Space Ballroom Weekly Round-Up: Announced this week Sweet Pill, Whitey Morgan and the 78’s and Matt Pond PA
Space Ballroom announces Sweet Pill, Whitey Morgan and the 78’s and Matt Pond PA, tickets are on sale now.
Sweet Pill w/ Cashier
Space Ballroom • 295 Treadwell Street, Hamden, CT 06514
September 15, 2024
Click here to purchase tickets
Sweet Pill
Sweet Pill has a style earmarked by an earnest ingenuity that many young artists are quick to romanticize and aspire to but slow to cultivate and execute. It takes time. For singer Zayna Youssef, guitarists Jayce Williams and Sean McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney, however, their 5 years together have seen their hard work rewarded tenfold in half as long as it would take almost anyone else. From their 2018 inception, Sweet Pill forged a storied path leading to this moment: the release of their new EP, Starchild, their first for new label home, Hopeless Records.
There’s a cinematic quality to Sweet Pill’s forming in college in New Jersey, converting a small school bus into a tour-ready, cross-country capable vehicle (complete with bunks!) and driving it to SXSW in efforts to draw attention to their newly growing passion. In true film fashion, Sweet Pill arrived at the world- famous Austin festival only to be informed of its cancellation as the introduction of shelter-in-place restrictions surrounding the emergence of COVID-19. Proceeding to return home, their converted vehicle buckled under the pressure of the excursion, leaving them stranded for several days in Baton Rouge, LA before returning to their new home of Philadelphia.
It was this struggle that set the stage for the writing process that conceived what would become Sweet Pill’s first full-length LP, ‘Where the Heart Is.’ When it came time to record, the group went to the studio Gradwell House with Matt Weber (A Great Big Pile of Leaves), eventually releasing it on classic emo label Topshelf Records in 2021. ‘Where the Heart Is’ and the support tours it led to (La Dispute, Their/They’re/There, and Origami Angel) didn’t come directly next, either. The band waited another year after their SXSW snafu before signing to Topshelf. With time, though, offers materialized, and their song “High Hopes” even earned itself a spin by Paramore’s Hayley Williams on her BBC Radio podcast “Everything Is Emo.” Bit by bit, buzz started to grow, leading the band to land a tour with The Wonder Years and, soon after, catching the ear of veteran indie label, Hopeless Records.
Starchild sees Sweet Pill returning to Weber and Gradwell House for another triumph, tapping in Dave Downham for mastering, and ‘Where the Heart Is’ art illustrator Kerry Dunn to continue the style their debut established. With these two releases, Sweet Pill only hopes to inspire others into a life lived passionately in close community with like-minded individuals, as they have been by bands like Algernon Cadwallader, Hop Along, and, of course, Paramore. For Williams, the only intention is “to live a sustainable life while playing music and uplift the people around me,” while drummer Chris Kearney feels it is his only path. “I don’t know what else Iwould do, Idon’t have another purpose in life.”
Whitey Morgan and the 78’s
Space Ballroom • 295 Treadwell Street, Hamden, CT 06514
August 7, 2024
Click here to purchase tickets
Whitey Morgan and the 78’s
In a career spanning more than 15 years, Morgan has released six studio albums and a live recording from his hometown of Flint, Michigan. Additionally, he has toured relentlessly, averaging over 125 shows annually. Rolling Stone has described him as a “Waylon Jennings acolyte…modern day outlaw [with a] hard hitting blue-collar brand of music,” while NPR hailed, “Staying close to the sound and subject matter of classic outlaw artists like Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and David Allan Coe, Morgan is poised to lead this hand-worn brand of country to the next generation.”
Since Hard Times and White Lines, dubbed by American Songwriter as his “finest set yet,” came out in 2018 , Whitey Morgan has stayed active on the road and has recently begun teasing new music, produced by world renowned producer Shooter Jennings. In a surprise move to many of Morgan’s fans, he has announced his debut at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville on May 17th. With this debut, Morgan is not only cementing his place in country music’s pantheon but is also embracing a pivotal moment that signifies his evolution from a hard-touring artist to a recognized torchbearer for outlaw country’s enduring legacy.
Matt Pond PA
Space Ballroom • 295 Treadwell Street, Hamden, CT 06514
August 23, 2024
Click here to purchase tickets
Matt Pond PA
In the wake of the luminous album The Natural Lines, Matt Pond has decided his next move is to return to the beginning—to the ideas and instincts that led him to music in the first place.“
The original ethos was to collaborate with anyone at any time,” he says. “I’m getting back to that.” He’ll also go back to recording under his own name, once again referring to the band as Matt Pond PA.
Pond’s name itself evokes the natural world in which his songs are so often set, with their evocative lyrics about the sometimes jagged edges of love, the pros and cons of connection, and the agony and ecstasy of memory. He has always mapped the universal emotions of being alive onto the contours of his own stories. That’s much of the reason his work is so resonant.
But he believes the process should not be fraught; just the opposite. Making music, even if the themes are sometimes darker than they are bright, should feel organic and good.“
The real point is to try and enjoy the experience of making all these things,” he says.
He started writing pieces of songs on his own in a cavernous loft in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. When he realized a friend played the cello, he saw a way to take the next step. They added four other musicians, and Matt Pond PA was born. (The PA refers to Pennsylvania, of course.)
Through 13 albums (among them Emblems, Several Arrows Later, The Dark Leaves, The State of Gold, and Still Summer), EPs (like Winter Songs, Spring Fools, and The Freep), a soundtrack (for the indie film Lebanon PA) and their fair share of tours, festivals, and shows, the band has always been a living, breathing organism—one that’s constantly changing. (One notable mainstay: Pond’s longtime right-hand man, Chris Hansen.)
“I named the band after myself, but the fact is that this is a complete collaboration,” Pond says. “Everyone I’ve worked with lives in my head and in these songs.”
He’s now headquartered in the heart of the Hudson Valley, where it’s easy to connect and commune with the elements of nature that got him started. But his songs are more emotionally anchored in the present than ever before—the better to look toward the future.
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Haley Heynderickx w/ Lily Breshears – Saturday, June 15th @ Space Ballroom – Hamden, Connecticut
Pallbearer w/ REZN, The Keening – Tuesday, June 18th @ Space Ballroom – Hamden, Connecticut
Militarie Gun w/ G.I. Bill, Peace Test -Thursday, June 20th @ Space Ballroom – Hamden, Connecticut
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