BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Royale Boston - ECPv6.15.18//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Royale Boston X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://royaleboston.com X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Royale Boston REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20140309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20141102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20150308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20151101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20160313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20161106T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151118T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151118T183000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20151019T230314Z LAST-MODIFIED:20151019T230314Z UID:10001575-1447871400-1447871400@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Knuckle Puck DESCRIPTION:Doors: 6:30 pm / Show: 7:00 pm \nThis event is all ages. \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/knuckle-puck/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/KP-EIC-Tour-Admat-11x17-promoter-localized.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151114T220000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151114T220000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20151105T234641Z LAST-MODIFIED:20151105T234641Z UID:10001594-1447538400-1447538400@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:JOE BERMUDEZ DESCRIPTION:21+ \nMANAGEMENT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REFUSE ADMISSION. NO ADMISSION GUARANTEED AFTER 12AM. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/joe-bermudez/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ROYALE_JB_600X900.jpg GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151113T220000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151113T220000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20151105T180633Z LAST-MODIFIED:20151105T180633Z UID:10001592-1447452000-1447452000@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:STAFFORD BROTHERS DESCRIPTION:21+ \nManagement reserves the right to refuse entry. No admission guaranteed after 12am URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/stafford-brothers/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/11.13-Stafford1.jpg GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151113T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151113T180000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20151020T121907Z LAST-MODIFIED:20151020T121907Z UID:10001577-1447437600-1447437600@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Shakey Graves DESCRIPTION:NOTE: THIS SHOW IS SOLD OUT \nDoors: 6:00 pm / Show: 7:00 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nNewport Folk presents.\nDie Hard Tour \n*** \n“The first album was me wanting to burn down my life\, cut my hair off\, and run screaming into the woods\,” says Alejandro Rose-Garcia. “This album is the trials and tribulations of becoming domesticated\, letting people into your world and letting go of selfishness—the story of becoming a pair\, losing that\, and reconciling with the loss and gain of love.” \nRose-Garcia is professionally known as Shakey Graves\, and with his new record\, And the War Came\, he extends the ground—emotionally and sonically—broken by his 2011 self-released debut album\, Roll the Bones\, which brought him national acclaim and\, three years later\, still ranks near the top of Bandcamp’s digital best-seller charts. \nRoll the Bones established the powerful\, mesmerizing Shakey Graves sound of Rose-Garcia accompanying himself on guitar and a handmade kick drum built out of an old suitcase. NPR Music named him one of 10 artists music fans “should’ve known in 2012\,” describing him as “astonishing…unclassifiably original. And frighteningly good.” Paste included him in a “Best of What’s Next” feature\, praising his “gnarly composite of blues and folk\,” while The New York Times observed that Shakey Graves “makes the one-man band approach look effortless.” \nBut while this distinctive arrangement continued to earn him an ever-expanding fan base on the road\, Rose-Garcia knew that he wanted the follow-up to achieve something different. “With the first album\, I didn’t have any expectations except my own\,” he says. “This time\, I was making something people were going to listen to out of the gate. I tried to maintain everything I enjoy about recording\, the weird homemade aspect\, but I was seeking a new\, shining sound quality. The concepts for the songs are a little bigger. This is not the ‘Mr\, Folk\, Hobo Mountain’ album—it’s more of the Cyborg Shakey Graves. It’s definitely the next step in the staircase.” \nAn experienced actor who had a recurring role on Friday Night Lights and appeared in several of Robert Rodriguez films\, Rose-Garcia started making music as part of New York City’s “anti-folk” scene. While knocking around the underground music community in Los Angeles\, he saw a performance by one-man band Bob Log III that pointed his work in a new direction. Since returning to Austin\, Rose-Garcia has become so closely associated with his hometown that for the last three years\, Austin has celebrated “Shakey Graves Day” by mayoral proclamation. \nTo record And the War Came\, co-producer/collaborator Chris Boosahda brought all of his gear to Rose-Garcia’s house and converted the space into a big\, open studio. Though the signature Shakey Graves set-up remained the starting point\, other instrumentalists came in and multiple\, wildly different arrangements of the songs were attempted for what was initially planned as a double album. \nMost notably\, Rose-Garcia wrote and sings three of the album’s songs with Esme Patterson\, a solo artist and member of the Denver-based band Paper Bird. “We started out just having fun and writing\, and then that turned into some of my favorite songs on the album\,” he says. “We actually wrote ‘Dearly Departed’ on Halloween as a tongue-in-cheek\, haunted house sex joke\, and then we played it that night and people went bonkers. Esme and I write so similarly it kinda freaked us out\, and I really learned the power of writing music with someone you get along with.” \nSoon enough\, Rose-Garcia found that the experience of making the record was being mirrored in the songs themselves. “I was letting go of that one-man everything\,” he says. “I did need people’s help\, and my control freak nature had to subside a bit. It meant learning collaboration\, but also knowing when to stick to my guns—all of that was the experience of this year\, and the songs were some of the more genuine experiences; some of them even became sort of prophetic.” \n“Only Son\,” a meditation on solitude (“I used to be an only son/My heart was like a stranger”)\, became the opening track and “thesis statement” for And the War Came. “Hard Wired” is not\, as it may first appear\, about a relationship falling apart\, but “about having friends with problems—watching a friend struggling and not doing anything about it.” \nThe themes of these ten songs\, explains Rose-Garcia\, return over and over to the idea of the “other.” “It’s not about any single person\, it’s about being that second\, other person. Even the title—I never thought about whether I was able to handle that aspect of things\, of having these relationships. And the War Came is a little bit of\, be careful what you wish for.” \nSongs like “The Perfect Parts” and “Family and Genus\,” meanwhile\, represent a very different sound for Shakey Graves. “Those have a lot more aggression\, they’re heavy and big\,” he says. “I’m a little worried because it is a new step out\, and people have gotten really precious about the stuff I’ve done—which is a huge compliment\, and a dream come true—but I’m interested in what a Shakey Graves song is to people.” \nAnother crucial influence on the direction of And the War Came has been Rose-Garcia’s lengthy and far-flung touring schedule (which has recently included stops at the Winnipeg and Newport Folk Festivals\, prior to a headlining run this fall). “I’m constantly flying places and moving at a fast rate\,” he says. “Imagining what it was like a year ago is almost incomprehensible to me now. I feel like I’ve almost seen too much this year—bands\, music\, places. And if that doesn’t affect you in certain ways\, then you’re doing it wrong.” \nWhile his remarkable success story continues to unfold\, Alejandro Rose-Garcia sees And the War Came as a pivotal step in the evolution of Shakey Graves. “This is a doorframe album\, as we’re going into a new building\,” he says. “It’s taste of everything—what might come in future\, which might include just guitar or the one-man band thing\, but not pigeonholed to any one sound. I wanted to open some stuff up and get people ready for wherever it’s going.” URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/shakey-graves-2/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SHAKEY-GRAVES-SEPS.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151112T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151112T190000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20151020T000404Z LAST-MODIFIED:20151020T000404Z UID:10001576-1447354800-1447354800@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Shakey Graves DESCRIPTION:NOTE: THIS SHOW IS SOLD OUT \nDoors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nNewport Folk presents.\nDie Hard Tour \n*** \n“The first album was me wanting to burn down my life\, cut my hair off\, and run screaming into the woods\,” says Alejandro Rose-Garcia. “This album is the trials and tribulations of becoming domesticated\, letting people into your world and letting go of selfishness—the story of becoming a pair\, losing that\, and reconciling with the loss and gain of love.” \nRose-Garcia is professionally known as Shakey Graves\, and with his new record\, And the War Came\, he extends the ground—emotionally and sonically—broken by his 2011 self-released debut album\, Roll the Bones\, which brought him national acclaim and\, three years later\, still ranks near the top of Bandcamp’s digital best-seller charts. \nRoll the Bones established the powerful\, mesmerizing Shakey Graves sound of Rose-Garcia accompanying himself on guitar and a handmade kick drum built out of an old suitcase. NPR Music named him one of 10 artists music fans “should’ve known in 2012\,” describing him as “astonishing…unclassifiably original. And frighteningly good.” Paste included him in a “Best of What’s Next” feature\, praising his “gnarly composite of blues and folk\,” while The New York Times observed that Shakey Graves “makes the one-man band approach look effortless.” \nBut while this distinctive arrangement continued to earn him an ever-expanding fan base on the road\, Rose-Garcia knew that he wanted the follow-up to achieve something different. “With the first album\, I didn’t have any expectations except my own\,” he says. “This time\, I was making something people were going to listen to out of the gate. I tried to maintain everything I enjoy about recording\, the weird homemade aspect\, but I was seeking a new\, shining sound quality. The concepts for the songs are a little bigger. This is not the ‘Mr\, Folk\, Hobo Mountain’ album—it’s more of the Cyborg Shakey Graves. It’s definitely the next step in the staircase.” \nAn experienced actor who had a recurring role on Friday Night Lights and appeared in several of Robert Rodriguez films\, Rose-Garcia started making music as part of New York City’s “anti-folk” scene. While knocking around the underground music community in Los Angeles\, he saw a performance by one-man band Bob Log III that pointed his work in a new direction. Since returning to Austin\, Rose-Garcia has become so closely associated with his hometown that for the last three years\, Austin has celebrated “Shakey Graves Day” by mayoral proclamation. \nTo record And the War Came\, co-producer/collaborator Chris Boosahda brought all of his gear to Rose-Garcia’s house and converted the space into a big\, open studio. Though the signature Shakey Graves set-up remained the starting point\, other instrumentalists came in and multiple\, wildly different arrangements of the songs were attempted for what was initially planned as a double album. \nMost notably\, Rose-Garcia wrote and sings three of the album’s songs with Esme Patterson\, a solo artist and member of the Denver-based band Paper Bird. “We started out just having fun and writing\, and then that turned into some of my favorite songs on the album\,” he says. “We actually wrote ‘Dearly Departed’ on Halloween as a tongue-in-cheek\, haunted house sex joke\, and then we played it that night and people went