Slimmer Vinyl Theatre in town
Following runs last year with the Mowgli’s, Smallpools, Grizfolk, Against the Current and its own headline tour, alternative rock act Vinyl Theatre, named to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Wisconsin Bands to Watch list last year, finally came back home to Milwaukee last month.
But there was still a lot of work to do. When I caught up with the band, it was rehearsing for its Ones to Watch co-headlining tour with Finish Ticket.
A stop Saturday at the Rave will be Vinyl Theatre’s first headline show in town since signing to Fueled by Ramen (Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots, Paramore) in August 2014.
But this tour is different. For the first time, singer and guitarist Keegan Calmes, keyboardist Chris Senner and drummer Nick Cesarz are performing without bassist Josh Pothier, who left the band last month.
“Without going into too many details, he has a physical problem that’s painful and makes it hard for him to travel,” Cesarz said.
“We kind of felt it coming toward the end,” Calmes added. “He’d get down a lot at rehearsals. A lot of people think touring is a great opportunity, but it is hard, both emotionally and physically. He also got engaged, and his end goal in life is not to be a touring musician, but to raise a family and be healthy. You have to weigh things.”
Instead of finding a replacement, Vinyl Theatre decided to move forward as a trio.
“It’d be another person to bring in the van, not that we couldn’t do that, but we’d be taking money away from our tour manager and sound guy and our touring photographer and videographer. So we’re keeping it to the current team,” Calmes said.
It does mean little more work for its highenergy shows. Senner will do more to fill out the low and midrange of the sound on keyboards, while Calmes will be doing higher riffs and less filler on guitar.
But “the different approach has reinvigorated us,” Calmes said.
“There are orchestral type things we’re putting in the music. And we’ve been working on new music and have these fantastic ideas that we’re pumped about and the label is pumped about. There’s some fun sensibilities in the (new) songs, but the chord progression is darker, and the songs are more personal than ever.”
Vinyl Theatre has about 30 demos and is finalizing a list of producers.
When the tour wraps in late March, the label will fly the band to Nashville, Tenn., and Los Angeles to work on material, with the hope that Vinyl Theatre’s sophomore album will drop this year.
“We have it really good,” Calmes said. “People are behind us 100% and believe in us. We feel like we can’t let them down. There’s a sense of obligation to deliver.”