Sick Puppies Bring Rock Show to Beaumont

[Kemmy]

Sept. 25--BEAUMONT, Texas -- One of rock radio's most popular bands of the last 16 months is making an appearance in Southeast Texas next week.

The rock trio known as Sick Puppies is slated to perform Friday, Oct. 1, at Whiskey River in Beaumont for ages 18 and older. Advanced tickets are on sale now at all Florida Tans locations for $15 for ages 18 and older only.

The band is still touring in support of its highly popular album, "Tri-Polar," which was released in July 2009, and features the hit songs, "Your Going Down," "Odd One," and the new single "Maybe." According to bassist Emma Anzai, there is little she would change about the album, even more than a year later.

"We see an album as that particular point of time in our lives," Anzai said in a telephone interview. "We make it the best we can. Maybe we'll change a song or two a little after we record the album, but that's it. If we were to record a new album now, we would probably do something different just because of where we are at in our lives now."

The band, which Anzai originally co-founded with bandmate Shimon "Shim" Moore in Australia in 1997 and relocated to Los Angeles in the early 2000s where they hooked up with drummer Mark Goodwin, has earned a reputation for its energetic performances and its loyal following. In fact, Anzai said the band has no plans to stop touring anytime soon.

"That's fine by us," Anzai said of the relentless tour schedule. "It takes a long time and a lot of effort to do an album, and we're very happy with that. We don't have any plans of being off the road anytime soon."

The group has spent much of the summer headlining its own club tour and even performed in Houston this past July. The band is no stranger to the larger stages of arenas either, having opened up for well known bands such as Nickelback, "The band that shall not be named", Shinedown, Evanescence, among others. Anzai said there are pros and cons to performing in each size of venue.

"Smaller shows are way more intimate," Anzai explained. "But arena shows are awesome because of the size of the crowd. Shim has had to learn to gauge how to approach a large crowd and deal with the size of the stage compared to a club show.

"But as much as I like clubs and arenas, festivals have to be my favorite shows," she continued. "There are so many people there and so many bands too. And once you play your set, you get to hang out with some of the other bands, and that's always fun."

Being a young band isn't always what one might hope or want, especially on tour with famous headlining acts with big egos. Luckily, Sick Puppies has not had to deal with any such situation.

"We haven't had any problems as an opening band, and we've played with a lot of big name acts," Anzai stated. "But I would have to say that Nickelback is in the 'A' class. They've all treated us good, but Nickelback were just super. Always friendly and willing to hang out. They even came into our dressing room and sang 'Happy Birthday' to me before our show one night. That was so cool."

Anzai said the band is always asked where the name Sick Puppies originated from, so she wasn't the least bit surprised to hear that very same question during this interview as well.

"We do get that a lot," she said laughing. "Honestly, Shim thought of it. We both liked the band Silverchair in high school, and that's how I met Shim. We bonded over that. We decided to start a band and he had a list of names, and Sick Puppies was one of them. His dad happened to be reading a book at the time with that name in it. So, that was pretty much a sign and that's how it happened."

Anzai said the band will perform a few festival shows in October and will continue touring, especially in support of its new single "Maybe."

"It's nice people like who we are and what we do," Anzai said. "That's why we plan on staying out on the road for as long as we can. We're in no rush to finish this tour."

Source: http://www.californiachronicle.com/arti ... /150292681

[stephb]

Great article!

[Hollee]

Awesome article. Wish I could make it to the show in Beaumont.