bonkers. Esme and I write so similarly it kinda freaked us out\, and I really learned the power of writing music with someone you get along with.” \nSoon enough\, Rose-Garcia found that the experience of making the record was being mirrored in the songs themselves. “I was letting go of that one-man everything\,” he says. “I did need people’s help\, and my control freak nature had to subside a bit. It meant learning collaboration\, but also knowing when to stick to my guns—all of that was the experience of this year\, and the songs were some of the more genuine experiences; some of them even became sort of prophetic.” \n“Only Son\,” a meditation on solitude (“I used to be an only son/My heart was like a stranger”)\, became the opening track and “thesis statement” for And the War Came. “Hard Wired” is not\, as it may first appear\, about a relationship falling apart\, but “about having friends with problems—watching a friend struggling and not doing anything about it.” \nThe themes of these ten songs\, explains Rose-Garcia\, return over and over to the idea of the “other.” “It’s not about any single person\, it’s about being that second\, other person. Even the title—I never thought about whether I was able to handle that aspect of things\, of having these relationships. And the War Came is a little bit of\, be careful what you wish for.” \nSongs like “The Perfect Parts” and “Family and Genus\,” meanwhile\, represent a very different sound for Shakey Graves. “Those have a lot more aggression\, they’re heavy and big\,” he says. “I’m a little worried because it is a new step out\, and people have gotten really precious about the stuff I’ve done—which is a huge compliment\, and a dream come true—but I’m interested in what a Shakey Graves song is to people.” \nAnother crucial influence on the direction of And the War Came has been Rose-Garcia’s lengthy and far-flung touring schedule (which has recently included stops at the Winnipeg and Newport Folk Festivals\, prior to a headlining run this fall). “I’m constantly flying places and moving at a fast rate\,” he says. “Imagining what it was like a year ago is almost incomprehensible to me now. I feel like I’ve almost seen too much this year—bands\, music\, places. And if that doesn’t affect you in certain ways\, then you’re doing it wrong.” \nWhile his remarkable success story continues to unfold\, Alejandro Rose-Garcia sees And the War Came as a pivotal step in the evolution of Shakey Graves. “This is a doorframe album\, as we’re going into a new building\,” he says. “It’s taste of everything—what might come in future\, which might include just guitar or the one-man band thing\, but not pigeonholed to any one sound. I wanted to open some stuff up and get people ready for wherever it’s going.” URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/shakey-graves/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SHAKEY-GRAVES-SEPS.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151110T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151110T193000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150910T022640Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150910T022640Z UID:10001867-1447183800-1447183800@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Allen Stone DESCRIPTION:Doors: 7:30 pm / Show: 8:15 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. Patrons under 18 are permitted if accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. \n*** \nOn his third full-length album\, singer/songwriter Allen Stone proves himself deeply devoted to making uncompromisingly soulful music that transcends all pop convention. Stone’s debut for Capitol Records\, Radius marks the follow-up to the Chewelah\, Washington-bred 28-year-old’s self-released and self-titled sophomore effort\, a 2011 album that climbed to the top 10 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and gained acclaim from renowned rock critic Ann Powers (whose NPR review hailed Allen Stone as “meant for those of us who like our R&B slightly unkempt and exceedingly feelingful”). Made in collaboration with Swedish soul singer/songwriter/phenom Magnus Tingsek\, Stone’s latest batch of songs capture the warm energy of that creative connection and transport the listener to a higher and more exalted plane. \nCulled from several dozen songs penned through a year and a half of constant writing and refining\, Radius bears a title that reflects both its scope and intimacy. “The radius is that line extending from the center of the circle to its exterior\,” says Stone\, “and in a lot of ways this album is about getting out things deep inside—whether it’s love or insecurity or joy or frustration about things going on today.” Along with immersing himself in a songwriting approach that involved unflinching examination of “some very dark and negative moments in my life\,” Stone shaped the sound and feel of Radius by pushing himself to “get past the boundaries of what I felt comfortable with\, so that I could progress into a whole new level of creativity.” Despite that sometimes-daunting process\, Radius wholly reveals Stone’s easy grace in blending everything from edgy soul-pop and earthy folk-rock to throwback R&B and Parliament-inspired funk. \nRadius first began to come to life back in the fall of 2013\, when Stone headed to Sweden to join in a writing session with Tingsek. “His musicality is so outside-the-box\, and it really stretched me as an artist\,” says Stone\, who’d tapped Tingsek as one of his opening acts for an 85-date headlining tour in 2012. “We just kept on throwing a wrench into the works and tried to create something that’s the complete antithesis of what you’d expect from pop music.” After recording the bulk of the album in Sweden\, Stone rounded out Radius’s production at his own studio in the woods of northeast Washington and in L.A.-based sessions with producers like Benny Cassette (who’s previously worked with Kanye West) and Malay (a co-producer on Frank Ocean’s channel ORANGE). \nLike many of his own musical heroes—Stevie Wonder chief among them—Stone pulls off the near-magical feat of channeling a weight-of-the-world sensitivity into his songs while still radiating hope and promise. And though that depth of consciousness feels transmitted from a more golden era\, Radius continually hones in on issues both timeless and of-the-moment\, with Stone’s breezily poetic lyrics touching on topics ranging from rampant materialism (on the tenderly string-accented\, harmony-soaked “American Privilege”) and the toxic takeover of technology in art (on the gutsy and groove-heavy “Fake Future”). “That song’s mainly about how technology’s infiltrating music in a way that’s making it less and less human and taking all the heart out of it\,” Stone says of the latter track\, a soul-pop powerhouse peppered with playfully cutting lines like “Rock stars pushing buttons/Few actually play/City wasn’t ever built on lights and Special K.” And as evidenced by Radius’s lush yet raw sonic landscape—wherein the only hint of synth comes from a Moog analog synthesizer—Stone stayed true to his pledge to “keep fakeness completely out of this record” and rely entirely on live instrumentation. \nEqually introspective and outwardly searching\, Radius also finds Stone exploring intensely personal matters\, such as depression on the stark and lovely\, acoustic-guitar-woven ballad\n“Circle” (“That one was written at a pretty dark time for me\,” Stone points out. “It’s about how depression can put you into a kind of circle\, where you’re just trying to find a way out but it keeps on leading you back inside”). Showing his skill at crafting a killer love song as well\, Stone looks at heartbreak and regret on the aching\, electric-piano-infused “I Know That I Wasn’t Right\,” slips into hopeless romanticism on the dreamy R&B pastiche “Barbwire\,” and unleashes some starry-eyed affection on the dancefloor-ready “Symmetrical” (a sample lyric: “The angle of your spine/Is sending lightning bolts down mine/When those molecules combine/It’s astronomically divine”). And in tracks like the ultra-catchy album-opener “Perfect World” and the fiery\, horn-laced “Freedom\,” Radius unfolds into epically joyful anthems that show the full range and power of Stone’s vocals. \nStone started working those vocals as a kid\, thanks largely to his parents’ influence. “My father was a minister so I spent about half my childhood in church\, watching my mom and dad sing together and lead the congregation in song\,” he recalls. By the time he was 11 he’d picked up a guitar and written his first song\, and soon began self-recording demo tapes to pass along to classmates. Although Stone enrolled in bible college after high school\, he quickly dropped out to move to Seattle and kickstart his music career. “I had an ’87 Buick and I’d drive up and down the west coast\, playing any gig I could get just to try to put my music out there\,” he says. \nAt age 22\, Stone self-released his debut album\, 2010’s Last To Speak. But it was his self-titled follow-up (on which he joined forces with former Miles Davis keyboardist Deron Johnson) that ended up earning him serious recognition. Along with entering the top five on iTunes’ R&B/Soul chart after its digital release\, Allen Stone prompted him to score appearances on such late-night talk shows like Conan and grace the pages of publications like the New York Times (whose chief popular-music critic Jon Pareles praised Stone for possessing “a tenor voice with the eagerness and frisky syncopations of [Stevie] Wonder”). And upon partnering with ATO Records for a physical release of his self-titled album in 2012\, Stone soon turned up on the likes of the Late Show with David Letterman and landed a gig as the opening act for soul legend Al Green. In the midst of all the buzz\, he also took up a grueling touring schedule\, tearing through nearly 600 shows in just two years. \nFor Stone\, all that time onstage went a long way in preparing him for the many creative breakthroughs he’s made on Radius. “I think you really grow as a musician when you’re playing right in front of people\, and for me constantly growing and progressing and getting better is really the most important thing\,” he says. Ruminating on the emotional undertones of his new album’s title and noting that “the center of me is my heart\,” Stone says he also hopes that Radius will ultimately help listeners shed new light on their own struggles. “There’ve been times in my life when records were my saving grace and really helped me to figure out who I am\, and I’d love for my music to have that kind of impact on a kid who’s looking for his or her own place in this life\,” he says. “Because I absolutely believe that if you’re going to stand at a microphone and say something\, you need to recognize that as a privilege. You’ve got to be incredibly careful about it\, and really put all your heart into the message that you’re sending out into the world.” URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/allen-stone/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/allenstonewsupport.