cleopatrick / Dead Poet Society / Ready the Prince

2785 EUCLID HEIGHTS BLVD,CLEVELAND HEIGHTS OH 44106

11 February, 2022

Description

cleopatrick / Dead Poet Society / Ready the Prince ALL AGES cleopatrick Dead Poet Society, Ready the Prince cleopatrick / Dead Poet Society / Ready the Prince Friday, February 11th 7p doors / 8p show All Ages $16 advance / $18 day of show +$2 at the door if under 21 CLEOPATRICK Listening to the story of Canadian duo cleopatrick is a bit like hearing the plot of the best, most righteously validating coming-of-age film never made. Two friends meet aged four in Hicksville, Nowheretown (real name: Cobourg, Ontario, population 19,000), grow up completely inseparable, form a band and, against numerous obstacles, blossom into a genuine, global underground sensation. There are heroes and villains, highs and lows and, crucially, some of the most poetic plot twists that could seem almost too perfect, were they not completely true. Take the story of 2017 breakthrough track ‘hometown’ for example. “It’s one of the craziest, most ironic things that’s ever happened,” begins vocalist and guitarist Luke Gruntz. “I was going to college because I was too scared to put all my chips in the band pile, and that’s what ‘hometown’ is about: it’s a song about feeling like we’re doing all this stuff and we’re working so hard and we’re just never going to be heard. It’s literally a song about people probably never hearing our songs. And then by some act of the universe, that song ended up unlocking all the doors for us.” Today, cleopatrick has logged 77 million streams and counting - all from an increasingly dedicated fanbase who’ve found the duo, completed by drummer Ian Fraser, their own way: no major label, no big budget, just two best pals knuckling down, cementing a unique sonic alchemy and filling a space of honest, empathetic yet undeniably heavy-hitting rock music that they’d been searching for themselves for years. DEAD POET SOCIETY A perfect symbol for Dead Poet Society is the "shitty old seven-string" that guitarist Jack Collins bought at a mall back in high school. "Our former bass player actually took a soldering iron and soldered the frets off," he recalls. "You couldn't play it normally at all. I thought it was going to be a great idea. Years later it was sitting in my closet, and I decided to pick it up again because I got really bored. It became the new way for us to write music — it opened up a door into this whole new world we discovered." "It was like, 'This is the guitar,' he adds. "It's like taking something broken and creating art out of it." With its wonky intonation, the instrument can't produce traditional chords or scales — an unlikely choice for a rock band with such strong commercial potential. Collins and frontman Jack Underkofler are a factory of hooky riffs, even at their most detuned and menacing; and the latter barks and coos with a crystalline purity that recalls Jeff Buckley and Muse's Matt Bellamy. That contrast is crucial to the band's debut LP, -!- out March 12, 2021 via Spinefarm Records. Take the bruising belter "Been Here Before," which pairs a stadium-sized chorus with angular guitars and Dylan Brenner’s blown-out fuzz bass; "I Never Loved Myself Like I Loved You" opens with the fidelity of an iPhone demo before blooming into a cinematic dream-pop singalong anchored by Will Goodroad's rim-click drum groove. Brenner is a new addition to the lineup, but his experience as the band’s touring stand-in for the duration of their career has made him a natural fit. It's no surprise that Dead Poet Society like screwing with rock conventions — that's been their aim since forming in 2013 as students at Boston's Berklee College of Music. Hilariously, at least in retrospect, it did take them a bit to find common ground. "My best friend drummed for them, and I convinced him to leave the band," Underkofler says with a laugh. "Six months later, Jack asked me to sing on a couple songs they'd written. My apprehension came from the fact that they were kind of a meme for being one of the worst bands at school. I kind of tried to push away — our old bassist just kept asking me, 'Do you want to write with us?' One day he showed up on my door step and I was like, 'Fuck.' After I wrote my first song with them ["145"], I was like, 'I think there's something here.'" The newly solidified quartet quickly developed a chemistry: Underkofler and Collins had a mutual love of Coldplay, but their tastes sprawled over time along with drummer Will Goodroad: heavy acts like Royal Blood and Led Zeppelin, modern art-pop artists like St. Vincent, even hip-hop experimentalists like Tyler, the Creator. Not all of those influences are detectable on the largely self-produced -!-, which features a handful of tracks co-helmed by studio veteran Alex Newport. But that eclecticism makes sense, given their distaste for most modern rock. "It's just lame," Collins says. "It has been for like 10 years. I think that's because people are paying too much umbrage to classic rock — there's this 'passing of the torch' thing that I think is just bullshit. Heavy music is the way we communicate — it happens to be rock music, but the expression itself and what we're trying to say and how we want to make people feel is unique. That's what bands used to do, and I think that's what a lot of hip-hop artists do nowadays." "Our goal," he emphasizes, "is to make someone feel something they haven't felt before." PLEASE NOTE UPDATED COVID-19 SAFETY PROTOCOLS We care for nothing more than the safety of our staff, patrons, and performers. All ticket buyers for this event must show proof of Covid-19 vaccination or a negative COVID test 48 hours prior in order to gain entry. Proof of vaccination may include a physical card or a photo of a complete vaccination card that matches the patron ID. Proof of a negative test may be a printed or digital test result that matches the patron ID. For more information please visit the "FAQ" page on our website here: https://grogshop.gs/faq/ We appreciate your understanding and support - thank you! cleopatrick Dead Poet Society, Ready the Prince The Grog Shop opened in September of 1992 in the Coventry Rd. neighborhood of Cleveland Heights. Though expanded in size when moved to it’s current location in 2003, the club maintains the intimacy and raw character it has always been known for. We have a full bar with an extensive list of micro-brews, imports, and domestic beer, and of course plenty of liquor.