Next Thursday, March 1, Revolution presents a night of (mostly) acoustic rock -- and a couple of success stories that are completely of the internet age. Headliner Secondhand Serenade is really the project of songwriter and frontman John Vesely, who recorded his earliest material on a multitrack recorder fro his bedroom. The resulting project was one of the early success stories of MySpace, with Vesely using the pioneering social-media network to sell thousands of discs independently before eventually signing to a label.
Vesely's gone independent again, instead preferring to finance his own recording and touring using crowd-funding sites like Pledgemusic. With a club tour currently in full swing, he's doubtlessly got to have some useful advice for tourmates Boyce Avenue, a quartet with origins in Sarasota that features three Filipino-American brothers -- Alejandro, Daniel, and Fabian Manzano -- alongside buddy Jason Burrows.
The Manzanos are phenoms of the latter-day YouTube era. As legend has it, the band started properly when eldest brother Daniel moved back to Florida after graduating from Harvard Law School. Alejandro and Fabian were still in the state, studying at UF, and the three got together to play acoustic covers.
The next phase is that, yes, they uploaded them to YouTube, and the group's melodic, sweet versions of various pop songs from across various styles became internet sensations. Their eventual millions of views were enough to score them a major-label deal with Universal Republic, but the Manzanos decided last year to start their own imprint, 3 Peace.
YouTube remains an important part of the group's appeal. Boyce Avenue continues to record covers, many chosen by fans, and many as collaborations with other YouTube-created stars like Kina Grannis and David Choi.
Here are five of those Internet-crowd favorites, which should figure largely into the show alongside the group's originals, which follow a similar acoustic soft-rock style.
Secondhand Serenade, with Boyce Avenue. 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 1 at Revolution, 100 SW Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Tickets cost $29 with fees. Click here.
"We Found Love" (Rihanna cover)
"Shadow of the Day" (Linkin Park cover)
"Viva La Vida" (Coldplay cover)
"Apologize" (OneRepublic/Timbaland cover)
"Just the Way You Are" (Bruno Mars cover)
New Times on Facebook | County Grind on Facebook | Twitter | e-mail us |