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151108T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151108T200000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150910T022249Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150910T022249Z UID:10001866-1447012800-1447012800@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Django Django [MOVED TO MIDDLE EAST DOWNSTAIRS] DESCRIPTION:NOTE: THIS SHOW HAS BEEN MOVED FROM ROYALE TO THE MIDDLE EAST DOWNSTAIRS. ALL TICKETS HONORED. \nDoors: 8:00 pm / Show: 9:00 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nWERS 88.9 Discovery Show \n*** \nIt was when Django Django were playing Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations on the final day of 2013 that producer and drummer Dave Maclean realised how far his band had come since releasing their self-titled debut album almost two years earlier. \n“We made what\, at the time\, I thought would be an obscure bedroom record and ended up playing to 60\,000 people on Princes Street\,” says Dave. “Every month we kept saying we were going to stop touring but the album kept growing.” \nBorn Under Saturn is the work of a band fired up by confidence and experience and propelled way beyond their humble DIY roots. It has all of the giddy art-rock imagination of the debut but splashed across a larger canvas. “Once we got into the studio it became obvious it would be a bigger-sounding record\,” says bassist Jim Dixon. \n“When we were writing the lyrics there were lots of references to rebirth\, turning a new page and starting something again\,” says Dave. “I guess that’s something we all felt.” \nDjango Django — Dave\, Jim\, guitarist Vinnie Neff and keyboardist Tommy Grace — met at art school in Edinburgh and released their first single\, after moving to east London\, in 2009. They took their time evolving a uniquely open-minded sound in which every influence is welcome but nothing sounds cluttered of forced. “We don’t stop ourselves going in any direction because we’ve all got very individual styles so it always ends up sounding like us\,” says Vinnie. \nTheir debut album came out in January 2012 on Because Music and was lavished with praise. It was “updated psychedelia that beguiles and delights” (The Guardian)\, “consistently mind-melting and often brilliant” (Q)\, “bursting with ideas” (Pitchfork) and “gloriously\, unpredictably new” (Mojo). By December it had been shortlisted for the Mercury Prize and named one of the albums of the year by Rolling Stone and NME. \nDjango Django kept meaning to come off the road and get back in the studio but the album’s popularity kept growing. They played around the world\, performing memorable shows at such essential festivals as Glastonbury and Fuji Rock. They appeared on TV shows worldwide\, including one curious French affair where they were forced to dance with Wicked Game singer Chris Isaak. They had a ball. \n“It surprised me how totally varied one audience would be\,” says Dave. “Young kids next to 60s heads who were into Pink Floyd. Two generations of a family would come out. I’ve never known such a bizarre cross-section of society.” \nThey also embraced other creative opportunities. Dave travelled to Mali with Damon Albarn’s Africa Express\, part of a 20-strong contingent including Brian Eno\, Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and actor Idris Elba. The band subsequently appeared at an Africa Express show in Marseille\, performing Skies Over Cairo with local rapper Malikah\, and worked on the new album’s opening song Giant during a jam with African musicians at Albarn’s London studio. \nDave and Tommy worked on the score for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of John Webster’s bloodthirsty Jacobean tragedy The White Devil. “It’s a full-on play\,” says Tommy\, eyes widening. “There’s only about 10% of the cast standing at the end.” Dave established his own label\, Kick and Clap\, named after the club night he launched when he first moved to Dalston. “It’s my personal idea of dancefloor music – not just house and techno but weirder stuff as well\,” he says. And Vinnie and Jim collaborated with award-winning artist Haroon Mirza at Stromboli arts festival last summer\, at the foot of the island’s volcano. \nAfter all this activity they were hungry to make album number two. “We built up momentum more than expectation\,” says Dave. “We were keen to get back to making music. Going from a lo-fi bedroom record\, sitting in your flat in your pjyamas\, to playing to huge crowds\, you learn a lot.” \nBorn Under Saturn was recorded at Netil House in east London and Angelic in Banbury\, where the band had an entertaining night involving moonshine\, a ouija board and what appeared to be a piano-playing poltergeist. \nLike before\, Django Django are blessedly oblivious to genre rules. You’ll find Beach Boys harmonies and Link Wray riffs crisscrossing with house music pianos\, classical keyboard flourishes with Jamaican and African rhythms\, and all of it flows. It’s the same dot-joining intelligence that made Dave’s instalment of the Late Night Tales compilation series\, mixing Canned Heat and The Millennium with Outkast and TNGHT\, so enjoyable. \n“A lot of it has to do with growing up being more into mixtapes than albums\,” he says. “I think that sensibility comes through. Since I was a kid I’ve always tried to see the connections and threads through music.” \nUnlike the debut\, which was largely written by Dave and Vinnie\, the songwriting was split four ways. Songs evolved from fragments of ideas recorded on mobile phones\, or flashes of brilliance during informal jams. Over time\, the most promising seeds sprouted into full-blown songs\, which would be teased apart and rebuilt by Dave in his producer role. “Growing up\, I was into the Beatles and the Beach Boys\,” he says. “This idea of 60s psych that was also really approachable pop music. That balance has always interested me. I love it when weird records become pop.” \nLyrics often emerged naturally from the sound of the music. Giant\, for example\, was so titled because its sound suggested a goliath’s pounding footsteps and Shake and Tremble’s rockabilly rumble suggested earthquakes. There are dark dramas like Found You\, which draws on the myth of Faust’s deal with the devil\, and Shot Down\, a bloody tale of crime and betrayal. Jim wrote the sighingly beautiful Beginning to Fade while contemplating writer’s block. The atmospheric\, synth-driven High Moon\, says Dave\, is about people who “come alive at night”. In Django Django’s songs the real is always merging with the fantastical and everyday emotions take strange and exciting forms. \nBorn Under Saturn expands on the slippery\, undefinable brilliance of the debut\, finding magic in the unexplored spaces between different kinds of music\, and never doing the same thing twice. \n“We thought we’d sell to little pockets of people and set up our own live shows in art spaces\,” says Dave. “We never thought it would end up the way it did. Once that happens\, you have to keep pushing. You can’t sit still.” URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/django-django/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Django-US-RGB-version___.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151107T220000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151107T220000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20151029T193305Z LAST-MODIFIED:20151029T193305Z UID:10001979-1446933600-1446933600@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:007 AFFAIR DESCRIPTION:Belvedere Vodka & Royale Present a 007 Affair \n21+ \nLadies Free before 11 w/ RSVP \nManagement reserves the right to refuse entry. No admission guaranteed after 12am URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/007-affair/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/11.07-Bond-Site.jpg GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151107T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151107T180000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150910T020657Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150910T020657Z UID:10001864-1446919200-1446919200@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Wild Child DESCRIPTION:Doors: 6:00 pm / Show: 7:00 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. \nNote: Unfortunately due to immigration issues\, Royal Canoe will no longer be on this bill. \n*** \nWild Child doesn’t want a place to hide. Song after song\, town after town\, they’ll wear their hearts on their sleeves\, addicted to the rush that only comes when thousands of strangers know all your secrets and sing them back to you\, because they’re their secrets\, too. \n“It’s not necessarily the performing that’s addictive\, but being able to connect with that many people at once\,” says Kelsey Wilson\, who shares lead vocal and songwriting responsibilities for the Austin-based seven-piece band with Alexander Beggins. “You feel like you’re together in something––like you experience the whole thing together. It’s family therapy with a lot of dancing.” \nWild Child’s third album Fools (out via Dualtone Records) is an ambitious collection of lush pop that takes sad stories and transforms them into an ebullient love letter to the power of music and the art of living with yourself. \nMade up of Kelsey on violin and vocals\, Alexander on ukulele and vocals\, Evan Magers on keyboards\, Sadie Wolfe on cello\, Chris D’Annunzio on bass\, Drew Brunetti on drums\, and Matt Bradshaw on trumpet\, Wild Child has built a sprawling grassroots following on the strength of high-spirited live shows that feel like self-contained joy benders\, along with two precocious albums. \n2011’s Pillow Talk notched four no. 1 singles on indie pulse monitor Hype Machine\, spurred on by music bloggers who fell early and hard for the quirky group. 2013’s The Runaround upped the ante\, making best-of lists and garnering glowing reviews and write-ups from NPR\, Paste\, Pop Matters\, and many others. Then Wild Child hit TV\, performing on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and serving as the featured artists on CBS Saturday Morning. Since forming five years ago after Kelsey and Alexander met during a stint as members of a backup band for a Danish artist’s U.S. tour\, Wild Child has gone from playing shows for nine people to selling out venues across North America and Europe. \nNot bad for an indie outfit who\, up until now\, has been thriving without radio spins or record label muscle. And it all started when two Texas kids too scared to sing for crowds discovered they wrote hauntingly good songs together. \nWild Child recorded Fools at Doll House Studios in Savannah\, Georgia. Produced by Peter Mavrogeorgis and David Plakon with additional tracks helmed by red-letter guest producers Max Frost (“Break Bones”) and Chris “Frenchie” Smith (“Trillo Talk”)\, Fools reveals that while Austin’s favorite gang of lost boys and girls have grown up to become fiercely skilled musicians who have charmed the world\, their faces remain grinning and often painted\, spirits stubborn and free\, barbs sharp and cathartic. \nWhile writing for the album\, Kelsey split from her fiancé of five years\, then watched as her parents divorced. “It was the first time that I’d ever had writer’s block\,” she remembers. “Then Bobby and I separated. Within a week\, all of the lyrics just came out.” \n“She used this album as a platform to say a lot of things she wanted to say\,” Alexander says. “It’s a story that’s not exactly linear\, but you hear someone going through something.” \nKelsey and Alexander co-wrote all of the record’s songs\, while the title track was penned by the entire band––a first for the group. A complexly layered\, funky gem\, “Fools” saunters as Kelsey and Alexander sigh\, “If you have to go / I’ll play the fool\,” a sly acknowledgement that no matter what else is going on in the relationship\, it’d be easier to hold on than to let it fall apart. \nThe act of consciously playing the fool shows up repeatedly throughout the record\, and Wild Child flaunts a postmodern comfort with perspective’s slippery grip on truth. “The Cracks” pulses with uncertainty as Kelsey delicately cries\, “You went too far\, went way too far / We went too far\, went way too far\,” while in “Bullets\,” she croons\, “I know you think I took a lot from you.” “Meadows” asks a lover how much they’re willing to sacrifice\, while “Take It” and “Reno” tackle separation and trust. \nThe sole purely exuberant note on the album\, “Bad Girl” is a Motown-inspired celebration of the birth of Kelsey’s first niece. “Oklahoma\,” a harmony-soaked strings showcase that kicks off with an electro-pop tease\, was slated for The Runaround but didn’t quite fit until Fools. Originally intended for Pillow Talk\, “Stones” was mined from lyrics Kelsey penned when she was 15 years old. Now\, it’s part bubbly piano-man ramble\, part sweeping string-led drama\, capped off by a brassy New Orleans breakdown––a perfect example of the band’s increasingly virtuosic ability to stretch and crisply fold genres into their ever-expanding repertoire. \n“Break Bones” is a stunner––a big\, bold\, beautiful pop song praying a fight continues indefinitely\, because that’s all that’s left. “Trillo Talk\,” a last minute addition to the record and an ideal closer\, winks to fan favorites “Pillow Talk” and “RilloTalk” and soars triumphantly. “It’s the last thought––everything is going to be okay…but it’s not. But\, it feels alright\,” Alexander says. \nVocally\, Alexander strolls\, steady and wry\, as Kelsey skips\, runs\, and hops\, all whirly energy and instinctive phrasing. “I think my voice just sits nice underneath hers\,” Alexander says\, simply and accurately. “The two of us never really intended to be singers and still don’t really consider ourselves singers\,” says Kelsey\, without a hint of irony. NPR’s Ann Powers likened her voice to that of a “Jazz Age Broadway baby\,” but bring up that and other praise\, and Kelsey just laughs and emphasizes\, “I don’t think of myself as a singer. I think of it just like talking. We’re just having a conversation.” \nIn their musical repartee\, Wild Child doesn’t pull punches. Their songs sting as they groove\, cutting lyrics massaged by cooing vocals and bouncy ukulele. So we’re dancing and laughing before we realize we’ve got tears in our eyes\, entranced by Wild Child’s dizzying contradiction: sour truths that sound so sweet. \n“The instruments may belong in a granola commercial\, but what we’re saying is often dark and angry and bitter\,” says Kelsey. “It wasn’t until Alexander and I started writing music together that we were like\, ‘Damn. Are we sad?’” \n“There is a beauty in lyric writing that is almost too honest\,” Alexander says. “We’ve always tried to poke holes in that terrible thing that nobody really wants to think about.” \nFools is an unashamed breakup album\, but it’s more than last rites for lovers. The record also bids farewell to the traditional lives Kelsey and Alexander had thought lie in store. \n“We’re about to live day to day for a long time\, and our relationships are going to fall apart\,” Kelsey says. “Our home lives are going to fall apart. And there’s nothing we can do about it. So\, the record is also about letting go of expectations\, just playing the fool. Fools is a release––a blind step out.” URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/wild-child/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Wild-Child-Fall-2015-Admat-Highres-localized.