pailthorpe, who started playing bass in his sophomore year of high school, has played for about seven years. He has been in several other bands before The Effort and also used to play the drums, but only now has he found a sense of harmony in his life.

He has a great desire to learn as much as he can now that he's back in school. At the same time, he wants to do this while impacting as many people as possible. His career goals directly reflect the goals of his bass playing and explains why he plays in The Effort.

With insight about his life, Pailthorpe said, "We kind of figure out a path we want to walk on and figure out where we want to direct ourselves and it's weird when all the aspects of your life come together into one and I feel like - wow it actually is doing that and it's pretty cool.