Sick Puppies: Out to Rock Your Face Off
Posted: 10 Jul 2008 14:36
Published:Thursday, July 10, 2008
By John Benson
The Aussie trio has been making inroads in the United States.
Happily lost in America.
That’s exactly what Sick Puppies singer/lead guitarist Shimon Moore says is the current situation involving the Australian trio now touring its major debut, “Dressed Up as Life,” which includes rock radio hits “All the Same,” “My World” and “What Are You Looking For.”
“I’m sitting on a beautiful tour bus overlooking a green pasture and some type of gigantic golf ball on a tee the size of a large building, but I don’t know what city we’re in, I don’t know what state we’re in,” said Moore, calling from what turns out to be rural Illinois. “And we haven’t been to Youngstown yet. Are there any golfing landmarks there?”
After talking about America’s penchant for making everything big, which Moore said has to do with insecure men compensating for shortcomings in other areas, the discussion unexpectedly digresses into how Australians compensate for the same issue.
“We wear very short shorts,” Moore laughed. “We don’t really need to compensate for much down there. We live a pretty chilled out lifestyle, but we have big landmarks, too. We have like a big lobster, crocodile, banana and avocado. Like seriously, there’s a big building that’s an avocado. It’s really stupid.”
He added, “The one thing we have is the need to prove ourselves to the rest of the world, which is why Australians come to the U.S. to try to make it big, because here is where the big audiences are.”
That’s exactly why Sick Puppies is touring America as opener for "The band that shall not be named" and Finger Eleven. The powerful bill comes to Ohio on Tuesday at the Chevrolet Centre.
So far the Aussie trio is making inroads, albeit slow ones, in the States in the form of other opening tours over the past year. This included hitting the road with bands such as Breaking Benjamin and Evanescence. What’s interesting about Sick Puppies is the fact its sound has more alt rock leanings than post-grunge posturing, which Moore feels makes the group stand out in concert.
“We definitely don’t think of ourselves as post-grunge or modern rock, it’s really just a three-piece rock band,” Moore said. “I think if you start from a really simple place, like if you build a foundation for a building that’s a really good concrete slab you can really build anything on top of it.
“So that’s what we’re doing. We’ve just got a really solid foundation of three people who play their instruments well and we just do whatever the [expletive] we want.”
Keeping with the building metaphor, Moore invariably hopes that strong foundation yields an impressive tower filled with many levels of success over, say, a strong foundation wasted for an oversized avocado or kangaroo.
Even though Sick Puppies are still only openers, its singer talks up a big game. In fact, if looking for a good reason to catch the trio at the upcoming Youngstown show, Moore said, “Because we’ll rock your face off. It’s the only reason. So if you want your face rocked off, you get there early.”
He quickly added, “If you don’t get there early, you’ll leave with partial face because seeing Finger Eleven and "The band that shall not be named" will rock your face off, but to get complete face rock-off, you need the Puppy.”
By John Benson
The Aussie trio has been making inroads in the United States.
Happily lost in America.
That’s exactly what Sick Puppies singer/lead guitarist Shimon Moore says is the current situation involving the Australian trio now touring its major debut, “Dressed Up as Life,” which includes rock radio hits “All the Same,” “My World” and “What Are You Looking For.”
“I’m sitting on a beautiful tour bus overlooking a green pasture and some type of gigantic golf ball on a tee the size of a large building, but I don’t know what city we’re in, I don’t know what state we’re in,” said Moore, calling from what turns out to be rural Illinois. “And we haven’t been to Youngstown yet. Are there any golfing landmarks there?”
After talking about America’s penchant for making everything big, which Moore said has to do with insecure men compensating for shortcomings in other areas, the discussion unexpectedly digresses into how Australians compensate for the same issue.
“We wear very short shorts,” Moore laughed. “We don’t really need to compensate for much down there. We live a pretty chilled out lifestyle, but we have big landmarks, too. We have like a big lobster, crocodile, banana and avocado. Like seriously, there’s a big building that’s an avocado. It’s really stupid.”
He added, “The one thing we have is the need to prove ourselves to the rest of the world, which is why Australians come to the U.S. to try to make it big, because here is where the big audiences are.”
That’s exactly why Sick Puppies is touring America as opener for "The band that shall not be named" and Finger Eleven. The powerful bill comes to Ohio on Tuesday at the Chevrolet Centre.
So far the Aussie trio is making inroads, albeit slow ones, in the States in the form of other opening tours over the past year. This included hitting the road with bands such as Breaking Benjamin and Evanescence. What’s interesting about Sick Puppies is the fact its sound has more alt rock leanings than post-grunge posturing, which Moore feels makes the group stand out in concert.
“We definitely don’t think of ourselves as post-grunge or modern rock, it’s really just a three-piece rock band,” Moore said. “I think if you start from a really simple place, like if you build a foundation for a building that’s a really good concrete slab you can really build anything on top of it.
“So that’s what we’re doing. We’ve just got a really solid foundation of three people who play their instruments well and we just do whatever the [expletive] we want.”
Keeping with the building metaphor, Moore invariably hopes that strong foundation yields an impressive tower filled with many levels of success over, say, a strong foundation wasted for an oversized avocado or kangaroo.
Even though Sick Puppies are still only openers, its singer talks up a big game. In fact, if looking for a good reason to catch the trio at the upcoming Youngstown show, Moore said, “Because we’ll rock your face off. It’s the only reason. So if you want your face rocked off, you get there early.”
He quickly added, “If you don’t get there early, you’ll leave with partial face because seeing Finger Eleven and "The band that shall not be named" will rock your face off, but to get complete face rock-off, you need the Puppy.”