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151106T220000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151106T220000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20151022T161700Z LAST-MODIFIED:20151022T161700Z UID:10001957-1446847200-1446847200@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:THE ROAD TO ELECTRIC LIFE DESCRIPTION:21+ \nManagement reserves the right to refuse entry. No admission guaranteed after 12am. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/the-road-to-electric-life/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/11.06-Gareth.jpg GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151106T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151106T190000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20151019T225304Z LAST-MODIFIED:20151019T225304Z UID:10001574-1446836400-1446836400@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Nathan For You - Sneak Peek And Q&A DESCRIPTION:Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. \n*** \nHost Nathan Fielder appears live and in person to give you a sneak peak of the upcoming season of Nathan For You. The screening will be followed by a Q&A discussion that will include several off-the-cuff jokes by Fielder\, who’s a mediocre improviser. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/nathan-for-you-sneak-peek-and-qa/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Nathan_NU_0291_RET_1800-11.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151105T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151105T200000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150910T020322Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150910T020322Z UID:10001862-1446753600-1446753600@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats DESCRIPTION:NOTE: THIS SHOW IS SOLD OUT \nDoors: 8:00 pm / Show: 9:00 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nNewport Folk presents. \n*** \nNathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats practically explodes with deep\, primal and ecstatic soulfulness. This stunning work isn’t just soul stirring\, it’s also soul baring\, and the combination is absolutely devastating to behold. You don’t just listen to this record—you experience it. So it’s entirely fitting that the self-titled album will bear the iconic logo of Stax Records\, because at certain moments Rateliff seems to be channeling soul greats like Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. But as this gifted multi-instrumentalist honors the legacy of the legendary Memphis label\, he’s also setting out into audacious new territory. \nThose who were beguiled by In Memory of Loss\, Rateliff’s folky\, bittersweet 2010 Rounder album\, will be in for an initial shock when they spin Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. But when you delve beneath the rawboned surface of the new album’s wall-rattling presentation\, with its deep-gut grooves\, snaky guitars\, churning Hammond and irresistible horns\, you’ll find that same sensitive\, introspective dude\, who bravely tells it like it is\, breaking through his reticence to expose often harsh truths about the life he’s lived\, the people he’s hurt and the despair he’s struggled with. The difference between the two albums is that the Nights Sweats’ funkiness insulates the starkly confessional nature of Rateliff’s songs while at the same time underscoring their emotional extremes. \nThe place where Rateliff is coming from is intensely real and intimate. Doing what he does is an act of bravery. “These songs are about the struggles I’ve had in my life—drinking too much\, that kind of crap\,” he says with characteristic candor\, punctuating the admission with a rueful laugh. “And then the relationships we all have. I’m not a great communicator in my personal life\, so it’s funny to be writing songs that say the things that I’m never very good at saying. It’s taken me a long time to figure that out. I’m trying to be a better communicator\, but it’s horribly awkward—it’s awful—to tell somebody something you know is gonna hurt their feelings. I’ve always been one to go\, oh\, I’ll just eat this one; it’ll be okay.” \nAs the band blazes away on the soul-rock rave-up “I Need Never Get Old\,” the visceral “Howling at Nothing” and the supercharged “Trying So Hard Not to Know” (key line: “Who gives a damn and very few can”)\, which open the album with a sustained outpouring of torrid intensity\, Rateliff is opening himself up emotionally as well as physically\, the raw grit in his voice conveying anguish and hope in equal measure. The buoyant immediacy of the music makes the hard truths embedded in the songs easier to swallow than it would be in Rateliff’s other primary mode—a solitary guy with a guitar\, the brim of his baseball cap pulled down\, putting his heart and guts on the line without the protection of his simpatico cohorts. Make no mistake\, these songs would stop you in their tracks presented in that naked way as well\, but the additional layers of soulfulness provided by the Night Sweats—its core comprising guitarist Joseph Pope III\, drummer Patrick Meese and keyboardist Mark Shusterman—bring a convergence of intensities\, musical and psychological\, to the performances. \n“S.O.B.” sits at the dead center of the album\, between the brutally honest confessionals “I’ve Been Failing” and “Wasted Time.” Thematically\, the song is the album’s linchpin—partly a rebuke\, partly a cry of defiance\, “S.O.B” is the “fuck it all” anthem of a blue-collar kid from the Heartland whose conditioned idea of therapy is a shot and a beer chaser\, and then another round\, on the way to sweet oblivion. In live performance\, Rateliff and the Sweats have been known to mash together “S.O.B.” and The Band’s “The Shape I’m In” as the double-barreled climax of their sets (you can find it on YouTube)\, the frontman high-stepping and boogalooing across the stage with controlled abandon\, bearing a striking resemblance in his physicality to the young Van Morrison. These moments of revelry are also revelatory\, singling out two of Rateliff’s biggest influences. Indeed\, he hears distinct evocations of The Band on his new album\, and he was listening to “TB Sheets” and the rest of Morrison’s The Bang Masters as he was writing it. \nFrom there Rateliff contemplates some of the sustaining aspects of existence\, from redemption by way of the forgiving love of another in “Thank You\,” “Look It Here” and “I’d Be Waiting” to sexual heat in the N’awlins-style strutter “Shake.” The album ends on a hopeful note with the relatively laidback “Mellow Out\,” which could certainly be heard as Rateliff admonishing himself to do just that. “Originally\, I had it ending with a song called ‘How to Make Friends\,'” he says. “The chorus is ‘When everybody knows you\, nobody’s gonna want you.'” Another laugh follows\, this one self-mocking. “But I replaced it with ‘Mellow Out\,’ which is more of a release rather than a total bummer.” \nWhen it came time to pick a producer\, Rateliff went with Richard Swift\, a polymath who has made records under his own name\, helmed projects for Damien Jurado\, the Mynabirds and others\, and has played with The Black Keys and the Shins. Swift’s specialty is summoning (and capturing) inspired performances in the moment\, and the synergy in the studio\, first with Rateliff and then with his band\, was instant and palpable. Rateliff and the Sweats already had the arrangements of the new songs down cold\, having shaped them on the road. Swift\, knowing a good thing when he heard it\, set the mics\, honed the sound\, giving it plenty of space so that the studio itself served as an integral sonic component. Then he pressed “record” and coaxed it into happening organically. “Richard has such great ears\, and he really knows how to play to the room\,” Rateliff notes. “We have similar theories of recording: basically\, you just need to play it right.” \nRateliff\, who’s 36\, traveled a long road to get to this point. He left school after his dad passed away at the end of 7th grade\, left his home in the small town of Herman\, Missouri\, where his future would’ve likely involved endless shifts in a nearby plastic factory; and worked as a janitor for a high school. Not long afterward\, he followed some local missionaries to Denver\, thereby escaping what he describes as “the Midwestern lifestyle of working and growing up too fast.” He soon outgrew his childhood understanding of religion\, realizing that “there are so many books out there besides that one\,” as his worldview expanded exponentially. Rateliff spent the next 10 years on the loading dock of a trucking company before becoming a gardener and getting married along the way. But as the years passed\, he became increasingly focused on writing songs and performing them at any watering hole that would have him\, in time becoming part of the city’s burgeoning folk scene. “I got kind of a late start making music\,” he says\, “but eventually I went out on the road\,” first with Born in the Flood\, which he’d formed with Pope\, and then The Wheel\, the forerunner of the Night Sweats. By then\, he’d overcome his longstanding discomfort at playing his songs in public. \n“Writing at home is one of my favorite things to do\,” says this constitutionally solitary man. “But for years touring was really hard for me—being alone\, being married and having my relationship run through the mire\, because a lot of my songs are about that. Sometimes it sucks to sing those songs and have to relive those situations. It leaves you pretty exposed\, and your partner too; it can be unfair. But now I love being on stage and cracking jokes\, trying not to take myself too seriously\, even if the material is about failed relationships and alcoholism\, that kind of stuff”—there’s that rueful laugh again. \n“I try to be lighthearted\,” Rateliff continues\, “because\, although the songs are heavy\, I want it to be a release for people. I’m trying to do something that’s emotionally charged and heartfelt\, and I want the experience to be joyous\, for people to feel excited and dance around instead of being super-bummed by reality—I mean\, things are hard. But I can remember dancing around to some song that was breakin’ my heart\, dancin’ with tears in my eyes. I love that feeling\, and I wanna share it with people\, and hopefully they’ll feel it too.” \n—Bud Scoppa URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/nathaniel-rateliff-the-night-sweats/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/nathaniel-rateliff-admat-localized.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151104T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151104T190000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150910T015818Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150910T015818Z UID:10001860-1446663600-1446663600@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:RAC DESCRIPTION:Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nPresented by Radio 92.9 \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. \n*** \nRAC is taking things one song at a time. Recently finished his last album cycle with a pair of triumphant appearances at Coachella Valley Music Festival in April\, the multi instrumentalist will continue to give fans new music. André Allen Anjos will kick off the single series with ”Back of the Car\,” his euphoric guitar driven collaboration with long time friend\, Nate Henricks. Anjos is not only looking forward to releasing new music more frequently\, but he is also using the series as an opportunity to work with vocalists he has never worked with before\, and to work in genres he has yet to explore.\nRAC first gained attention for smart remixes of songs by Yeah Yeah Yeahs (“Zero”) and the Shins (“Sleeping Lessons”)\, but Anjos quickly proved himself as a songwriter in his own right with hit singles like “Hollywood” and “Let Go\,” and this single series stands to be his most ambi-tious undertaking yet. