Former Fast Chester bassist Jon Epstein (pictured right) is tired of virtuoso shred-rock — now he just wants to rock, period. His new band, Last Stone Cast, will make its Cleveland debut this weekend at the Hi-Fi. The band will open for ZO2, which features Trans-Siberian Orchestra bassist David Z. Stone‘s lineup of Epstein, Scott McConnell (also of Ripcored), and Josh Lipply (ex-Meltdown), who will switch instruments from song to song, but keep the set moving. “We’re a straight-up hard rock band, with kind of a metal-southern rock undercurrent,” says Epstein. “I wanted to write songs that would appeal to a wider audience — girls specifically, rather than other musicians”

This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 6, 2007.