Cape Cod band Crooked Coast brings their edgy twist to coastal alt-rock to the River Street Jazz Cafe on Friday, March 21.
Photo Credit — Crooked Coast
WILKES-BARRE — Cape Cod alt-rock quartet Crooked Coast just released a new single, “Ante Up.” and will be performing at River Street Jazz Cafe as part of their Ante Up tour on Friday, March 21.
Doors open at 8 p.m. show starts at 9 p.m. They will be joined by opening act, The Broke Pines.
Luke Vose (vocals, guitar), John McNamara (guitar, vocals), Ben Elder (bass, vocals), and Shaqed Druyan (drums) don’t take genres too seriously. Their music pulls from punk, alt-rock, hip-hop and reggae to create truly original music that brings fresh vision to the coastal rock scene.
The new single from Crooked Coast just came out on streaming platforms on Feb. 28. This song goes hard with great vocals and instrumentals while pulling you in with the hooks.
“We were on tour and had a day off in Nashville so our manager connected us with Charlie Scene for a writing session,” Luke Vose explained in an email on how they wound up writing the track with the Hollywood Undead member.
“We had a ton of demos but decided to go in with a completely blank slate and create something from scratch. It started with that little guitar riff in the beginning and we all quickly built the instrumental. Charlie has a really great work flow in the studio,” continued Vose. “ —It felt really natural. The concept of a degenerate gambler popped up. Maybe it was subconscious because we were taking a gamble on pulling a song out of thin air.”
Vose said they’re really happy with the way the latest single turned out and look forward to playing it on tour, not to mention, for us here in NEPA.
Although it has a dark sound, “Ante Up” still manages to be fun at the same time. The single utilizes a blend of musical influences from across genres to make for a catchy new alt-rock anthem — and that’s kind of Crooked Coast’s thing.
“We meet visitors from everywhere, so there are all of these different flavors in Cape Cod. At the same time, there’s a ‘Boston Energy’— which is tougher. New England is the f****** best, and we carry that through our music,” said Shaq in an email to The Weekender.
“The sound definitely reflects where we come from,” said McNamara. “In the summer, it’s basically tropical — everybody’s in board shorts and sandals. That’s where you get the reggae. In wintertime, we all grew up doing construction jobs, cooking, or working with our hands and listening to rock ‘n’ roll. We fuse these two sides together.”
After piling up millions of streams independently and earning acclaim from Dig Boston, Cape Cod Times, Vanyaland, and many others, Crooked Coast says they first perfected a balance in their sound on their 2022 album Picture This, with even more music on the way.
A shared sense of brotherhood has driven Crooked Coast since day one. John McNamara and Ben Elder played in a band way back in junior high before welcoming Luke Vose. With the addition of Shaqed Druyan, the current member lineup solidified in 2017.
“Since there’s no entertainment industry here, we didn’t have a blueprint. If you want to be a professional musician and make original music, you go figure it out on your own,” said Vose.
In addition getting their name out there and playing countless local gigs, “Go Slow” has received over 605k Spotify streams since its debut. During 2020, “Rise & Shine” cracked the Top 5 of the iTunes Top Reggae Songs Chart.
Mixed by Courtney Ballard (who worked on 5 Seconds of Summer, Good Charlotte, and The Used), their 2022 album Picture This amassed over half-a-million streams as the band graced the bills of major festivals, including Boston Calling, Beach Road Weekend, Reggae Rise Up, and even producing and headlining their own Coast-Fest in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
“We just love playing,” said Shaq. “We do this from the heart, and I think it’s apparent. There’s so much chaos in life, we want you to have fun, breathe, and live in the moment.”
Crooked Coast recently wrapped up creating their next album featuring production by Gary Cioffi (Grayscale, Transit), Anthony Saffery (Portugal. The Man) and Charlie Scene (Hollywood Undead). The new singles are not only fan favorites but have made their way to editorial playlists like Apple Music’s Rise and Grind Punk Playlist.
“Each of these songs is a different exploration,” Vose reveals. “It’s a wide-ranging project, but we were able to tie everything together into a unified sound. It’s representative of who we are.”
In the end, you too might want to escape to the Crooked Coast for a while. And you can do just that at the River Street Jazz Cafe in Plains on Friday night. Tickets are $10 in advance, and $15 the day of the show, must be 21 and over to attend..
“If you’re going through a rough time or just had a bad day at work, I hope our songs makes you feel better and forget about your problems,” McNamara concludes. “We want to take you away from the moment for as long as possible.”
