Boys Like Girls began its Love Drunk Tour earlier this month and has been received with open arms, ear-piercing screams and sold-out venues. The group headlines the tour, which also features Cobra Starship, The Maine, A Rocket to the Moon and VersaEmerge.
“We have toured with some of these guys before; kids are totally eating them up. This is really an awesome tour package,” said Jerry Pierce, guitarist for VersaEmerge. “(Touring) has always been a lot of fun. A lot of kids are really passionate about it.”
The groups have already crossed the country on their month-and-a-half-long mission to spread the gospel of the pop-rock genre. Their upcoming performance at Club Nokia in Los Angeles will be the first major show for some of the performers.
“It will be really exciting to experience the A-market,” Pierce said. “We’re just going to continue to be ourselves as much as possible ““ try and let the music speak for itself.” Tickets to see the performance in Los Angeles were in high demand. Some Bruins missed their opportunity.
“I was slow on the uptake about getting tickets, but I was definitely interested in going when I heard about it since it would’ve been close by,” said Lauren Yang, a first-year psychobiology student. “People might say they are like any other alternative or pop-punk band ““ while it’s true their sound may not be anything revolutionary, Boys Like Girls knows what it takes to appeal to an audience.”
While all five groups work in a similar genre, their images remain distinct. Boys Like Girls, for instance, provides listeners with diversity in the type of music its members produce.
“You can’t help but feel energized, or at least your mood lifted when you hear their songs; yet their albums take it slow at times too, so you’re not always on an energy high,” Yang said. “There’s only so many times one can listen to the same song. As such, they are always moving on and looking for something new to entertain themselves with at the moment, and Boys Like Girls deliver that.”
Cobra Starship broke onto the scene with the album “While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets,” featuring the piece “Snakes on a Plane,” which played over the credits of the classic film of the same name. Since then, they have released two more albums and another hit single, “Good Girls Go Bad,” recorded with guest Leighton Meester and featured in an episode of the CW’s “Gossip Girl.”
“We are all for those kinds of collaborations,” said Ryland Blackinton, guitarist for Cobra Starship. “Leighton’s thing came about quite accidentally and turned out great. Her part was really what the track was missing.”
VersaEmerge may not have the pop-culture presence of Cobra Starship, but its three albums have earned the band a presence within the pop-rock genre. Its band members bring their own influences to the group, adding to their distinct identity.
“Fiona Apple is one artist I’ve been listening to a lot,” Pierce said. “She’s been one of my favorite artists for a while ““ definitely influenced me personally.”
As the groups perform, continually reinforcing or reforming their respective identities, they have encountered some more outlandish venues along the tour ““ Milwaukee’s Eagles Ballroom, for instance.
“It was absolutely terrifying,” Pierce said. “There was a boiler room, and it was dripping with something, and the theater was huge ““ when we were sound-checking, the echo was so intense.”
Traveling the country on tour comes with benefits besides performing in haunted theaters. For some performers, the extended road trips are a form of stress-relief.
“(Touring) is a lot of fun. We’ve been doing all this busy stuff; being on tour is more like being a part of a big fort on wheels,” Blackinton said.
Blackinton, who described his group’s sound as “electro-sleaze,” said he enjoys the finer things life has to offer, along with the rest of the band. Among them are the History Channel and “Spongebob Squarepants.”
“The show is weird,” Blackinton said. “We were watching an episode the other day where Spongebob was watching some coral swaying in the water, and his pet comes in the room and (Spongebob) changes the channel quickly like he was watching porn or something. That’s obviously not for kids.”
Much like the yellow sponge so much of the world admires, Cobra Starship, along with the other bands on tour, may find themselves marketed toward a specific group within the artistic world. As they continue into the second half of their tour, however, they will continue to spread their pop-rock love to all who will listen and further establish their true identities.