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Headlining a tour is good, but kicking it off in your hometown is even better.
Chelsea Grin will play Albuquerque Tuesday, March 12.
Chelsea Grin will do just that on Saturday in Salt Lake City where its band members grew up. The band makes a stop in Albuquerque on Tuesday.
Vocalist Alex Koehler said its always nice performing back home.
“It’s really good,” Koehler said. “It’s kind of weird because we are from here and everyone knows us and now there are different generations of kids. The shows here are really awesome.”
Run-ins with random people are common including old high school faces.
“Thing is, it’s good doing what we’re doing,” Koehler said. “We were never popular in high school.”
But, that doesn’t stop some people who didn’t socialize with Koehler from hitting him up for tickets for Chelsea Grin shows.
The band that began in high school has grown musically and experimented with new sounds on its most recent release “Evolve.”
“We’ve kind of been doing it for four years now and we all have the same idea of what kinda music we want to write,” Koehler said. “… We’ve added stuff we’ve never done before… singing, synths and broadened our musical horizon and pushed ourselves to the limit.
The song “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” stuck out the most, Koehler said.
“It’s kinda the more pretty one, the more melodic one,” he explained. “It’s just got more of a pretty type vibe. We’ve never done anything like it. We shot a music video for it. It seems to be doing well.”
Prior to recording “Evolve,” Koehler got some help from his friend at High Vibe Recording in Salt Lake City who taught him how to take his vocals into a more melodic range.
“It was fun,” Koehler said. “I’m always down to learn new things and make myself better at singing. I really never tried it.”
After about a three week tour in the states, Chelsea Grin heads out to Europe for a six-week tour with Emmure. But, the band plans to write and record new music on the road.
Chelsea Grin also will be playing Russia and Israel, two places the band has never ventured. “I have no idea what we’ll see,” Koehler said of Israel. “I guess it’s big out there. They don’t get shows out there. Everyone goes and it’s huge.”
The band recently played in Australia.
“It’s definitely different everywhere,” Koehler said. “(Australia’s) cool. People are really respectful in some places and in other places they just want to beat the (crap) out of each other. Everywhere is different. I just like people out there to have fun, enjoying the music, and not ruining it for anyone else.”
Chelsea Grin
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 12
WHERE: Sunshine Theater, 120 W. Central
HOW MUCH: $15 at www.holdmyticket.com
Reprint story -- Email the reporter at rmartinez@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-823-3920
