The Strypes are a four piece band out of Cavan Ireland that consist of Ross Farrelly (lead vocals/harmonica), Josh McClorey (guitar), Evan Walsh (drums), and Pete O'Hanlon (bass). They are currently 17-19 years old, but the music they play is ageless. If their talented enough to be NME's number 1 band to watch and opened for the Arctic Monkeys all over Europe, you know they're in for big things and will only hone in their talents over time.
They first jumped on my radar when they covered the Bo Diddley song "You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover"
And I even wrote a New Band Alert about them on this blog a while back.
So now to the show on the 28th at the Holocene in Portland Oregon. The venue itself is very small and quite cool. It's actually one a block and a half away from the best little coffee house in Portland - Rimsky Korsakoffee. I got there relatively early (I didn't think there'd be a long line or anything, but I still wanted to get there before doors), and snagged the perfect spot front and center of the small stage.
I had no idea what to expect in terms of the crowd that would be at the show. I was surprised at the amount of older adults that were there (and even singing along), and actually felt sort of young. There were are few kids there that looked around 10 or 11, but other than that it was mostly adults and a few other people around my own age. Since their music is so classic I guess it's not actually that surprising that so many adults were there...
The opening band were from Portland and they were called The Cry. They had some good songs, but I sort of felt like they spent more time on their image that they should have spent getting tighter as a group performance wise. But they did good publicity by passing out business cards to the line outside as well as inside, so props to them for that. Plus they covered Boys Don't Cry by The Cure, and they did so very well.
Then The Strypes came on. They played three songs, then stopped due to an issue with one of the speakers. They actually ended up going off stage while the problem was being sorted out, and it halted the show for about 10 minutes. They came back and apologized for the delay and played the rest of the show just fine.
The stage presence, talent, and skill of these musicians is incredible considering their age. They are talented beyond their years and are on a good track to succeed.
After the show I was taken backstage by one of the member of The Cry who I had been talking to outside and got to meet all of them. They were so humble and sweet considering how tired I'm sure they were (jet lag, different time zone, having just played, etc.).
After taking a few quick pictures and probably gushing too much about how much I enjoyed the performance, I told Josh (the guitarist) that the next time they're in Portland I'd love to show them around, and seemed really down and had me friend him on facebook to we could communicate through messaging next time they're here. When they do come back I expect they'll be playing a bigger venue than the Holocene (maybe the Wonder or even the Roseland), so I'm very glad I got the change to see them at a place that I had yet to see a show at.
The Holocene is a 21+ venue like the Doug Fir, but because all of the band members are underage, they made the show early (doors at 6:30 show at 7. The whole show was over at 9:30) and all ages.
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Setlist
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With Josh
With Pete
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With Ross and Evan
