After three years of anticipation for a new LP, Parachute fans will finally get the chance to see new material live as the band stops at Crescent Ballroom for their Wide Awake tour on April 23. Parachute will be joined by openers Brett Taylor and Miller James.
The band returns to Crescent after a fully acoustic set in 2015, allowing fans to see a strong, electric side of Parachute. Kit French, saxophonist and keyboardist of the band, promises a big show with stunning visuals and quality sound as well as exciting changes to past sets.
“We never want to play the same show twice in the sense that, tour to tour, we try not to be playing the same kind of arrangements,” French said. “We try to keep everything fresh. There’s going to be brand new songs and brand new arrangements to old songs. Everything will keep the night moving and fun.”
All the new songs come from Parachute’s latest album, “Wide Awake.” While they were just released in March, the tunes are quickly growing in familiarity, made clear by fans who are already singing along to the updated performances, French said.
“We’ve been trying to play as many of the new songs as possible,” French said. “I mean, there’s a lot of songs that fans want to hear from our old album still, so you can’t play the entire thing, but I think we do a really good job of picking out some of the ones that connected really quickly so far. We’re really excited to have an album out … It’s a really refreshing feeling to get it out and just play some new songs.”
“Wide Awake” brings significant changes since the release of their 2013 album, “Overnight.” This transition reflects the loss of two members — guitarist Nate McFarland and bassist Alex Hargrave — between albums, and also returns to the more alternative tunes of their earlier albums.
Within the 12 tracks, listeners can clearly hear the catchy, smooth tunes of 2009 album “Losing Sleep” reappear in tracks like “Lonely With Me.” The rock-inspired tunes and choral arrangements of 2011 album “The Way It Was” return in “What Side of Love” and “Getaway.” While the album is noticeably less reliant on the pop beats of “Overnight,” the edginess of the 2013 album is still retained in “Crave” and “Love Me Anyway,” successfully melding together the best of Parachute throughout “Wide Awake.”
“It felt right to go in that direction again, but we also pulled the best parts of ‘Overnight’ in a kind of stylistic arrangement,” French said. “We pulled the best stuff from that album and the other albums to come up with the perfect balance. That’s what we’re trying to shoot for, that organic sound with some modern pop flairs to it.”
Even with influences from the pop-heavy “Overnight,” French describes “Wide Awake” as stripped down — a return to the unconfined songwriting style that established the band nearly 10 years ago.
“It was very freeing,” French said. “It was like we were in high school again, just kind of messing around and doing it for the first time. In a way, it was the first time.”
Noting the longevity of the band, French said he believed Parachute would not be around today if it weren’t for the dedication of its fan base.
“I give all the credit to the fans and how loyal they are,” French said. “We respect them, and we love that, so we reach out to them as much as they reach out to us. It’s a family thing and obviously it grows a bit every year, so it has always been growing slowly and steadily. It’s pretty sustainable, in that regard.”
Though Parachute is not set to return to Arizona anytime in the next year, the band is not resting after the tour’s final date in May. The band is already planning memorable shows for the summer in addition to radio appearances and festival performances. In the fall, the band will launch into yet another tour, to be featured alongside artists like NEEDTOBREATHE and Mat Kearney.
Parachute’s busy schedule gives credit to its endurance, something that is rarely seen in the ephemeral actors of the music industry.
“We’ve definitely been very lucky with how far and long we’ve been able to do this,” French said. “We were just playing our first show in our hometown, and all our moms are around, and they’re like, ‘I can’t believe you’re still doing this.’ It really is cool. Not a lot of bands can say they’ve been around eight years or however long we’ve been doing this, so we’ve been really lucky.”
Contact the columnist at Emily.Liu@asu.edu
