Some of the nations favorite frontmen embark on a nationaltour together starting January 19. After three years of short regional tours, this will be the first time WTB? sets out nationally.
Matt Pryor (of The Get Up Kids), Chris Conley (of Saves The Day), Anthony Raneri (of Bayside) and for the first time, Ace Enders (The Early November, I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody’s Business) and Evan Weiss (of Into It. Over It.) will be joining them. Dustin Kensrue (of Thrice) will also be joining for three dates in Southern California. The tour features each of these frontmen performing solo acts and possible collaborative sets for 20 dates together across the country.
Pre-sale tickets are on sale now at wherestheband.ducatking.com and general public onsale will be available Wednesday, November 30 at noon local time.
Jan 19 — Stroudsburg PA — Sherman Theater
Jan 20 — Philadelphia PA — Theatre of Living Arts
Jan 21 — Brooklyn NY — Music Hall of Williamsburg
Jan 22 — Baltimore MD — Ottobar
Jan 24 — Carrboro NC — Cat’s Cradle
Jan 25 — West Columbia SC — New Brookland Tavern
Jan 26 — St. Augustine FL — Cafe 11
Jan 27 — Gainesville FL — Double Down
Jan 28 — Orlando FL — The Social
Jan 29 — Atlanta GA — The Masquerade – Hell Stage
Jan 31 — Dallas TX — Club Dada
Feb 1 — Austin TX — Antone’s
Feb 3 — Phoenix AZ — The Crescent Ballroom
Feb 4 — San Diego CA — House of Blues *
Feb 5 — West Hollywood CA — The Troubadour *
Feb 7 — Santa Ana CA — Yost Theater *
Feb 8 — San Luis Obispo CA — Downtown Brew
Feb 9 — San Francisco CA — Bottom of the Hill
Feb 10 — Portland OR — Doug Fir Lounge
Feb 11 — Seattle WA — Tractor Tavern
Four Year Strong is a pop-punk quartet from Massachusetts, they came together in 2001. On Nov. 8 the band will release their fourth full-length albumIn Some Way, Shape or Form which contains the single “Stuck in the Middle.” They are currently on the Alternative Press Tour and played at the Beaumont Club in Kansas City on Oct. 28. The tour also includes Gallows, Sharks, The Swellers, and Title Fight. Joe Weiss from Four Year Strong took some time while on tour to answer a few questions for Elicia Nichols.
PW: When did Four Year Strong form and what brought you guys together to form the band?
Joe Weiss (Four Year Strong): The band started in 2001 and as friends living only a few blocks away from each other, we would always jam out together. Music was always something that we enjoyed and we would spend a lot of timing playing music together.
PW: What is the meaning behind the band name?
JW: Our band name dates back to when we were around 14 years old, we changed the words to some lyrics from a song by The Get Up Kids to get the name Four Year Strong.
PW: What inspired you to pursue a career in the music industry?
JW: Playing music with your friends was more fun, inspiring and better than anything that we felt we were learning or doing in school.
PW: What message do you send to the listeners through your music?
JW: I would say that every song is different and has a different message. Some songs simply tell stories, while others are about family members who have passed away, but I would definitely say that every song has its own element and message.
PW: How would you describe your music for people who have never heard your name or sound before?
JW: Our music has a heavy rock sound, but with an element of party.
PW: With your fourth album In Some Way, Shape, Or Form due out November 8, how would you say that your sound has changed from your first album to now?
JW: I’d say it is a better sound. We are leaning more towards rock, and away from the punk feeling that others would say we first had.
PW: What has been the biggest highlight so far as you headline The AP Tour?
JW: The best experience so far has been actually a few nights ago in Chicago where we performed at a great venue called The Metro. It was a really fun show. We love Chicago. We love the people, we love the pizza and we love playing shows there.
PW: With Halloween approaching, what is your favorite horror film?
JW: I’d have to say my favorite horror film is Dead Alive by Peter Jackson. It’s a great movie that came out before he did all the “Lord of the Ring” stuff.
PW: If you were to be in a horror film how would you choose to die in your death scene?
JW: If I am to die in a horror film I’d want it to be in a sweet car crash. Maybe even throw in some cool zombies and stuff, you know?
The Get Up Kids have released their third video from new albumThere Are Rules for song “Regent’s Court.” The video was compiled by director Pat Vamos and can be seen below.
The Get Up Kids have kicked off their summertour, co-headlining June shows and headlining July shows throughout the Midwest and Northeast. Dates in Australia, New Zealand and Japan in early August will be followed by two Los Angeles-area dates in mid-August, before the band departs for a European tour in the fall.
