Pop Evil

Let’s start out by saying “What a great evening this was!!!.” I went to the Diamond Ballroom in Oklahoma City to review Pop Evil but had no idea that I was in for such a treat. I had heard that one of the opening bands was actually a local Band which won a contest and therefore was chosen to open for Pop Evil. The Band is called “All for More” and I must say, they deserved their spot on the stage tonight. The guys owned the stage and put on a great show. Not only are they able to play their instruments in such a musically gifted way that just speaks to you, they are overall great people. They gave off a loving atmosphere and made sure they had time to have a full conversation with each person wanting to talk to them. I believe this band is going to great places. I was able to talk to Janos Wozniak ( Guitar ) and asked him to give me some info on the band and he was so nice and emailed me the following statement:

“The idea of All for More started off as two man project in late 2014 as a “funk metal” project with myself (Janos Wozniak) and our first bassist Dylan Reid. After holding only one vocal audition we instantly found our singer. Paul Mooney’s powerful voice, ear for hooky vocal lines, and overall goofy charisma made him a perfect frontman and rhythm guitarist for the lineup.  After we FINALLY found a drummer (Zac Simms) we started playing the name game for upwards of 2 weeks in an attempt to come up with a band name in time for our first show at The Vanguard on May 25th 2015. The venue was demanding a name and we were at the end of our rope honestly! Paul suggested “Altimore” in the group chat and then Zac texted “how about All for More?” and after googling both names to make sure they weren’t taken I was like “Altimore or All for More, 3, 2, 1 GO!” and we all agreed on All for More and since it was the first name we all kind of liked, we just kept it. We played the show and everyone seemed to really gravitate towards our song Her Bliss and I think that coupled with our stage presence is what really made us stick out. It’s funny to me cause we started off with the intention of blending metal and funk and none of our songs that we play now sound anything like that, especially not Her Bliss! Well we played plenty more shows all the way through late 2016 and had some member changes in between that time as well. Paul and myself are the only members from the original lineup. We stopped playing shows in 2017 because the band actually broke up due to musical differences. About a year or so went by and I eventually met back up with Paul and we decided to get back together under the name and record a 7 song EP since we had all this unreleased music. I just saw way too much potential with our music and didn’t feel like we had done nearly enough to see how far we could take the band. That’s why we recorded the whole EP titled “Release” just with the two of us and had our friend Luke Chronister from All About a Bubble mix and master it for us. During the initial recording process I just wanted to get it all recorded and released just so we could say we actually did it and didn’t expect the band to continue after that. But as we were nearing the end of finishing the EP we ended up playing more shows with fill-in members and decided we should find a full-time bassist and full-time drummer so we could be a band again. We released the EP on September 28th of 2018. My friend Matthew Northcott is our drummer now and I honestly never thought he would want to be in a band and play the music we play but after asking him he was more than excited to be a part of it! Our current bass player Eduardo Martinez was actually looking for a band and stumbled upon us on Facebook and messaged me asking if we needed a bass player and after the first rehearsal we had with him and seeing him know our own songs better than us made us realize we had found our new bass player.

Pop Evil

We had actually found out about the Pop Evil contest from a friend of ours who tagged us on Facebook saying we should try it and we jumped at the idea! We had to cover their song “Be Legendary” and post it online and the winners for each state got to open for them during their tour. We hadn’t seen too many contest submissions for OKC so we were hoping that there was a chance we would win but when we found out that we won we still completely freaked out! I don’t know how Pop Evil went about choosing the winners for each state but what we did for our submission was something we hadn’t seen any other submission do, which was to play our cover live at one of our shows. We wanted to do it so it would show how we perform in front of people and with no way of editing it or doing any retakes, we just had that one chance to do it and I think it shows in the video. We were so unbelievably pumped to play that show and seeing how the crowd reacted to us during and after we played was one of the most humbling and heartwarming feelings ever. We’re eternally thankful to everyone that’s supporting us and to Pop Evil for giving us a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Social media links:

Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/artist/17Fyv3k6TXT2VqYTbxX6Ao?si=sdnVzGiORCW2LVPjcfyjTA

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/allformore/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/allformore

Instagram:  @allformore

Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCspHrL_gjT94wtbjKHe2K4Q?view_as=subscriber

Make sure to check these guys out!! My 16 Year old daughter and her friend who went to the concert with me fell totally in love with the band and they can’t wait to see them again.

