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New Politics: Ten Years Strong and Still Kicking

New Politics

Danish pop-rockers New Politics unofficially kicked off their tenth-anniversary tour on Monday, June 17th in Burlington VT. Though the tour officially started in Brooklyn on June 19th, the band played in Burlington, and Portland, Maine the next night, to warm up for the tour.

I got the chance to sit down with David Boyd (vocals), Søren Hansen (vocals/guitar/uke/keys), and Louis Vecchio (drums) to discuss how they’ve changed in ten years, and what’s in their future, look out for the audio of that interview at the end of this review.

Opening up the show in Burlington was the local garage punk band, Grease Face, who blasted through a quick 23 minute set to get the crowd ready for New Politics.

In a surprise move, New Politics led off with their first hit single, “Yeah Yeah Yeah”, which in the past was typically the show-closer. It worked wonders to get the entire audience going, and the energy never dropped until the end of the show.

The band played for almost 90 minutes without leaving the stage, playing a fair share of songs from each of their album. In fact, it was almost equally split: four songs from each album except Vikings, which got five if you count a shortened rendition of “Girl Crush” which was eventually cut from the set due to an issue with their bass tracks.

A personal highlight for me was when the band played “We Are the Radio” one of my favorites from their self-titled debut.

Another memorable moment was Søren’s keys and vocal only rendition of “Stardust”, which was an emotional  moment for many fans in attendance.

Towards the end of the set, the band performed the full-band live debut of their new single “Comeback Kid” only to be faced by more tech troubles. They eventually restarted the song and played it acoustic, but the energy was still 100% there – especially with the audience singing along to every word to help out the band.

Overall, the band did an amazing job of pleasing their fans old and new, in what seems to be one of their favorite cities to play – over their ten year career, they’ve played at Higher Ground no less than six times!

With great support from the local rock station, The Buzz, it’s no surprise that New Politics has a dedicated fanbase in Vermont, but it’s always great to see them come back again.

If you get the chance to check out New Politics, I highly recommend it. Their full tour dates are available on their website!

In the mean time, you can listen to the interview below:

Press photo by Brendan Walter.

New Politics at House of Blues San Diego

After not seeing the band since 2014, I got the chance to check out New Politics on the Lost in Translation tour with support from Dreamers and The Wrecks at their stop in San Diego at the House of Blues. Though the band has become much more musically refined in the last few years (I remember seeing a breakdancing, rapping, pop-punk act opening for Dirty Heads back in 2011), they still maintain their high energy roots. They have also become a much better live band, with solid production and a tight live show.

Indie-rock band The Wrecks opened the night, playing a 30 minute selection of their songs, including “James Dean”, “Favorite Liar”, and “I Don’t Like You”. The band has a variety of influences, but one that was clear from the start, especially on “I Don’t Like You” is Cage the Elephant. Seemingly out of coincidence, the first song after their energy-filled set was Cage the Elephant’s “Come a Little Closer”.

Dreamers is the direct support on the tour, one of the notable songs they played was a cover of The Cranberries’ song “Zombie”. The band released a recording of the cover online on February 9th, just three weeks after the death of Cranberries’ lead singer Dolores O’Riordan. Other songs the band touched upon included “Sweet Disaster”, “Wolves (You Got Me)”, and “Painkiller”.

As the main act of the night, New Politics started with an upbeat song off of their newest effort, Lost in Translation. “Istanbul” got the crowd going, and singer David Boyd was crowdwalking before the song was over. After a track off of Vikings, the band jumped things back to their 2010 self-titled release with “Love Is a Drug”. Even though many of the fans in the audience seemed to be newer converts, there was still an intense energy during the cut. During “Lifeboat” the band showed that they can still write a pounding, anthemic track to get the crowd going.

After dedicating “Color Green” to all their friends and family, the band played a few more songs from their first release; “Dignity” and “Die For You”. After the latter, the band was amazed that a mosh pit had formed. Throughout the rest of the set, the band blended songs from each of their albums and ended the main set with hit single “Harlem”. Several of the songs during the night also featured additional performances on keys and bass by stage techs, which was new to me but a nice touch. Some songs just seem to call for live bass, rather than the band’s standard backtracked synths.

Once the main set was over, the band came back for a three song encore, of “Lifted”, “Pretend We’re In a Movie”, and finally closing the night with their first hit, “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah”.

Check out their tour dates to see if they’re coming to a city near you!

Press photo by Brendan Walter.

Live: New Politics at House of Blues San Diego

After not seeing the band since 2014, I got the chance to check out New Politics on the Lost in Translation tour with support from Dreamers and The Wrecks at their stop in San Diego at the House of Blues. Though the band has become much more musically refined in the last few years (I remember seeing a breakdancing, rapping, pop-punk act opening for Dirty Heads back in 2011), they still maintain their high energy roots. They have also become a much better live band, with solid production and a tight live show.

Indie-rock band The Wrecks opened the night, playing a 30 minute selection of their songs, including "James Dean", "Favorite Liar", and "I Don't Like You". The band has a variety of influences, but one that was clear from the start, especially on "I Don't Like You" is Cage the Elephant. Seemingly out of coincidence, the first song after their energy-filled set was Cage the Elephant's "Come a Little Closer".

Dreamers is the direct support on the tour, one of the notable songs they played was a cover of The Cranberries' song "Zombie". The band released a recording of the cover online on February 9th, just three weeks after the death of Cranberries' lead singer Dolores O'Riordan. Other songs the band touched upon included "Sweet Disaster", "Wolves (You Got Me)", and "Painkiller".

As the main act of the night, New Politics started with an upbeat song off of their newest effort, Lost in Translation. "Istanbul" got the crowd going, and singer David Boyd was crowdwalking before the song was over. After a track off of Vikings, the band jumped things back to their 2010 self-titled release with "Love Is a Drug". Even though many of the fans in the audience seemed to be newer converts, there was still an intense energy during the cut. During "Lifeboat" the band showed that they can still write a pounding, anthemic track to get the crowd going.

After dedicating "Color Green" to all their friends and family, the band played a few more songs from their first release; "Dignity" and "Die For You". After the latter, the band was amazed that a mosh pit had formed. Throughout the rest of the set, the band blended songs from each of their albums and ended the main set with hit single "Harlem". Several of the songs during the night also featured additional performances on keys and bass by stage techs, which was new to me but a nice touch. Some songs just seem to call for live bass, rather than the band's standard backtracked synths.

Once the main set was over, the band came back for a three song encore, of "Lifted", "Pretend We're In a Movie", and finally closing the night with their first hit, "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah".

Check out their tour dates to see if they're coming to a city near you!

Press photo by Brendan Walter.