Matt Pryor, the frontman for Kansas rockers Get Up Kids, has announced a follow-up to his 2008 solo albumConfidence Man. To help fund the album, he’s asking for fans to support him on Kickstarter.
The album is entitled May Day and it draws its title from Pryor’s plan to write, record and complete all work on the album during the month of May. It will then be released later this year.
Pryor plans to release the record independently and is using Kickstarter to help fund the project. In return for his fans’ help, Pryor is offering incentives such as vinyl pressings, exclusive t-shirts and posters, guitars used on the record and the unreleased solo record Still There’s A Light. The unreleased record will be available to fans who donate, but a clip from a “Where Do We Go Here” off that record is available as a sample on the Kickstarter page.
Pryor is trying to raise $10,000 in the next month.
The video features a sleeping child in a driverless car going through an automatic car wash. Reality’s lines get blurred and wavy in the wash and suddenly the child’s eyes burst open to a wave of colors and oils swirling on the windshield.
Unlike most music videos, the band doesn’t appear in this video and in another twist from the norm, this song features Jim Suptic on lead vocals rather than Matt Pryor.
You can check out the full video below. The band is currently on tour and will be returning to their hometown on March 13 at the Bottleneck. Full dates can be found here.
I already loved Justin Pierre of the moog-friendly Minnesota rock band Motion City Soundtrack. And what’s not to love: funky hair, phenomenal lyrics that balance just the right amount of goof with soul-sharing and a killer knowledge of pop culture. But hearing him defend “New Moon,” to a room full of hipsters swearing they’ll never see that movie and I have to admit, I kind of fell in love with him a little bit more. He sure has some gumption.
Now it isn’t every day that you hear your favorite singer in a record shop talking sharing a movie review, but with Pierre’s Dino Campaign Trail, an acoustic tour in support of the upcoming album out this January, anything could happen. The tour itinerary was decided entirely by twitter and this led Pierre to Lawrence’s Love Garden Sounds to tape a live movie review with Lawrence’s Scene-Stealers.com.
This was their first time in front of a live audience and for such a popular movie, it was not so popular with the audience that considered themselves above such a film. Pierre gave it a solid review though and after hearing his thoughts on the movie, I kind of have a new perspective on it, too. Although, I kind of feel he was really giving “Face Punch” the solid rock fist and not “New Moon.” Oh, “Face Punch. Punch to the Face. Pow pow.”
The movie review was just an added bonus to having Justin in town. The real show would come later, but after the review, he played about four songs acoustic for the audience “Midwest Love Affair,” “Broken Heart,” “Disappear,” and “Fell in Love Without You” and even plugged in his iPod to play a few tracks off the new record. After getting a taste for the pieces, I’m excited, but it sounds a bit different than previous material – more tempo changes and different styles. It might take some getting used to, but knowing them, it will still be good.
As for the actual performance, there was some confusion where it was. Lawrence has plenty of venues, but this show was set at a warehouse for the Blue Collar Distro T-Shirt company. And after driving past several warehouses in an attempt to find the right one, we finally found it with a small group of shivering kids waiting for Justin to finish tuning up so the show could begin. Justin was ready a little before the promised start time, but insisting on waiting to begin at exactly 7 p.m., we held a moment of silence. It was short-lived and I’m glad because Justin is so rarely silent. Heck, during his performance he would even sing the solos of the other instruments.
At first I was sketched out by the location, but as the intimate set determined by requests that included “Indoor Living,” “Future Freaks Me Out,” “Everything Is Alright,” “Fell in Love Without You,” “LG Fuad,” “Disappear,” and more, I realized that this warehouse with green mannequins, t-shirts for up and coming acts and walls covered in not only Motion City Soundtrack posters, but Get Up Kids and Appleseed Cast and other scene-determining bands was the perfect location. It was historic. It was epic.
Justin answered questions dropped some pop culture references and finally called it a night as his voice started giving him some troubles and he still had one more day to go on the dino trail. My MCS-virgin friends that accompanied were eager to go home and check out the band’s other songs as they were impressed by how “pretty” Pierre’s voice was.
I was sad to call it a night, but glad to a part of such a special occasion. I filmed the whole thing and if I can figure out how to break it up to get on YouTube or something, I’ll be sharing it with you all soon, I promise.
As a special holiday treat, while in Lawrence, Justin Pierre recorded a song with local band The Dead Girls. The song is called “It’s All Happening.” And you can download it for free. Just right click and save as. Happy Holidays.