Next up was “Them Evils” which is a band who started out in Southern California. If you like Rock N Roll than you definitely will like “Them Evils”. They have the sound of classic rock but at the same time keep it modern and also a little bluesy. Watching and listening to the band I really noticed their style and based on the audience reaction I can say they liked it as much as I did. In May 2018 they came out with their new EP “Rollin’ Stoned and Livin’ Free”, make sure you check it out! Them Evils was a second great opening band for what was still to come and the evening just kept on getting better. Them Evils Band members are JORDAN GRIFFIN – Guitar/Vocals, JAKE MASSANARI – Bass, DAVID DELANEY – Drums.

Them Evils

Connect with Them Evils:

Official Band website: https://themevils.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThemEvils

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/themevils

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThemEvils

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themevils/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3ASZko2LtiqddApAlKF7Cf?si=hmeWy442RCqisK6OCuGSfQ

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/them-evils/908475558

Bands In Town: https://www.bandsintown.com/themevils

The act that came up next really surprised me. I was very skeptical and kept on thinking that it was pretty unusual to bring a comedian on stage to open up for a rock band but I must say the comedian “Don Jamieson” totally put on the show. He cracked one joke after the other and entertained everyone in the Diamond Ballroom. I laughed so hard and all in all I thought it was a great choice to change things up by putting a comedian on stage.

Them Evils

Now it was finally time for Pop Evil to make their appearance. OMG I was so excited. I had been listening to their new song “Footsteps” so many times. I absolutely am a fan of this band. Pop Evil is a rock band from Muskegon Michigan. The Band members are Leigh Kakaty – lead vocals,  Dave Grahs – guitar, Matt DiRito – bass, Nick Fuelling – lead guitar and Hayley Cramer – drums. The band started out the show by playing “Boss’s Daughter”,”Colors Bleed”, and “Ex Machine” which set the right atmosphere for the rest of the evening. I looked around to see how the audience was doing and noticed that the band had their full attention. Next was “Deal With The Devil” which lead into Drowning Pools “Bodies” followed by “Torn To Pieces” and “Last Man Standing which lead into another great cover song by Survivor “Eye Of The Tiger”. This song had everybody in the Diamond Ballroom singing along and looking beside me, my daughter and her friend had the best time of their life singing along with their hands up in the air clapping. This band truly knows how to get the crowd going and how to create an unforgettable atmosphere. Time just flew by and it was finally time to play the one song I personally was waiting for all evening long. It was time for “Footsteps”. I knew that Pop Evil is an incredible rock band and I sure didn’t get disappointed when they played the song. I had so much fun tonight enjoying all the incredible talent and also to see my daughter and her friend and the audience have so much fun was great. It was time for the Encore and to end the night until we get another chance to see Pop Evil. I came tonight to have fun and be entertained and I can honestly say this evening blew my expectations thru the roof. It was another unforgettable evening which I will talk about for a long time and I still to this Day hear my daughter tell her friends and talk about how much fun she had.

Pop Evil

Job well Done!!! Thank you to all the bands

Set List:

Boss’s Daughter

Colors Bleed

Ex Machina

Deal With the Devil/Bodies (Drowning Pool cover)

Torn to Pieces

Last Man Standing/Eye of the Tiger (Survivor cover)

Are You Gonna Go My Way (Lenny Kravitz cover)

Ways to Get High

Be Legendary

I Alone (LĪVE cover)

When We Were Young

A Crime to Remember

Play Video

Footsteps

Take It All

Encore:

100 in a 55

Waking Lions

Trenches

Check out the band Pop Evil!!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/popevil/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PopEvilMusic

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/popevil/

Myspace: https://myspace.com/popevil

Twitter: https://twitter.com/popevil

Pop Evil

Diamond Ballroom, Oklahoma City-OK

Reviewed by: RacerX / BackStage360

Images: Billy Esquibel

Email: Michelle@backstage360.com