Rock ‘n Roll Engineer

STORY BY

DALE LONG

Webster Finds Creative Outlet by Plucking to Own Musical Beat

By day Russ Webster is a mild-mannered civil engineer working on designing buildings and land development projects throughout central Indiana. However, on several weekend nights throughout the year the 2013 alumnus is bringing down the house as a high-energy, leather jacket-clad bass guitar player and singer with the Bomb Cats, an Indianapolis-based rock ‘n’ roll band. “Performing is quite a departure from my normal engineering world—a whole different side of my personality,” he says. “People are really surprised to find that it’s me jamming out the music on stage. It takes them one, two or even possibly three takes before they recognize me. That’s the best part of it. I get to be someone else, in another time and place on stage.” Playing music has been a favorite pastime for Webster since high school and served as a creative outlet and release from the rigors of college coursework during his time at Rose-Hulman. He joined fellow Resident Assistants in forming a band that entertained fellow students in annual spring campus concerts. In the spring of 2014, as an Engineer-In-Training with Weihe Engineers in Indianapolis, Webster reached out to inquire if other central Indiana musicians were interested in occasionally playing original punk rock tunes for fun. Responding to the call-out were guitar and lead singer Chris Farrell, lead guitarist James Williams, and drummer Colin Nulty. Soon the Bomb Cats group was formed and playing fast-paced tunes in small music clubs throughout central Indiana. Since then, the group has spread out to delight audiences at venues in Chicago, Cincinnati, Nashville, and Milwaukee. They performed their 50th show this fall in Louisville.

The group captures the passion and energy of rock ‘n’ roll from the 1970s and the longing of self-expression of the independent pop-rock music beloved by American youth of the 1980s. There’s one album, “Empty Bottles” (2016), and three extended-play musical arrangements, “Night After Night” (2017), “Play to the Room” (2018), and “Third Street Melody” (2022). Webster performs lead vocals on his own songs “Anything” (2016), “Been There Before” (2017), “Beautiful Girls” (2017), “Painkillers” (2018), and “Hypocrite” (2022). “We do it for fun,” he says. “We want to continue doing what we do and make it better ... We come away happy and tired and ready to get back to work on Monday morning.” n

Civil engineer Russ Webster (CE, 2013) has continued his love of music as a bass guitar player and singer with the Bomb Cats, a rock ‘n’ roll band that specializes in performing original music.

Alumni Feature

>>> The Bomb Cats’ music can be listened to on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon music, and iTunes.