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/rac/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts,Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/RAC_Going-Our-Own-Way-Tour_Promoter-localized.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151103T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151103T193000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150909T024743Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150909T024743Z UID:10001856-1446579000-1446579000@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Deafheaven DESCRIPTION:Doors: 7:30 pm / Show: 8:30 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. \n*** \nDeafheaven is an American metal band that formed in 2010. The San Francisco-based group began as a two-piece with George Clarke and Kerry McCoy who recorded and self-released a demo album together. After a warm reception\, Deafheaven recruited three new members and began to tour. Before the close of 2010\, the band signed to Deathwish Inc. and later released their debut album Roads to Judah in April 2011. A follow-up album\,Sunbather\, was released in 2013. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/deafheaven/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/DFHVN_Envy_Trib_Fall2014_Admat_Layered_F-localized.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151031T210000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151031T210000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20151020T192609Z LAST-MODIFIED:20151020T192609Z UID:10001955-1446325200-1446325200@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:HAUNTED MANOR DESCRIPTION:21+\nCostumes Required for entry. \nManagement reserves the right to refuse admission. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/haunted-manor/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/10.31-Breeazy-Halloween.jpg GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151030T220000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151030T220000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20151020T185452Z LAST-MODIFIED:20151020T185452Z UID:10001921-1446242400-1446242400@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:FRIDAY HAUNTED MANOR DESCRIPTION:21+\nCostumes Required for entry. \nManagement reserves the right to refuse admission. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/friday-haunted-manor/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/10.30-Dsk-Chk.jpg GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151029T220000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151029T220000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150925T232916Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150925T232916Z UID:10001573-1446156000-1446156000@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:NERVO HALLOWEEN DESCRIPTION:21+ URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/halloween/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/10.29-Nervo.jpg GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151028T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151028T200000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150909T024438Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150909T024438Z UID:10001840-1446062400-1446062400@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Trevor Hall DESCRIPTION:Doors: 8:00 pm / Show: 8:30 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. \n*** \nTrevor Hall began songwriting and performing when he was 16 years old. He burst into the music scene with the song “Other Ways” which was featured on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. Hall’s captivating live performances and growing popularity have led to sold out tours across the country as well as touring with such artists as Steel Pulse\, The Wailers\, Jimmy Cliff\, Matisyahu\, Michael Franti\, Colbie Caillat and SOJA. In 2009\, Hall released his Vanguard Records debut\, which featured the single “Unity\,” a song written and performed with longtime friend\, Matisyahu. His follow up album Everything\, Everytime\, Everywhere debuted on iTunes Rock Chart at #3\, iTunes Top Albums at #12 and #8 Amazon Movers & Shakers. The featured single “Brand New Day” was used as the music bed for the reformatted CBS This Morning Show. Hall’s Chapter of the Forest debuted at #3 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart and #17 on the iTunes Overall Albums chart. His latest EP\, Unpack Your Memories debuted at #3 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart and also hit top 20 on the iTunes Top Albums chart. Trevor Hall’s music is an eclectic mix of acoustic rock\, reggae and Sanskrit chanting that echo with the names and teachings of divinities\, while maintaining an incredibly and refreshingly universal message. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/trevor-hall/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Press-shot-TrevorHall-2015-credit-Marina-Chavez.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151025T220000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151025T220000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150903T011936Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150903T011936Z UID:10001800-1445810400-1445810400@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:GRIZ DESCRIPTION:21 + \nMgt reserves the right to refuse admission. Dress code applies. Admission not guaranteed after 12am. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/griz/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/10.25.jpg GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151024T220000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151025T220000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20151020T161512Z LAST-MODIFIED:20151020T161512Z UID:10001905-1445724000-1445810400@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:ROYALE SATURDAY DESCRIPTION: URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/royale-saturday/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ROYALE_FRAIOLI_600X900_1.jpg GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151024T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151024T180000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150909T024038Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150909T024038Z UID:10001839-1445709600-1445709600@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:X Ambassadors DESCRIPTION:NOTE: THIS SHOW IS SOLD OUT \nDoors: 6:00 pm / Show: 6:30 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \n*** \nSome of our most enduring rock and roll is built upon the following truth: Sometimes you have to replant yourself to find your roots. Nearly a decade ago\, three of the four young members of Ithaca\, New York\, quartet X Ambassadors left home with great ambition\, vowing not to look back. Like so many small-town kids before them\, they yearned to find fame and fortune in the city. They wanted\, as they confess in one of their most powerful new songs\, to “go big.” And after years of hustling and overcoming personal challenges\, rock stardom felt imminent. But something was missing. Some bands never get that missing piece back\, but the potentially great ones go looking for it. More often than not\, the search leads them right back home. X Ambassadors’ stomping\, syncopated full-length debut\, VHS\, is all about that exploration. Ironically it proved to be a journey — as the antiquated technology name-checked in the album’s title indicates — through the past. \nX Ambassadors’ KIDinaKORNER labelmates Imagine Dragons and Jamie N Commons appear on VHS (“Fear” and “Low Life\,” and “Jungle\,” respectively)\, but the most noticeable guests are the band members’ younger\, more restless selves. The songs on VHS are woven with a series of “interludes\,” or bits of audio from the archives from their family video albums. “Moving Day” and “First Gig” provide a cinematic narrative and pay homage to their love for hip-hop. (Classic albums from De La Soul\, Dr. Dre\, Fugees\, and Eminem also featured micro-dramas or gags between tracks.) “I wanted the album to feel like a movie\,” the band’s singer and guitarist Sam Harris says. Consequently\, the songs on VHS are about movement\, speed\, and the determination to navigate away from heartbreak and the constraints of small-town status quo. “Run away with me / Lost souls and revelry\,” Sam sings\, young-Springsteen-like\, on the album’s first single\, the Top 5 Alternative radio hit “Renegades” — a bouncing folk-rock ode to the misfits and adventurers. Then he continues: “Running wild and running free / Two kids\, you and me.” \nMusic had always been a friend to Sam and his older brother Casey Harris (X Ambassadors’ keyboard player) even when actual friends were few. The brothers grew up with instruments and lessons and hand-me-down Beatles\, Stones\, Billy Joel\, and Joni Mitchell records. These\, as well as the musical theater that Sam participated in at school\, instilled a strong sense of melody and composition\, as well as great hooks. The Johnny Cash and Woody Guthrie albums that their film-maker father favored gave Sam a sense of storytelling and narrative. But everything else around them pointed to a certain kind of faded American glory that screamed: There is no future for you here. “A lot of towns in upstate New York are kind of abandoned\,” Sam says. “They used to be these big metropolises and they’re not anymore. Big cities like Binghamton and Rochester haven’t really been big since the ’50s and ’60s. Most of the manufacturing businesses have moved overseas.” \n Hip-hop gave Sam his voice without sacrificing his love for massive\, arena-ready rock. “I became obsessed with it immediately\,” he says. “It was exciting. I felt like I’d found my own music.” The band bonded over hip-hop with the head of their label\, KIDinaKORNER’s Alex Da Kid\, a veteran hitmaker who has worked with Dr. Dre and Nicki Minaj. VHS’s main ingredient is unapologetically hard rock\, like “Superpower\,” and soulful\, moody pop like “Renegades” and “Unsteady\,” but there’s a rhythmic unpinning that can only come from a hip-hop fan\, and it gives even the album’s most introspective moments a fresh swing. \nIt is unusual for a guitar-driven band to welcome elements of soul and hip-hop into their guitar assault with as much balance and care as X Ambassadors do. They have been\, after all\, all about the rock since their early days. Sam met his future guitarist Noah Feldshuh on the first day of kindergarten. “We were five years old and we became best friends\,” Sam recalls. When they got older\, they both loved Red Hot Chili Peppers\, Coldplay\, and Kings of Leon\, and eventually decided to form a band. The burgeoning group began recording demos very early on. The songs were admittedly rough\, but just the notion of being in a band and having a sense of brotherhood was empowering. \n Casey\, despite being blind since childhood\, was accomplished enough on the piano to later make a living as a professional tuner. He played with a series of local bands and occasionally sat in with a nascent version of the current group. But Sam was not keen on Casey joining. “I was like\, ‘No way am I going to be in a band with my brother\,’” he says. Adds Casey with a laugh: “I was such an asshole to him.” Everyone else pleaded with Sam to relent. “They all said\, ‘Sam\, your brother is a better musician than all of us. Please!’ So I caved.” \nBy the time Sam and Noah enrolled at New York City’s The New School in 2006\, they needed all the creative strength they could muster. This was not the scrappy Manhattan of old\, but one ruled by jaded hipsters prone to dismiss an unabashedly hard-rock loving crew of perceived townies. They met drummer Adam Levin in the dorms and soon the Los Angeles native joined\, but fans were in short supply\, and the Harris brothers felt like Ithaca was never far behind. “We never felt like a New York band\,” Sam says. “You expect to move to the city and become part of some kind of scene but that never happened. It was a struggle for us to get gigs.” \n Between classes and menial work to pay the bills\, there was every reason to give up\, but doing so would mean facing a return to their roots before they were ready. Casey rejoining the fold\, after years working and traveling\, proved to be a shot in the arm. In 2012\, their ballad “Litost” was included on a Spotify playlist and caught the ear of the program director at Virginia rock station 96X. It quickly became a local favorite and the station’s most requested track of the year. That lead to a management deal and a lot of buzz. Another song\, “Unconsolable\,” provided yet another breakthrough\, this time creative\, as it detailed Sam’s own relationship struggles. For Sam\, songwriting became not only a way out of small-town life\, but also a way for him to explore fertile themes of longing\, jealousy\, and personal pain. Music was a healer and others began to notice. “‘Unconsolable’ was the first song where we captured something truly unique\,” he says. Enter an impressed Alex Da Kid\, who was working with on-the-verge alternative rockers Imagine Dragons. Alex\, Imagine Dragons’ frontman Dan Reynolds\, and band friend Dan Stringer co-produced X Ambassadors 2013 EP\, Love Songs Drug Songs\, for KIDinaKORNER/Interscope Records. \nThe songwriting got better and better with Sam figuring out how to transform even the most painful circumstances of his personal life into the songs on the band’s 2014 EP The Reason\, like “The Business” and “Free and Lonely\,” which resonate with universal truths about out-running your past and chasing your goals. It’s a trait that’s evolved one of VHS’ standout tracks\, “Unsteady\,” which addresses his and Casey’s parents’ divorce — a blow to the close-knit Harris family. \nFate dealt them yet another hurdle when Casey became seriously ill with a kidney ailment that required a transplant. (Their mother would ultimately donate one of her organs.) “In the grand scheme of our band it seems like a blip on the radar\,” says Casey of that time period. “I’m not gonna lie\,” Sam adds\, “it was pretty stressful.” Once again\, however\, they emerged unbroken and even more determined to rise above their humble beginnings. Soon after\, the small-town boys became a bonafide\, touring rock and roll band\, playing shows with Imagine Dragons\, The Lumineers\, and Panic! At the Disco. Each stellar live show added members to their formerly elusive fan base. \nVHS brings X Ambassadors full circle. And as they prepare to strike out on their own again\, they finally have the self-awareness to guide them through their next chapter. “This album is the culmination of all the work we’ve put in since seventh grade\,” Sam says. “I wanted to show people who we are — a group of brothers\, best friends\, and family who’ve been through so much together.” In one of the interludes\, “Y2K Time Capsule\,” the Harris brothers’ dad asks them where they see themselves in 15 years. (The answer: “Very far away.”) That was in 1999 and now\, just over a decade and a half on\, Sam’s soul has been restored by re-engaging with his origins. He maintains a new sense of peace and understanding for the place that made him with fresh eyes. “It’s beautiful\,” he says of the land known for its gorges\, lakes\, foliage and now\, X Ambassadors. You can and probably should go home again. \n# # # URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/x-ambassadors/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/XA_VHSTour_Layered-localized-x-ambassadors-admat.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151023T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151023T220000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150903T011534Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150903T011534Z UID:10001799-1445594400-1445637600@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:DANNY AVILA DESCRIPTION:21 + \nMgt reserves the right to refuse admission. Dress code applies. Admission not guaranteed after 12am. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/danny-avila/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/SOFA-KING-Danny-Avila-10-23-15.png GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151022T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151022T190000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150909T023701Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150909T023701Z UID:10001824-1445540400-1445540400@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:The Menzingers / mewithoutYou DESCRIPTION:NOTE: Online sales have ended. Tickets will be available at the door. \nDoors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. \n*** \nPhiladelphia-by-way-of Scranton punk band\, The Menzingers are two years removed from Epitaph debut On The Impossible Past. Voted Album of the Year by Absolute Punk and Punk News\, the universal acclaim praised the band for its punk roots and quintessentially Midwest romantics. The same accoladeshave followed The Menzingers since forming as teenagers\, followed since Chamberlain Waits (2010) andA Lesson In The Abuse of Information Technology (2007). No longer housemates in Scranton\, PA\, the title to The Menzinger’s 2014 follow-up\, Rented World\, mirrors the band’s lifestyle since moving to Philly in 2008. The band was renting separate spaces around the city\, but maintaining a practice space in North Philly where the majority of the record was written. Faithfully archetypal Rust Belt punk\, Rented World is an album concerned with maintaining a sense of self\, the softening of posture\, and the burden of harsh realities. In every respect\, The Menzingers went into Rented World asking more of themselves. As co-songwriter and guitarist Tom May notes\, The Menzingers felt like a different band in 2013. Rented World remains punk\, while fearlessly colliding the snarl of emo with grungy\, 90s grit (“Bad Things”) and exploring the celestial expanse of post-rock (“Transient Love”). It’s slightly new territory for a band coping with their mid-twenties\, and whether you’ve been there or you’re on the way there\, it’s important to note a maturation that comes with the milestone. “When you’re 15 you view music and the music industry a certain way\,” May said. “But by the time you’re 25 you have a different view. Not that it’s good or bad\, but getting older itself has changed the music.” While the previous two records live in the trademark angst of Chicago producer Matt Allison (Alkaline Trio and Lawrence Arms) and his Atlas Studio sound\, Menzingers kept it Philly-local for Rented World\, enlisting Jonathan Low\, whose distinctively rich Americana resonates through the careers of The War OnDrugs\, Sharon Van Etten\, Kurt Vile\, and The National. The band as a whole recognized shifts in their craft\, shifts they knew would best be handled by Low at Miner Street Recordings. “We wanted to go to somebody who wasn’t used to recording punk records\,” Tom May said. “Though it wasn’t in a pretentious way\, like we wanted to become an indie rockband.” With that in mind\, album opener “I Don’t Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore” is not just a declaration to be better to that special someone\, but a bold recognition that permeates the record on into “Nothing Feels\nGood Anymore”. Shaking oneself out of ruts\, still life stagnancy\, and the same damn party every weekend informs two of Rented World’s most anthemic offerings. While the front end of Rented World mostly focus on the complications of friendships and relationships\, the latter songs progress towards the abstract. “The Talk” kicks the surgeon general’s number one killer out the front door (“I want my life back / you turned my chest black / I don’t owe you anything”)\, while “Sentimental Physics” addresses with the impossibility of compromise in the science vs. religion battle\, “you can come find me / when you feel lost in a bidding war”. On “In Remission” Barnett’s insecurities manifest as “I hate how I always get nervous every time I try to speak / in front of a big crowd / a pretty girl / or the police”\, meaning The Menzingers didn’t write the answers into Rented World. The record admits to an in medias res that comes with one’s late 20s\, old enough to know better\, but still seeking greater wisdom. Things start to feel a little more serious\,” Tom May said. “When we were younger we wrote fiery songs because at that age it’s your world view. Things feel wrong and you want to say how wrong it is. Now\, I look at the world with a view of ‘well\, I’m not right all the time’. \n*** \nThose who have followed mewithoutYou’s music in recent years will likely see their new\,self-releasedTen Storiesas a return to old form. Their previous record\,It’s All Crazy!\, etc. had been a drastic and intentional departure. Aaron Weiss’ manic\, unorthodox hollering was nowhere to be found\, deliberately giving way to a more conventional melodic vocal approach. The explosive\, schizophrenic drumming and swarthy\,tempestuouslow end (Rickie Mazzotta and Greg Jehanian\, respectively) were accordingly subdued\, relegated largely to keeping basic time. Chris Kleinberg had jumped ship for med school\, leaving Mike Weiss reluctantly alone on electric guitar\, feeling like a session player embellishing his little brother’s folk songs\, no longer part of a coherent unit.In short\, due largely to their singer’s creative wanderlust\, the band had entirely forsaken whatever they’d become; in an effort to spurn the familiar\, they had grown unrecognizable\, alienating no shortage of fans in the process. Those fans\, and whoever has come to miss what was most distinct about mewithoutYou\, will welcomeTen Storiesas the rightful follow-up to their 2006 release\,Brother/Sister\,and 2004’sCatch forUsthe Foxes.To be sure\, the band hasn’t altogether renounced the psychedelic-rustic-pop elements ofIt’s All Crazy!; rather\, they have renounced the scrupulous control inherent to its renunciation. Simply put\, they seem to have let go of the steering wheel\, and are back to writing music\, well\, ‘naturally.’“They’re not quite children’s songs\,” vocalist Aaron Weiss explains\, “with not quite coherent storylines\, but there is an overarching and kind of child-like narrative: a circus train crashes in 19th century Montana. Some animals escape\, others stay in their cages. The traveling menagerie re-rails\, stays its course\, and struggles to fill in the missing attractions. Meanwhile\, freed from institutionalized life\, the rice-cake rabbit takes to a peripatetic fortune teller\, the monastic walrus is tempted by a hedonistic owl\, a fish falls for an eggplant. Other songs describe a contemplative Fox’s prophetic dream\, a starving Bear’s vision of a martyred saint\, and an indecisive Peacock & gnostic Tiger learning the virtues of megalomania from an ego-annihilated Potter Wasp.”This bizarre\, character-heavy lyrical approach let the band revisit their perennial leitmotifs of romantic disaster & quasi-mystical speculation\, without the self-pity/indulgence of direct autobiography. Reflecting recent\, devastating personal losses\, practically every song addresses ourinevitable dying\, apparently easier to face when projected onto anthropomorphic animals. This zoological ventriloquist act allows them to explore abstract philosophical themes and draw on finespun literary sources with a profound goofiness that deflates whatever danger of pretentiousness. The story-teller elements are obscure enough to avoid the short-lived rock opera aesthetic\, leaving most plot details and potential moralizing to the imagination; and this without succumbing to insincerity/irony\, overt relativism\, or outright nonsense.The ever-odd Daniel Smith’s production and veteran Brad Wood’s mixing combine to improve upon the best sonic elements of the band’s past releases. Musically\,Ten Storiesis a mix of the brazen noisiness\, hypnotic soundscapes\, and derelict shouting of theirold songs\, the dead-level melody and extravagant orchestration of recent years\, and a newfound reliance on ethereal harmonies\, courtesy en masse of female guest vocalists (most notably\, Paramore’s Hayley Williams). Whimsically morbid as an Edward Gorey alphabet\, simultaneously self-abnegating and -aggrandizing\, defying simplistic musical or intellectual categorization\, mewithoutYou’s new collection of songs is the fabulously vivid outgrowth of an ongoing religious and irreverent eclecticism\, a ‘decade-plusnarcissistic scramble for artistic affirmation’ (their words)\, and the even longer-running and peculiar friendship of four not-so-younggentlemen from nowhere in particular\, apparently at the height of their mutual affection.Epilogue:mewithoutYou’s 17-ton grease-powered bus –the ornately-chipped\, floral-painted\, “mental hospital on wheels” –will once again\, according to the band\, “hem and haw its way across the country this summer\, punctuated no doubt by near-daily breakdowns\, makeshift repairs\, newborn babies\, manic depressive episodes\, and desperate attempts by all parties involved to separate [them]selves from separation itself.” URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/the-menzingers-mewithoutyou/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/MM_fall2015_poster_BG_layered.