Iconic New York City post-hardcore band Quicksand have just announced its co-headline tour with Canadian punk band Fucked Up. Kicking off on Tuesday, September 22nd at Capital Ballroom in Victoria, BC, the tour will take in 10 evenings across six provinces, culminating in a performance at Overflow Brewing in Ottawa, ON on Sunday, October 4th.
Marking an entirely new era for the storied three-piece — guitarist/vocalist Walter Schreifels, bassist/vocalist Sergio Vega and drummer Alan Cage — ‘Bring On The Psychics’ serves as the sonic bridge between Quicksand’s heavy and influential Nineties sound and the ambitious, experimental output contained within its more recent era. Produced and mixed by Jon Markson (Drug Church, Drain) across 10 days, ‘Bring On The Psychics’ once again finds Quicksand reinventing the sound they helped pioneer.
It’s impossible to overstate the influence that Quicksand have on the hardcore scene. Formed in New York City in 1990 out of the ashes of Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Burn and Bold, the band took the aggression of hardcore and added a more groove-driven crunch to it, unintentionally inventing the genre known today as a post-hardcore. After releasing two major-label masterpieces in the Nineties — 1993’s ‘Slip’ and 1995’s ‘Manic Compression’ — the band split up at the peak of their powers, only to reunite in 2012 and release ‘Interiors and Distant Populations’.
Inspired by a quote from scientist Carl Sagan, ‘Bring On The Psychics’, Quicksand’s first album in five years and Equal Vision Records debut, sees guitarist/vocalist Walter Schreifels examining his past through his present reality. “For this album, I was going back to a lot of my earlier influences about ‘Break Down The Walls’ or ‘Start Today,’” he explains. “Regardless of whether you’re into hardcore or youth crew, they’re really cool records because they’re speaking to the time and providing possible paths to a better future … with mosh parts. That’s the energy that I wanted to bring to this.”
From the hook-driven heaviness of the opener ‘Get To It’ to the shoegaze splendor of ‘Crystallize’, the band covers a lot of sonic ground on ‘Bring On The Psychics’, but it always sounds like Quicksand. Its technical virtuosity is on full display here as well, from bassist/vocalist Sergio Vega’s locked-in bass grooves on ‘Cool Guy’ to Alan Cage’s dynamic drumming on the album’s title track. The band also stretched out, musically, on the album as evidenced by the breezy ballad ‘Days You Run To’, a song that might even surprise longtime fans. “To me, that is the kind of thing that Fugazi would do on their more chill kind of tunes,” Schreifels says of the laid-back feel of the aforementioned track. “It’s nice to have something that was more expansive to show the Pink Floyd side of Quicksand.”
That aspect of the band has never been a secret; anyone who has seen the band’s psychedelic light show can attest to that consciousness-expanding vibe. ‘Bring On The Psychics’ just sees the band encapsulating their creative vision in a fully, more integrated manner. “I’m really psyched to play these songs live,” Schreifels summarizes. “I feel really fortunate to still be playing music with these guys and be able to take it to different places.”
Upcoming tour dates:
August 14th — Strummer’s — Fresno Crossing, CA
August 15th — The Castro Theatre — San Francisco, CA
August 16th — Goldfield Trading Post Roseville — Roseville, CA
August 18th — Wonder Ballroom — Portland, OR
August 19th — The Showbox — Seattle, WA
August 21st — The Depot — Salt Lake City, UT
August 22nd — Black Sheep — Colorado Springs, CO
August 23rd — Gothic Theatre — Englewood, CO
August 25th — Amsterdam Bar and Hall — Saint Paul, MN
August 26th — Bottom Lounge — Chicago, IL
August 27th — The Pyramid Scheme — Grand Rapids, MI
August 28th — El Club — Detroit, MI
August 29th — East End United — Toronto, ON
August 31st — 9:30 Club — Washington, DC
September 1st — Underground Arts — Philadelphia, PA
September 2nd — The Brooklyn Monarch — Brooklyn, NY
September 3rd — Royale — Boston, MA
September 22nd — Capital Ballroom — Victoria, British Columbia
September 23rd — The Pearl — Vancouver, British Columbia
September 25th — Dickens — Calgary, Alberta
September 26th — Pawn Shop — Edmonton, Alberta
September 27th — Louis — Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
September 28th — Park Theatre — Winnipeg, Manitoba
October 1st — Palasad SocialBowl — London, Ontario
October 2nd — Biltmore Theatre — Oshawa, Ontario
October 3rd — Theatre Fairmount — Montreal, Quebec
October 4th — Overflow Brewing — Ottawa, Ontario