popwreckoning

Despite my coverage of their act on the ‘Bout Damn Time Tour earlier this year, I decided to check out local Emerald City boys, This Providence. Hailing from Bothell, just a short distance away from the Center, the band looked right at home on the Center Square Stage.

These guys are always amazing live- that never changes. Unfortunately, neither does their show. It was great for long time fans to catch them playing favorites such as “My Beautiful Rescue” and “That Girl’s a Trick,” but also brought a lot of murmuring and dissent from the same group of fans. These were songs that were recorded YEARS ago and were just rereleased as remastered tracks on the Who Are You Now? album in 2009. However, everyone is asking for new material, a new show, something besides bassist David Blaise just cutting his hair.

I’m not saying that these guys did not put on one hell of a show- because that would be downright lying. They are a great group of musicians, a great group to see live, and play some damn amazing music. But frankly, at this point, if you have seen them once, you have seen them. Period.

Keep your eyes peeled for a new single, album, or other news here at PopWreckoning.

Check them out at http://www.thisprovidence.com/

It’s just another gorgeous spring day, meaning rainy and a little colder than we would like, in Seattle and last night was the ‘Bout Damn Time Tour featuring He is We, The Bigger Lights, The Audition and This Providence (locals from our great Emerald City, no less!). Kicking off the great month of May and concluding the end of the cross country tour, the line was already around the corner and halfway down the block with two hours until doors. Keeping with general Seattle tradition, by the time the doors opened, the iconic venue was fairly packed with all ages concert goers and the fun began promptly at 7:30 when He is We took the stage.

Hailing from our neighboring metropolis, Tacoma, He is We honestly took me by surprise. Coming out and working the crowd was Rachel Taylor, the frontwoman and co-founder of the band. I have to admit, this girl can sing. Belting it out, she held the crowd entranced for the better part of their half hour allotted time slot. They transitioned from a full band into some scaled down acoustic songs and upon the return of the rest of the band, they continued to keep the crowd incredibly satiated. Since they are local, there were more than a few sets of lips singing along, adding the mounting energy of the night. They played  songs such as “Love-y love,” a slightly squishy and romantic little acoustic blurb, and “Happily Ever After,” a single that would make an amazing debut single. Mixing up a little bit of Paramore’s lyrics and a tiny bit of Fireflight’s sound with a dash of Halestorm’s tenacity and you get the brilliant and wonderful set of lungs that is Rachel Taylor. Upon the conclusion of their set, the venue was buzzing about their band and their upcoming CD release in June. According to Rachel, it will have “between 8 and 10 tracks. Apparently we don’t know for sure yet.” Judging from the atmosphere, I don’t think we are done hearing from these splendid locals anytime soon.

Gracing the stage next was The Bigger Lights from Fairfax, Virginia who many of you have probably seen touring with This Providence over that past couple of years. Channeling their newly released self titled album, they came on and rocked the crowd and served up another helping of the power pop quintent. They have grown remarkably better as a band, but the feel was frankly a little too pop-y for my taste. The crowd enjoyed their crazy antics and their almost Cartel sound (who are coincidentally previous tour mates), pumping their fists and singing along, making the floor of the venue move for the first time all evening. Playing an uneventful set, the band managed to stay on stage despite many hands trying to pull them off and into the crowd. They left with farewells and leaving the multitudes wanting more.

Third up was the last, but certainly not least, opener, The Audition. I have seen them a few times, and all I have to say is WOW. The Chicago natives just keep getting better and better and better. They rocked their way through the entire set while promoting their newly released album Great Danger and favorites off of their The Audition. Some of the highlights included “My Temptures Rising” and “The Art of Living.” Singer Danny Stevens’ voice is the kind that belongs to any mainstream pop punk band, but the Audition has managed to keep their off-the-wall energy going and are still indie enough to bring their own unique sound into play. His vocal talent was clearly some of the best of the night and he belted out lyrics gracefully enough while still managing to work the stage and have a lot of fun, something harder than it usually looks. They stood out on this lineup and made this show an incredible treat for a lot of the audience and my fellow photographers, playing a fun set and readying the crowd for the main attraction.

Seattle houses some of the best hometown shows and This Providence was no exception. With a two hour set, they successfully managed to blow away their previous shows and leave a very satiated crowd eagerly awaiting their next album. Amongst playing every song from their Who Are You Now album, they also handpicked favorites from their previous albums. Before the show, a roadie walked through the line and took votes, culminating in one of the best set lists I have seen from the band in years. Lead singer Dan Young has an insane amount of charisma and band mate David Blaise (bass) is certainly a favorite with the ladies in the crowd. Gavin plays a mean guitar and one unnamed musician (whom I cannot find a name for but looks ODDLY familiar) plays one heck of a keyboard and successfully mixes his keyboarding with guitar strumming and singing, and drummer Andy Horst is an incredible drummer who serves as a good solid background for the band’s wandering tones. With the dulcet melodies and mellow tunes came the juxtaposition of other more upbeat tracks that had the crowd (and every photographer t­­here) singing and dancing, clapping along and thoroughly enjoying yet another hometown show from This Providence. From the comments after the show, I know I am not the only one looking forward to their next album.