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151021T230000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151021T230000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150903T010022Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150903T010022Z UID:10001797-1445468400-1445468400@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:KASKADE DESCRIPTION:21 + \nMgt reserves the right to refuse admission. Dress code applies. Admission not guaranteed after 12am. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/kaskade/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Kaskade_ROYALE.png GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151020T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151020T200000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150909T023302Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150909T023302Z UID:10001571-1445371200-1445371200@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Duke Dumont Live DESCRIPTION:Doors: 8:00 pm / Show: 9:00 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nPresented in association with Mmmmaven. \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. \n*** \nBefore 2012 Duke Dumont was known as a ‘producer’s producer’. He was the name on a 12″ record the DJ knew to reach for when he wanted to please the crowd\, without them knowing who had constructed the mesmerising sonic confection they were dancing too. \nIn 2012\, two EPs on Tiga’s Turbo Recordings (with whom Duke has had a long standing relationship) changed all that. ‘For Club Play Vol. 1 & 2’ offered up sweet ecstatic deep house & UK bass cuts that have united people across the spectrum of music\, from early club adopters like Annie Mac\, Erol Alkan\, Diplo\, Martyn and Jackmaster to Fearne Cotton on daytime Radio 1\, Trevor Nelson on 1xtra and even podcasts by Tiesto and Avicci. On some nights in Duke’s beloved Fabric London\, you would hear the anthemic ‘The Giver’ being played in all three rooms at the same time. \nDuke’s early career was mentored by Switch (last sighted producing for Beyoncé) and he made his name as the ‘go-to’ man to remake a pop song for the dance floor (Lily Allen and Bat For Lashes were notable clients). In 2011\, he moved out of London to the countryside (Hertfordshire\, where his studio overlooks a forest) to focus on his original material. \nSynthesising his influences from techno to UK garage and house he brought back goodies from this zen-like exile. ‘For Club Play Only Vol. 1’ was released in April 2012 on Turbo. With ‘Street Walker’ and ‘Thunderclap’ on there\, it alerted the heads to the Duke movement and received support from the likes of Jamie Jones and Simian Mobile Disco. \nRemixes for AlunaGeorge and Santigold quickly followed\, then in August ‘For Club Play Only Vol.2’ featuring ‘No Money Blues’ and ‘The Giver’ made Duke the man to watch. ‘The producer’s producer’ had become the ‘people’s producer’. \n‘Need U (100%)’ features 17 year-old starlet A*M*E* on singing duties. With a chunky low-end\, funky stabs and silky vocals this is like an early 90s house classic couched in 2013 techno techniques. In 1988 Inner City would have been jealous of this one. \nCo-written by teenage wonder-kid MNEK (who recently sung on Rudimental’s ‘Spoons’ with Syron) ‘Need U (100%)’ is out now on his newly minted Blasé Boys Club label. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/duke-dumont-live/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts,Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/DD_UK_SINGLE-DATE-A6-FLYER-LOCALIZED1.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151019T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151019T190000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150909T022907Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150909T022907Z UID:10001570-1445281200-1445281200@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Smallpools DESCRIPTION:Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm \nThis event is all ages. \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. \n*** \nThe story of Smallpools is mostly a series of happy coincidences. Vocalist Sean Scanlon and guitarist Michael Kamerman met at SXSW in 2007 while both of them were playing in different bands. After forging a friendship based on a mutual love of music and a shared frustration of not seeing their respective bands actually take off\, the two eventually decided to join forces and\, ultimately\, leave the East Coast behind. Moving to LA in 2011 (“We threw all of our stuff in a van and drove cross country from New Jersey\,” says Kamerman)\, both musicians had no solid plan other than to try and make music and not starve to death in the process. “It just seemed like eventually something would have to happen\,” recalls vocalist Sean Scanlon. As luck would have it\, eventually something did. After randomly crossing paths with bassist and recent Portland transplant Joe Intile (who\, in turn\, would randomly cross paths with drummer Beau Kuther\, himself recently uprooted from Portland and dropped in Los Angeles for work)\, the newly assembled band booked some studio time in Atlanta to bang out three songs that would ultimately serve as a template for their burgeoning sound. \n“We had a lot of random ideas when we started\,” says Kamerman\, “But once we kind of hit on the sound\, I think we all knew it. We grew up listening to the same stuff that our parents loved—Billy Joel\, Paul Simon\, Springsteen\, Elton John—so the goal was always to push ourselves in writing what we thought were good songs. The actual sound of it just sort of came from this new world we suddenly found ourselves living in. After a year of really struggling in LA\, the songs became the way out.” \nRecorded with up-and-coming LA production team Captain Cuts\, the tracks on the band’s 2013 debut EP\, Smallpools\, showed a band coming into their own. Breakout track “Dreaming” brought the band national attention (including a performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live) and the song eventually managed to rack up over 4.5 million views. Though the band were eager to get to work on a full-length debut\, they would spend the better part of the next year touring all over North America with the likes of Walk The Moon\, Neon Trees\, Grouplove\, MS MR\, Twenty One Pilots and Two Door Cinema Club (not to mention stops at both Lollapalooza and Firefly Festival\, along with their own year-capping headline tour). The time spent on the road proved to be a valuable lesson for the band\, in more ways than one. \n“As we were writing these songs we were also playing live a lot\, which really affected the dynamic of the music\,” says Scanlon. ”You know\, we were initially out there as the opening act a lot of the time and we had to make the most of that experience. We were lucky to tour with bands that were we toured with. You have the opportunity to get up there in front of someone else’s audience and prove yourself. It was like school for us\, like a crash course in how to play to your strengths and win over an audience. It’s also a chance for people to discover you and slowly grow a fanbase of your own.” \nThe fourteen tracks that make up Lovetap!—the band’s full-length debut—show off the evidence of over a year spent playing live. Recorded once again with production team Captain Cuts in between touring stints\, the new record builds on the promise of Smallpools’ earlier music: stadium-sized pop anthems with the kind of choruses that basically beg to be sung along to. Tracks like “Dyin’ To Live” and “American Love” spring out of the gate with the kind a kind of urgency and hyper-melodicism that earlier Smallpools tracks only hinted at. Given that all four band members are seasoned musicians\, the pristine pop of Smallpools music is no accident. The airtight songs dip and soar at all the right moments thanks to the no bullshit indie-pop hooks that seem to be embedded in their DNA. The quantum leap forward on Lovetap! is the result of endless touring\, lots of experimentation\, and\, as Kamerman describes it: “Being locked in a room together for long hours to write songs and figure out our roles in the band.” Nowhere is this more evident than on “Karaoke\,” the album’s anthemic and wonderfully big-hearted first single. \n“I actually used to hate karaoke\,” explains Scanlon\, “But when Mike and first moved to LA—before Smallpools was really a thing yet—we used to do karaoke all the time. We used to always sing that New Radicals’ song ‘You Get What You Give’ because it kind of made us feel better. We were working so much just to pay our rent\, it was hard to even find the time to get together and make music. Doing karaoke became this weird outlet for us just to perform. We could go out and sing a song that we loved that made us feel inspired\, like we could eventually make our own songs. I remember driving to work after a late night of drinking and singing and feeling like\, ‘OK\, we’ve got it in us to do this!’ It’s about celebrating and performing with your friends. It’s life affirming\, you know?” \n2015 looks to be a big year for Smallpools. With their long-in-the-works debut finally out in the world\, the band is looking forward to an abundance of touring as well as their first ever stop at SXSW. More than anything though\, each member of the band is happy to so many years of hard work finally begin to truly pay off. “We’ve all done our time working on a million projects that didn’t make it\,” confers drummer Beau Kuther. “And just when you start to think it’s time to maybe give up\, suddenly everything you’ve been working for suddenly starts to come together. It’s kind of like falling in love\, as soon as you stop trying so hard\, then it happens. That’s basically the story of our band.” URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/smallpools/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/fall_2015_admat_mock_v5.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151018T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151018T193000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150909T021515Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150909T021515Z UID:10001569-1445196600-1445196600@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Leon Bridges DESCRIPTION:NOTE: THIS SHOW IS SOLD OUT \nDoors: 7:30 pm / Show: 8:30 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \n*** \nThe river of soul music flows on deep and strong\, and 25-year-old Leon Bridges is immersed in its life-giving current. The Forth Worth\, Texas native and Columbia Records artist is currently preparing his debut album for release in the summer of 2015. “I’m not saying I can hold a candle to any soul musician from the ’50s and ’60s\,” Bridges says\, “but I want to carry the torch.” \nHumility aside\, Bridges’ light is burning bright. Following the October\, 2014 release of two tunes that set the on-line world aflame\, and accompanied by intimate solo shows from London to Los Angeles and Nashville to New York\, the singer and songwriter has proved himself a rare talent who can do smoldering ballads and elemental rock’n’roll with equal aplomb. While he appears to have emerged cut from the cloth and fully formed\, Bridges explains in his dulcet voice how he came to be here now. \n“As a kid I grew fascinated with modern R&B. In high school I’d try singing songs by Ginuwine and Usher\,” he explains\, “and I thought well\, maybe they weren’t in my range.” Instead\, a lithe\, nimble physicality led Leon to study dance at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth. “I’d been doing hip-hop dance since I was 11 years old\,” he says. “I knew there was a dance program there\, and I started diving into ballet and jazz and modern technique and learning choreography. I thought that’s what I wanted to do.” \nNative inspiration soon diverted his path. “A friend of mine brought his keyboard to school every day\, and we’d have these little jam sessions\, improvising\, and I started to find my voice.” One day a female friend asked Bridges to look after her guitar while she went to class. “I asked her to show me a couple chords first. And she did: A-minor and E-minor. I fell in love with their sound\, and that’s when I started writing songs\, from those two chords.” \nThat Bridges compositional bedrock began in a minor mode is revealing. At a moment when popular music seems in thrall to major chord sing-alongs\, the blue hues of Bridges’ tunes embrace a subtlety that feels wholly refreshing. “Based on my innocence on guitar and my lack of knowledge of the technical side\, my songwriting is something I have to make on-point with melody and delivery to make it shine\,” he explains. \nWith a few early compositions tucked under his belt\, a seeming dichotomy surfaced: Bridges’ tunes sounded less like the modern R&B he’d grown up loving than a style he was\, in fact\, not very familiar with: classic soul. Furthermore\, Bridges’ sleek\, fastidious fashion sensibility