Ross Lynch of R5 plays Boston's House of Blues on July 17th, 2015 (Chris Brown/Roman's Rap-Up).
Pop-band of brothers R5 brought their "Sometime Last Night" tour to Boston Friday night with special guest Jacob Whitesides. See photos from the show below:
(Hollywood Records)
Los Angeles-based band R5 is on the road this summer for the "Sometime Last Night" tour to promote its record by the same name. In an interview ahead of their show at the House Of Blues in Boston, guitarist Rocky Lynch spoke about the tour, new music, and life on the road.
"The tour's been awesome. We love being on tour. We love playing shows. Its always nice to kinda get out of LA for a little. We actually, uh, we lived in a house together while we were on tour but we moved out of it now so we're all homeless," he joked.
Luckily, the band is playing some pretty amazing venues and locations while on tour. Though they enjoy each place they visit, Rocky says that the Bahamas was definitely his favorite place to perform so far.
"I really liked playing in the Bahamas. We played in the Bahamas for the Fourth of July. It was a free show on the beach and right when we finished the show a ton of fireworks went off. There was like a big fireworks show after our set. It was really cool. The ocean was right there while we played. Kinda liked those beach vibes," he said.
The Band's first album went to number one on iTunes in ten countries, but all that success still seems strange to Rocky.
"It's just crazy. Just the fact we can play the venues we're playing right now and that people are buying our album and it just came out... the fact that we have fans that come see us live... it just all feels surreal. Like it hasn't really sunk in yet. We're still small fish compared to what some people are doing but we're on the top of the world right now. It's awesome," he explained.
The new album, "Sometime Last Night," is different from the prior R5 album mainly because it was written by the band with fans in mind. Forget all the swanky producers send writers. R5 decided to hole themselves up in their garage and write what they felt was good music. In addition to writing it themselves, Rocky said that the sound is more mature and has grown along with the band.
"It's a little bit different than our first album... it's a little more funky," Rocky said. "We find that we write and work better when it's just us. A lot of writers want to write a single to make money, but when we're writing in our garage... we're not really thinking where the songs will end up. We're just thinking of what sounds cool."
"I hope the fans just enjoy listening to it and just really like it," Rocky explained.
With that mindset, R5 will definitely go far in their career; after all it's the fans who allow the band to do what they do.
R5 plays Boston's House of Blues tonight, get your tickets here. For all other tour dates, you can get your tickets by clicking here.
Check out the official audio for the interview, including Rocky answering some fan questions from Twitter, below:
Headliner-Becky G performing at Salvation Army's "Rock The Red Kettle" Concert in Los Angeles on December 6th, 2014 (Paul DeBaun/Roman's Rap-Up).
On December 6th at L.A. Live, The Salvation Army hosted a concert event to raise money and awareness for homeless families. Up-and-coming acts like Becky G, Shawn Mendes, R5, and Bea Miller headlined the show with openers Exist Elsewhere and Josh Levi. On the red carpet, we were able to speak with Bea Miller, R5, and Becky G to catch up with them about new projects and and their reasons for giving back.
R5 performing at Salvation Army's "Rock The Red Kettle" Concert in Los Angeles on December 6th, 2014 (Paul DeBaun/Roman's Rap-Up).
The first major performance of the night was the family band R5. Their performance electrified the crowd with their raw energy and enthusiasm, especially when they closed their set with their new hit “Smile.” When asked about their new single “Smile” on the red carpet, Riker and Ross Lynch replied that this was their favorite song they have recorded so far. They love the song’s message, and it was a blast to record. Additionally, they talked about how honored they were to be performing for such as noble cause and spoke about the importance of giving back to their community.
Next up was the 15 year old former X-Factor contestant Bea Miller. Miller rocked the house with her powerful voice, performing hits like “Young Blood” and “Enemy Fire.” When asked about her upcoming debut album—set to be released in 2015—Bea eagerly expressed her pride over one of her new songs off the new album, “Paper Doll.” She spoke about how the song’s message is to not let other people control your decisions and to be your own person.
Shawn Mendes performing at Salvation Army's "Rock The Red Kettle" Concert in Los Angeles on December 6th, 2014 (Paul DeBaun/Roman's Rap-Up).
After Bea Miller, Shawn Mendes was warmly greeted with a multitude of screaming fans armed with many colorful of posters. Mendes’ performance was different than the other acts in the sense that he performed an acoustic set: just him and his guitar. Mendes performed new songs such as “Strings Attached” from his upcoming album, mash ups of different songs that made him famous on Vine, and his hit singles “Life of the Party” and “Something Big.” With just the power of his crystal-clear voice and guitar, Mendes seemed to hypnotize the audience. So much so that he was even able to ask the audience to become completely silent so that he could he heard without a microphone; they happily obliged.
After Shawn Mendes’ compelling performance, Becky G hit the stage to end this concert with a bang. Performing hits like “Shower” and “Built For This,” Becky G wowed the crowd with her awesome dance moves and effortless stage presence. When asked about her song “Built For This” being included on the new version of Just Dance, Becky G replied how surreal it was and how she looked forward to actually playing the game. Additionally, Rock the Red Kettle was a special performance for this young singer. When asked what her Red Kettle Reason was she remarked about her humble upbringing and the importance of organizations like The Salvation Army in the lives of the homeless.
Rock the Red Kettle was truly a unique event. Not only was it an exciting concert, but a powerful call to do good this holiday season. The Salvation Army channeled the power of these new, talented performers into encouraging young people to give back to their communities and help those in need. Undeniably, this event illustrates the huge capacity music has to inspire people to help one another.