About two hours before doors at Station 4 in downtown St. Paul, a block-long line has formed of fans eager to hear a night of great live music. The bands are a pop-punker’s dream lineup: This Providence, The Summer Set, The Bigger Lights, and headliners Cartel. This is Cartel’s first tour with their new album Cycles and they are “just happy to be on the road again,” states bassist Jeff Lett. And apparently the mass amount of fans that keep arriving to the venue are happy about that too.

Originating as a high school/college collaboration among three different bands back in August of 2003, Cartel has gained popularity and a large fan base over the last six years. With the current onslaught of a large number of teenage angst-driven bands to emerge lately, it’s pretty phenomenal for a band to last six years in this music scene, let alone release three successful albums within that time. With fans at the show from early teens to late 50s, the band has proven to have a catchy, unique sound that appeals to fans of all ages.

However, as popular as they have become over the years, there is going to be some scrutiny. Referencing the MTV miniseries “Band in a Bubble” (when the band spent 23 days in a partially transparent bubble in New York City and emerged having fully completed their 2nd full length album, Cartel), guitarist Joe Pepper adds, “We got a lot of publicity from that and with any publicity there’s people judging all the time. People really liked [the album] and with any album there’s always some hate, but I don’t think any of it affected any of us too much.”

Apparently not, considering Station 4 appeared to fill up to near capacity before the guys even took the stage for their set. The fans were eager to hear old favorites as well as new songs from Cycles performed live for the first time.

With a set list spanning equally across the bands 3 albums (Chroma, Cartel, Cycles) and including fan-favorites like “Honestly,” “Say Anything (Else)” and my personal favorite “Matter of Time,” the guys are partial to playing songs that are “close to home”, says drummer Kevin Sanders. “We love playing ‘Deep South,’ because it’s just so heavy. It has kind of become what “Georgia” and “Burn This City” were to us in the past.”

A recent label change from Epic to Wind Up Records has allowed the band a chance to be extremely unique within their new label family and express this “heavier” side. With labelmates like Creed and Seether, the band is able to get the deserved, undivided publicity that is sometimes lost in a label that is chock full of bands from the same genre. Pepper comments, “[Wind Up] doesn’t have a lot of bands that are like us. We don’t have to compete. When we were on Epic, we were competing with bands like Good Charlotte and Quietdrive; it’s time to get radio play though. They can push Creed and us at the same time and not have to worry about stepping on anyone’s toes. It just works out better.”

After a two year process of writing and recording, Cartel finally released their much anticipated third full length album, entitled Cycles, with Wind Up. With an album full of catchy, upbeat Chroma-esque tracks like “Faster Ride” and first single “Let’s Go,” ballad staples like “Only You,” and even some edgier tunes like “27 Steps,” Cartel fans will not be disappointed with their newest debut. Still holding on to the old Cartel sound of pop-punk power songs full of open ended messages, the band has proven to continue to step away from the cookie-cutter songs about high school love and loss and choose to write songs that are open for fans to define their own individual interpretations on the meanings.

With songs like Chroma’s “Minstrel’s Prayer” and Cycle’s “Retrograde,” Cartel continues to make the kind of music that allows fans to give a song a personal meaning that can adapt with every situation and shift into something completely different each time the hear a song. The band’s hook-driven music is the type that has staying power because it is so easily identifiable with each new fan that turns on their music and hears a song like “Save Us” for the first time. Even the album title can hold many different connotations. When asked about the significance behind the term “Cycles,” guitarist Pepper simply stated, “It means whatever you think it means.” That fan-powered idea is what has kept Cartel around and relevant for so long.

The band continues to keep their sights high, saying that a dream tour with include Van Halen. Now, I don’t know how compatible those two bands would be together, considering the crowd would be hilariously random, but could we be on the lookout for a tour collaboration with Van Halen? If the boys keep churning out hit-making music, nothing is impossible for Cartel.

Cartel: website | myspace

Written by: Sarah Hassan

As of now, you can stream Cartel‘s new album Cycles using Twitter. If you don’t have an account, it takes just a moment to set up. Then go to  http://cartel.culturejam.com.

The album will hit stores Oct. 20. You can watch the new video for the first single “Let’s Go” here.

Cartel is set to head out on tour in support of the album with This Providence and The Summer Set, starting on October 22nd through the end of November.

Cartel: website | myspace