Katrina Steier, Managing Editor
“The city never sleeps, except tonight!” yelled an impatient (possibly inebriated) fan from the audience at the Oneonta Theatre last Friday. Shortly after this unabashed demand for music, the band, The City Never Sleeps took the stage and opened for SIRSY and Erin Harkes and began their kickoff show for a one month tour. Originally from Oneonta, the indie band now resides in Albany and has been successful in the upstate New York region and other areas as well. The band is comprised of John Glenn (vocals/guitar), Erik Flora (guitar/vocals), Curt Mulick (drums), Kyle Hatch (guitar) and Dave Parker (bass). At the start of the band’s history, Mulick and Glenn were already in a band with a bassist, but they eventually teamed up with Flora in 2004 to form a band called Fourfit. In 2008, the band changed to their current name, and recorded their first EP. Their most recent album, “Madison,” was released in November 2011 and they played a number of tracks off it during the show. “What makes this album different from our EP is that it has a jazz influence and some intricate bass lines,” Glenn said, “It’s more collaborative, we all wrote for each other.”
TCNS is well known around the Capital region and when asked if they had plans for migrating to a bigger city, Glenn said, “ Albany may not be the biggest city but it’s a great northeast hub and is centrally located to other places we like to play, such as Boston or the City. There’s a decent music scene there, though we wouldn’t mind going to the west coast some time.” Though they do not have set locations for their tour, they did get a van to ride around the country in from donations on their kickstarter. They raised an impressive $6,181 for a tour van and promoted their cause through an informative, quirky video that explained why they needed a van, and the prizes donators would receive — one of which prizes is a handmade robot suit. Awesome.
TCNS is undoubtedly talented, and to use a cliché phrase, “catchy as hell.” A song they recorded in their apartment, “Crumble at the Fault” rings with clarity, as does the song “Mistakes” which is full of anything but, seguing into “Over All Over” which has a more heavy, frantic sound to it.
The two SUNY Oneonta Alumni, Glenn and Flora said “It feels good to be back in town again, we are really excited to be here tonight at our old stompin’ ground.” TCNS will be playing a few more upstate shows before hitting the road, so check their facebook for more details.
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