by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
What: Pac Tour with The Audition, Envy On The Coast, Danger Radio & Another Day Late
When: January 18th,
Where: Fuel
No sports have been as associated with rock music more than surfing and skateboarding. Indie rock currently reigns as the soul of skateboarding and surfer movies, whether they’re professionally made or some DIY production on You Tube.
The clothing company Pacific Sunwear (aka Pac Sun) has been catering to surfers, skateboarders and other extreme sports enthusiasts since 1980. A union between Pac Sun and the type of music their customers listen to seems inevitable, and this year marks their very first sponsorship of the Pac Tour.
The idea for mounting the tour came from Another Day Late drummer, Josh Hubberman. He was also an assistant manger at a California Pac Sun when he wasn’t working with his band. Once he got the idea for this marriage between the retailer and up-and-coming bands, he pitched it to the company brass.
“I’ve always been intrigued by marketing,” says Hubberman, “Southern California is where Pac Sun headquarters are anyway, so a lot of times the corporate offers would come into my store…It’s been an opportunity [for me] to talk to them about how the business is run.”
Unintimidated, despite his low status on the retail totem pole, he began talking to the CEO about his idea for a tour.
“It just dawned on me that the foundation of skating and surfing has been music, and it always has been. Those are the kids that are out there going to shows and just loving music.”
“From the Pac Sun perspective, it would make total sense that you would want your brand to be tied with music. From a band perspective, what better place to go to find new, up-and-coming bands than a store that’s already catering to that background anyway.”
Hubberman’s degree in business and marketing has been put to good use, both in promoting Another Day Late and the Pac Tour. He now has the title of freelance marketing consultant at Pac Sun while he organizes and coordinates the tour.
“I went from being assistant manager to basically being in charge of making this thing happen.”
Before they even turned a record deal, Another Day Late played the Warped Tour, Taste of Chaos and the Honda Civic Tour. This time they’re touring with Pac Sun in support of their debut EP News Said It’s Raining In New York, which comes out in March of this year.
The band got together in upstate New York, where they all went to college. Most of the band members worked together at a Best Buy. They began playing together for fun, but got more serious after they won a MySpace contest to play a date at the Taste of Chaos Tour. After a positive audience response, they booked their own East Coast tour just after graduation.
“We pretty much went from playing for 40 people…to like a couple of thousand,” says Hubberman of the sudden transition.
Attendees of the Pac Tour can expect to hear edgy screamo, balanced with catchy pop from Another Day late.
Three other bands will be on the tour, The Audition, Envy on the Coast and Danger Radio.
The headliner will be The Audition, a pop-punk emo band from Chicago. Champion, their sophomore release, comes out on the 22nd of this month, although some of the tracks were leaked on the Internet about a week ago. A favorite of fans at Warped Tour, they’re just 2,000 friends short of 100,000 friends on MySpace (myspace.com/theaudition).
Envy on the Coast will rock out with their tunes from last year’s full-length release, Lucy Gray. Their music features just a dash of Evanescence, a hint of power-pop, a scrap of old school 80s music and a little indie sensibility. They’ve got catchy hooks, and musical surprises lurking past the chorus.
For pure power pop, listen to Danger Radio’s set. You’ll hear punk music, hidden under layers of pop and high voiced vocals that make lead singer Andrew De Torres sound like he’s still in high school. Like some of the best pop, their music is infectious and fun to listen to.
Josh Hubberman chose these bands because all of them are doing stuff different from the standard, and all of them seem to be on the cusp of being hugely popular.
“I envisioned the tour being something where you would have bands that weren’t huge…that were fresh and weren’t doing stuff that everybody was doing…..It would be great for Pac Sun to introduce new music to the kids that are coming into the store.”
Those searching for fresh music should not miss the Pac Tour, because it could launch these relative newcomers into a new orbit of fame. It’ll give you indie street cred later to be able to say you saw a band before they were big.
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