dovetailed with the songs he was writing. He began a tenderfoot period of apprenticeship playing coffeehouses in and around Fort Worth\, slowly finding and refining his voice. \nA turning point soon came via a pair of selvedge trousers. One night at an Austin bar Bridges was approached by a young woman who complimented him on his snazzy Wrangler’s and said that he should meet her boyfriend\, a fellow with a comparable sense of style. Her boyfriend turned out to be Austin Jenkins of the band White Denim. “I hadn’t heard of White Denim at the time\,” Bridges says\, “but I went and looked them up and thought yeah\, that’s interesting music.” After Jenkins and his bandmate Joshua Block subsequently peeped Bridges perform at a low-key local show\, they insisted Leon enter the studio to cut a few tracks on their burgeoning bank of vintage equipment. \nThat initial three-day session\, with Jenkins and Block producing\, yielded the recordings that set Bridges at the center of rapturous attention from aficionados and labels alike. The buttery\, seductive “Coming Home” and the piston-driven\, doo-wop flavored “Better Man” demonstrated Bridges’ versatility. Inking with Columbia Records\, whose roster includes a certain hero named Bob Dylan\, was the outcome of courtship and deliberation. “Columbia has artists I look up to like Adele and Pharrell\, as well as Raphael Saadiq and John Legend\,” says Bridges. “They way they value artistry makes it feel like home.” \nThe early 2015 release of another new song\, “Lisa Sawyer\,” has further burnished Bridges’ promise. With its brushed snares and glowing brass\, “Lisa Sawyer” is a remarkably assured offering from so young a talent. The song\, about Bridges’ mother\, a woman “with the complexion of a sweet praline\,” has the flavor of one of Allen Toussaint’s productions for the great Lee Dorsey. Connecting the sacred and the secular\, “Lisa Sawyer” feels natural considering Bridges’ churchgoing childhood. And by writing with specificity about his own family\, Bridges is creating resonant work about the African-American experience. \n“I have a lot of insecurities because I don’t have a big powerhouse voice\,” he admits. “I’m not a shouter. I rely on phrasing to get my feeling across.” Bridges’ delivery exudes strength through tenderness. “I guess that’s why I connected with Sam Cooke.” \nThe name Sam Cooke has appeared frequently in Bridges’ early notices in the press. The point of comparison is apt\, but not initially intentional. “When I wrote ‘Lisa Sawyer’ I didn’t know anything about old soul music\,” Leon says. “I was asked ‘Is Sam Cooke one of your inspirations?’ I had to say no\, because I only knew Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ from the movie Malcolm X\, which I’d watched with my father. But from being asked about Sam Cooke and Otis Redding I started digging deeper into soul music from the ’50 and ’60s and realizing this is really the root of what I’m doing.” \nWhat to make of the fact that Bridges is working in a tradition whose existence he was initially only vaguely aware of? “It speaks to the gift God placed in me\,” Leon says\, choosing his words carefully. “It humbles and wows me to think I was pulling from something I didn’t really know about.” \nIn the striking black-and-white images that have accompanied Leon’s emergence\, one photograph stands out. It depicts Bridges sauntering down a sunlit sidewalk\, his shadow falling not behind him but stretching out in the direction of his forward stride. The implication is that Bridges is not walking away from the past\, but moving forward with both family history and the tradition of soul music in full view. His ancestors and antecedents walk with him. “They’re with me at all times\,” affirms Bridges. Steeped in tradition\, drenched with intention and desire\, Leon Bridges’ soul music is happening here and now. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/leon-bridges/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/leon_london_final-localized-WEB.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151017T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151017T180000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150909T021219Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150909T021219Z UID:10001568-1445104800-1445104800@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:The Dear Hunter DESCRIPTION:The Rebirth Tour \nDoors: 6:00 pm / Show: 6:30 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. \n*** \nThe Dear Hunter is a full-time project of Casey Crescenzo\, formerly of post-hardcore band The Receiving End of Sirens. The band’s sound is not unlike that of Casey’s former band\, but with more alternative and progressive rock tendencies and a wider variety of instrumentation. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/the-dear-hunter/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/RebirthTour-localizedWEB.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151016T220000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151016T220000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150903T005808Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150903T005808Z UID:10001780-1445032800-1445032800@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:THE CHAINSMOKERS DESCRIPTION:21 + \nMgt reserves the right to refuse admission. Dress code applies. Admission not guaranteed after 12am. URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/the-chainsmokers-2/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Nightclub ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/SOFA-KING-The-Chainsmokers-10-16-15.png GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151016T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151016T180000 DTSTAMP:20260410T194202 CREATED:20150909T020700Z LAST-MODIFIED:20150909T020700Z UID:10001567-1445018400-1445018400@royaleboston.com SUMMARY:Catfish and the Bottlemen DESCRIPTION:Doors: 6:00 pm / Show: 7:00 pm \nThis event is 18 and over. \nTickets available at TICKETMASTER.COM\, or by phone at 800-745-3000. No service charge on tickets purchased in person at The Sinclair Box Office Wednesdays-Saturdays 12-7PM. Please note: box office is cash only. \n*** \nCatfish and the Bottlemen are a four piece band from Llandudno in Wales. They play attacking\, melodic\, anthemic\, guitar fuelled garage rock songs fizzing with lust\, hope\, anger and a furious desire to exist.\nIn just a few frenzied years of existence\, Catfish and the Bottlemen\, (singer and guitarist Van McCann\, lead guitarist Johnny Bond\, bassist Benji Blakeway and drummer Bob Hall) have headlined hundreds and hundreds of gigs to increasingly wild and dedicated audiences\, been championed by BBC Radio One\, MTV and XFM\, churned out a series of classic singles and have released an utterly thrilling debut album that positively burns with emotion and ambition.\n“I don’t think rock and roll has ever gone away\,” says Van. “I just don’t think there’s been a band to believe in. Nobody’s really gone for it and put their whole lives on the line. We got kicked out of school for it\, lost girlfriends for it\, went on the dole for it\, been broke and starving and done everything for it. If you’ve got to go for it\, you’ve got to go for it.”\nVan McCann talks a good fight. He is proud of being a test tube baby\, the IVF child of “free-minded Liverpuddlian parents” who spent his early years travelling around Australia. It was here the young McCann saw a strange busker. “My first memory of music is being sat outside a café watching a guy play a washing line with bottles on it. He was called Catfish the Bottleman. So I thought it was apt to name the band after him. I really wish I hadn’t. Try telling a drunk guy that name for the fifteenth time.”\nVan himself was named in honour of Van Morrison. “My father took me to a Van Morrison gig when I was young. The way he controlled the band and worked the room\, it wasn’t like going to see a rock band\, it was like seeing a magician. After that\, I realised I wanted to be a frontman\, I wanted to be hold a room in my hand.”\nHe was writing songs before he could play an instrument and picked up a guitar aged thirteen. He got his first lessons from Billy Bibby\, the older brother of a friend. Billy’s school mate Benji Blakeway was recruited on bass\, and they started gigging as soon as Van had mastered a few chords. “We played in a beer garden. We got paid in booze\, so we had free drinks all day until they found out I wasn’t old enough to drink and I got chucked out of my own gig\,” recalls Van. Drummer Bob Hall lived across the road from Van.\nA live reputation for incendiary shows spread by word of mouth. In short order\, they acquired management by ATC (the people behind Radiohead and Nick Cave) and signed to Communion Records in 2013 (the independent label set up by Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons). All of their singles (Homesick\, Rango\, Pacifier\, Kathleen\, Fallout) have been nominated as Hottest Record In The World on Zane Lowe’s Radio One show.\nTheir storming anthem Kathleen was ranked number one on MTV’s Hottest Tracks in April 2014. Legendary tastemaker DJ Steve Lamaq has been a supporter from the beginning. John Kennedy described them as “stadium ready”. They signed to Island in 2014 and their debut album has been produced by Jim Abbis\, the man behind The Arctic Monkeys classic debut (who has also worked with Kasabian\, Stereophonics and Adele).\n“We fought a lot\, because he’s really good and we’re just kids. It took a while to earn his respect. But it felt like the way it should have been made. We were just in this cottage in the middle of nowhere that had no phone signal or contact with the outside world\, really. I’d go out every night and have a smoke and every morning I’d come up with an idea. It was class. I’m so proud of every single note\, every single beat and every single lyric.”\nThe title\, Balcony\, was inspired by a moment of epiphany on a rooftop in New York\, where Van was writing the song Cocoon whilst looking out across a glittering city of millions of strangers. “It’s about being in love with the moment. It’s the feeling that I have a great band\, a great family and the best friends. Nothing else matters.”\nThe theme of the album\, he says\, is “not letting anybody else get in the way\, not letting any fucking person or thing drag you down. It’s about being positive\, looking forward\, surrounding yourself with good people. It’s an album for anyone who has to put up with shit in their lives. We grew up in a small town and my writing has come out of that small town mentality\, where everyone knows your business and tries to get involved with it. The whole album is a big two fingers up to those kind of people. It’s euphoric\, positive\, fuck the world\, we’ve got everything we need right here.”\nLive shows are the essence of the Catfish experience. This is a band forging intense bonds with its audience. Members of Arctic Monkeys\, The Libertines and The Vaccines have been spotted at their gigs. After triumphant festival dates (including headlining the BBC Introducing Stage at T In The Park)\, they toured the US in October\, have a sold out run of dates in the UK in November and December and have announced a string of already sold out shows in the spring including two Shepherds Bush Empires.\n“Our live shows are about the moment\, just getting lost in the music and going fucking crazy\, Make people dance and make people feel. My whole night is based around that\, the lights going off and people screaming. I get onstage\, see everyone’s faces and something clicks in me and I just go.”\nCatfish and the Bottlemen are dreamers. And in rock and roll\, that’s always a good thing. “Everything I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid\, we’ve already done\,” says McCann. “It’s a bit crazy. Hearing my songs on the radio\, selling out shows. My dream is for it is to get as big as it can possibly get. We are not afraid of the ultimate high. I want to give people a band they can hold on to for the rest of their lives.” URL:https://royaleboston.com/event/catfish-and-the-bottlemen/ LOCATION:Royale Nightclub Boston\, MA\, 279 Tremont Street\, Boston\, MA\, 02116\, United States CATEGORIES:Concerts ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royaleboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Catfish_Tour_Poster_2-localized.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Bowery Boston":MAILTO:info@boweryboston.com GEO:42.3499959;-71.0656288 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Royale Nightclub Boston MA 279 Tremont Street Boston MA 02116 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=279 Tremont Street:geo:-71.0656288,42.3499959 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR