Sir Sly members Landon Jacobs and Hayden Coplen sit on the tour bus before their show at the Crescent Ballroom in downtown Phoenix on Saturday, Sept. 27. This was Sir Sly's second time performing at the Crescent Ballroom. (Photo by Sawyer Hardebeck)The Cherrytree Presents tour took over Crescent Ballroom on Saturday for a night filled with loud guitars and synths, intense dance parties and torn clothing at the hands of co-headlining bands Sir Sly and Wolf Gang.
The opening band, Secret Someones, is a rock quartet from Brooklyn, New York. The band features Lelia Broussard and Bess Rogers on guitar, Hannah Winkler on guitar and keys, and Zach Jones on the drums.
The majority of the vocals are split between Broussard, Rogers and Winkler, with Jones filling in on backup. The quartet’s impressive use of all-female harmonies and intense stage presence made it clear that this was a group of musicians that knows how to perform a polished, cohesive set, both as individuals and as a group.
Secret Someones' Keyboardist and Vocalist Hannah Winkler performs on Saturday Sept. 27 at the Crescent Ballroom. Secret Someones was the first act of the night, followed by Sir Sly and Wolf Gang. (Photo by Sawyer Hardebeck)After blasting through many of the band's original songs, which proved extremely popular with the screaming, dancing crowd, the band switched gears into an aggressive cover of Nirvana’s "Breed," with Broussard, Winkler and Rogers wailing on their guitars and repeating the song’s refrain in perfect synchronization.
In a world where opening bands almost always disappoint, it was refreshing to see this group of well-oiled musicians who obviously love playing together take the stage to open up the night.
“The girls in Secret Someones shred,” said Landon Jacobs, frontman of headlining band Sir Sly.
Secret Someones has a four song EP out on Spotify, featuring the cover of “Breed,” two original songs, “I Won’t Follow” and “Chase Your Shadow,” and a beautifully stripped-down acoustic version of “I Won’t Follow.” The full length album is expected out in March or April of 2015.
After the crowd had been thoroughly pumped up by Secret Someones’s amazing performance, Sir Sly took the stage. From the moment the band entered the stage (one by one and through dimmed floor spotlights and smoke, of course), it was obvious that the crowd was in for an amazing show. Adding each musician layer-by-layer, the band built up to the eventual arrival of the vocalist.
Jacobs, the band’s self-titled “frontman extraordinaire and general badass,” didn’t stop moving for a second during the set, essentially transforming into a blur of kicking limbs and black clothing. As he bounced and leapt about the stage, singing and dancing with the band's two other members, Jason Suwito on keys and Hayden Coplen on drums, it was clear how much these three love playing music.
Max McElligott, Lead Vocals for Wolf Gang, performs at the Crescent Ballroom on Saturday Sept. 27. Wolf Gang closed out the night as the last band, following Secret Someones and Sir Sly. (Photo by Sawyer Hardebeck)“You can tell when a band’s enjoying themselves; you can tell when anyone is enjoying what they’re doing or not,” Jacobs said. “I still want to be playing music regardless. I mean, if nobody came to the shows we just wouldn’t be touring, but I’d still play music. I’d figure out a way, because I just love playing.”
As they rocked through cuts off of their album such as “You Haunt Me” and “Too Far Gone” as well as through an electric cover of Drake’s “Marvin’s Room,” it was clear that Sir Sly had taken full control of its audience. This was not Sir Sly’s first time playing at the Crescent Ballroom, however, and it seems that the Phoenix crowd’s excitement to see it play can only have grown since the last time they were here supporting Cold War Kids in March of 2013, which was its first show outside of California, Jacobs said.
“I still see a lot of people that mention that show, actually,” Coplen said. “We still get ‘Ah, I saw you at the Crescent Ballroom!’ and it’s like ‘What? We’re in Texas right now!’”
The band chose to end their set with “Gold,” a song that had definitely registered with the crowd. They gave Jacobs’s energy right back to him as they sang along, danced, whooped and hollered through the song and even a bit after the band had left the stage.
Taking the stage to finish up the night was the second headliner, Wolf Gang, whose minimalistic lighting scheme and stage design allowed for the members to move around and interact with the entirety of the crowd. Lead singer Max McElligott did a superb job of this as he skipped from one side of the stage to the other, keeping the crowd engaged from wing to wing.
The band moved quickly from poppy dance songs to ballads that would even make Sir Elton John himself swoon, and the crowd followed Wolf Gang every step of the way as McElligott, bassist James Wood and guitarist Gavin Slater all danced about their stage, each with their own style and energy.
The band’s joyous stage presence definitely transferred to the crowd as McElligott told them it was Saturday night and he wanted to see them dancing, As the room went completely black between each song, concertgoers were allowed a short break from the bumping dance party that Wolf Gang’s set turned out to be
For the band's second to last song, McElligott donned a custom-altered mandolin to play the title track off a new album, “Alveron,” which should be coming out in about a month according to the band. As the ballad built to a rowdy climax, it was striking how much of the crowd McElligott had singing along to the chorus of a song that hadn't even been released yet.
“I’m really enjoying playing ‘Alveron,’” McElligott said. “It’s just got a nice crescendo, so when we play it live it ends with this quite jubilant crashing drums and epic guitar lines and harmonies. It’s just quite a joyous song to play and people really seem to connect with it.”
While all three bands sported individually diverse sounds, from the sassy guitars and harmonies of Secret Someones to the dark alternative-pop of Sir Sly to the danceable pop-rock sound of Wolf Gang, the crowd never seemed to miss a beat. Hardly anyone filed out early and missed the end as they normally would, something that surprised and delighted all three bands.
“It’s been cool to be exposed to (Sir Sly’s and Wolf Gang’s) audiences, who are not necessarily fans of ours yet,” Winkler said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”
Send the reporter your thoughts on Elton John at ezentner@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @emilymzentner
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