Against The Current w/ CRUISR and Beach Weather
The Crocodile, Seattle, WA
12.08.16

Signed to the same label as big names like Panic! At The Disco, Twenty One Pilots, and Paramore, New York pop punk outfit Against The Current made it to The Crocodile for a Thursday night that will be forever memorable for much of the young crowd that gathered.

The night kicked off with indie pop trio Beach Weather. Signed to 8123, the band formed merely two weeks before opening for label mates The Maine on tour. Since quickly throwing together an EP ready to play live last year, the band released their second EP, Chit Chat, a month ago. They kicked off their set with “Bad Seed,” an older track that quickly captured the crowd’s attention.

As lead singer Nick Santino attempted to fix his pedal board, bassist Reeve Powers took over the job of introducing the band to the crowd and commented about how his glasses continued to fall off, which received mockery from the rest of the band. The set continued with more bright pop songs, until Santino introduced one of their last tracks. He explained that the song was essentially just about being weird, before launching into “Sex, Drugs, Etc,” a more laid back song from the new EP.

BW had a great, summery indie-pop sound, and a performance to match that. Each track was catchy and fun in its own way, and didn’t sound like a direct copy from the record. Often, smaller bands don’t take much creative liberty in terms of changing up their live sound, they usually try to play exactly like their studio recordings, but that wasn’t the case with BW. It was very pleasantly surprising to watch them change it up a bit as Nick basically screamed the end of  “Sex, Drugs, Etc.” and there were extended endings to many of the tracks. BW provided a great opening to the night, and hopefully gained enough new fans to come back soon.

Next up was CRUISR, another new, upbeat indie pop group. Armed with just a handful of EPs and singles, the band had a short, but very fun set. Walking on stage and shouting “Seattle, what the fuck is up?!” lead singer Andy States introduced the band quickly. Shortly after, he spotted a girl just barely tall enough to peek over the stage standing right below him, and proceeded to apologize profusely for the swearing. The band kicked off their set with lighter tracks, followed by “Throw Shade,” which got everyone moving.

Never before have I seen 20-something guys body slam into each other in response to the opening of a sing-along indie pop song, but apparently that’s the kind of undeniable excitement this track brings. The band really owned their pop personality, letting it fuel their energetic performance. They concluded their set with “Kidnap Me,” thanked the crowd, and left them anxiously awaiting the headliners.

ATC brought in quite a different crowd than what The Crocodile typically sees. Half of the audience consisted of middle-school aged girls, and half their parents, frequently coming to check on them and help buy t-shirts. The band opened their set with “Runaway,” a track from their recently released debut full-length, In Our Bones. It quickly became clear why they claim to be a pop punk band.

While their previous material leaned towards a softer pop sound, their live show hit a much more intense chord, bringing them closer to sounding like acts like Paramore, rather than Fifth Harmony. Introducing the rest of the band, lead singer Chrissy Constanza told the crowd that it was a very special night because the band’s guitarist, Dan Gow, turned 21 that day.

She proceeded to lead the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” to the shy boy between each song of the set. After a handful of more fast paced songs with Constanza running all over the stage singing and dancing, the band launched into their performance of “Running With the Wild Things.” This song in particular carried a close resemblance to Paramore. Constanza’s vocals sound especially like Hayley Williams, and the chorus was set up much like a softer version of “Misery Business.”

Taking a turn in the other direction, the band introduced the title track of their new album. Constanza explained that the song was originally the band just messing around and trying things out acoustically, planning to later change it back to their usual electric guitar with power vocals sound. However, they were content with how it turned out, and pleased to bring it to us live that night.

As they played the track (after singing to Gow again), many young fangirls recorded the performance on their phones and dramatically sang along with their friends. The set concluded with more songs from their new album, before the band quickly thanked the crowd and left the stage among all the screams and cheers. ATC finished off the night with an encore of two songs from their first EP, a performance very well received by their young fans and parents alike.

Review by Lulu Dawson
Photos by Zach Etahiri

Against The Current

CRUISR

Beach Weather