“Returning to the scene of the crime,” is how the Get Up Kids phrased it, but really the only injustice was that it had been a 3-year wait for that November 2008 show. Fortunately, since that first reunion show at the Record Bar, the band was kind enough to give the Kansas City metropolitan area a Lawrence and a North Kansas City show before ending their reunion with a two night stand where it all began. And since I saw them at the very first reunion show, it was only fitting that I would see them at their last.
There seemed to be some confusion about the show start time, so a lot of the crowd was still coming in during Louisville band Mansions set. “Talk Talk Talk” came early in the set and while listening to the biting lyrics, I was torn between loving the band for their passionate sound reminiscent of Manchester Orchestra or Brand New and hating them for being so passionate that my mood dropped as they struck some chords a little too close to heart for comfort. The ended the set with “The Worst Part,” another song with strong lyrics of a bit of a depressing nature. These guys are super talented, but I think as an opener, it was a bit hard to warm up to for some in the audience with their cold tone.
For those that pay attention to the lyrics of Kevin Devine, he too has lyrics that are biting commentaries and often downer-sounding self-reflections, but unlike Mansions, his set had a different feeling. Instead of falling deeper into a whirlpool of sadness, Kevin made me happy and simply impressed. There are two reasons for that. Usually, I do focus on his lyrics and his voice because it is hard not to. He presses his face up against the microphone for some of the softer verses, but when he steps away from microphone and yells a chorus or a line or even a ba-da-da-dah-da, all eyes are on his face, which has veins enlarged into a map of his energetic passion for the piece. I’ve heard him compared to Conor Oberst, but I would be bold enough to say that Kevin might have more to offer, at least in his live show, than the Bright Eyes frontman. This time, thanks to a gentleman next to me calling out, “When will we see you on Guitar Hero?” I watched his hands racing on the instrument. Damn, was he good, and maybe he should be on the game. I felt alive just watching him play the arpeggiated riffs. And this brings me to the other reason why his set was uplifting: he has fantastic audience interaction. “The question on the floor is when will I be on Guitar Hero. I would love to be on Guitar Hero. I work for that every day,” said Kevin. “I’m just not that good.” At another point he bent down close to two little boys in the front row and asked, “You don’t have ear plugs? Will you be ok? It is going to get loud.” So modest and sweet. He isn’t only a great performer, but a great person. What a package in an artist these days! I was so happy with him and his set, which featured tunes such as “Brother’s Blood,” “Fickle Friend,” “Cotton Crush,” “No Time Flat,” a Nirvana cover and more, that I could have left the show then. Although, what a poor Kansas City citizen I would be if I left before one of our biggest acts?
Last time I saw the Get Up Kids in this venue, they played “Something to Write Home About” in order. During the encore, they played a few other fan favorites. Now tonight was not a rehash of that same show. While the set was heavy with those songs as they started the night with “Holiday,” they interspersed songs from other albums throughout it such as a new song from the forthcoming album, “Walking on a Wire,” “Martyr Me” and the rounded out the night with their cover of The Cure‘s “Close to Me.” They even jammed a bit before “Martyr Me.” Check it out:
One of my favorite moments of the set was during “Out of Reach” when the crowd came in with the “Oh oh ohs” and guitarist Jim Suptic and bassist Rob Pope exchanged a look of “OMG.” I wasn’t sure at first if they were impressed by how boisterous the crowd’s singing was or if they were shocked by how off we were. Turns out it was the latter. “How many girls were singing on that?” asked singer Matt Pryor. He shook his head as the girls yelled back. “That was a choir of dudes. Really out of tune dudes.”
Another set highlight was when Suptic took the vocal reigns and grabbed an acoustic guitar for “Campfire Kansas,” which of course held a special meaning for the Kansas City crowd. While he was singing, Pryor went over to the aforementioned kids in the front row and invited the two boys on stage to play tambourine. It made a sweet song extra adorable. However, the boys must have rocked so hard on that acoustic number, that it blew out all their equipment. When the rest of the band came back the only thing left working were the microphones. The Record Bar employees debated how to fix the problem when sparks came flying out of an amp and throwing the breaker just resulted in the same problem. Suptic and Pryor bantered about how this was or was not fitting for the final night of the tour and then they tried to get drummer Ryan Pope to jam out for the audience. Pope seemed hesitant, so it opener Kevin Devine to the rescue. With a beat from Pope and some extra help from Suptic, Devine graced the audience with an amazing and strange rap. Yes, Kevin Devine raps. And it is wonderful.
The Get Up Kids mentioned that Kansas City seems to have a love/hate relationship with them. I’m glad to be on the side that loves them and I’m glad that they are finally just doing their own thing and not worrying how people choose to embrace them.
Oh, and reuniting must have felt so good that the band promises we’ll see another show in 2010 after the new! record comes out. Now that’s something to write home about.
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