See Dance Gavin Dance at the Rooftop @ Pier 17 in New York City on Saturday, May 24th!
Hailing from Sacramento, California, Dance Gavin Dance was formed in 2005. With guitarist Will Swan, unclean vocalist Jon Mess, and drummer Matthew Mingus being the only original members in the group, the band has developed their own signature sound that combines experimental rock, math rock, and post-hardcore. This style has been dubbed swancore after Will due to his role in creating and popularizing it, as well as signing bands in the genre to his Blue Swan label.
The first release from Dance Gavin Dance was 2006’s
Whatever I Say Is Royal Ocean EP. The EP brought with it a handful of things that would stay throughout the duration of the band. The first of which is the introduction of their unofficial mascot, The Robot with Human Hair, a character that shows up in songs throughout most of their future albums. The second is building on songs in parts, with this EP featuring “The Robot with Human Hair, Pt. 1” and “The Robot with Human Hair, Pt. 2”, which gets expanded even further with parts 3, 2 ½, and 4. The third being their nonsensical lyrics, a staple of their success.
Their debut album,
Downtown Battle Mountain (2007), was met with praise, even peaking at 46 on the Billboard Top Heatseakers chart. The album featured four singles, including the more popular tracks from the album “And I Told Them I Invented Times New Roman” and “Lemon Meringue Tie”. The following year, Dance Gavin Dance released their self-titled sophomore album, which was followed by
Happiness in 2009. Both albums were well received, containing some bigger tracks for them in “Me and Zoloft Get Along Just Fine”, “Uneasy Hearts Weigh the Most”, “Carl Barker”, and “Strawberry Swisher, Pt. 1”.
In 2011, Dance Gavin Dance released the sequel album
Downtown Battle Mountain II which was critically praised, landing at 82 on the Billboard 200 chart and number 4 on the US Hard Rock Albums chart. Then, in 2013, the band began arguably their most successful era with the introduction of clean vocalist Tillian Pearson on the album
Acceptance Speech (2013). The album peaked at 42 on the Billboard 200 and was in the top 15 of four other US rock album charts, and contains the fan favorites “Carve” and “Jesus H. Macy”.
From 2013 until 2022, the band was exponentially gaining popularity due in part to Tillian’s signature high-pitched singing ability. They released another five albums with Tillian in
Instant Gratification (2015),
Mothership (2016),
Artificial Selection (2018),
Afterburner (2020), and
Jackpot Juicer (2022). These albums were all met with increasingly positive receptions, with
Afterburner being the high point topping the US Top Rock Albums chart and peaking at 14 on the Billboard 200 chart. Featuring some of Dance Gavin Dance’s biggest hits including “We Own the Night”, “Chucky vs. The Giant Tortoise”, “Inspire the Liars”, “Betrayed by the Game”, “Son of Robot”, “Prisoner”, and “Cream of the Crop”.
2022 saw the unfortunate passing of longtime bassist Tim Feerick, as well as Tillian departing from the band, bringing the start of Dance Gavin Dance’s current era with their touring guitarist-turned-member Andrew Wells now taking over on vocals. Most recently, they have released two singles in “Speed Demon” and “Straight from the Heart” with Wells on clean vocals, with a potential new album on the horizon. Now, they will be taking the road for the “Return of the Robot” tour, alluding to the Robot’s “death” in 2013’s
Acceptance Speech. The tour features support from The Home Team, Belmont, and Dwellings and kicks off on May 23
rd in Philly, followed by New York City the following night.
Tickets are on sale now at
axs.com.