Features
New Politics
Over the past couple of years, New Politics has been the kind of band other artists love to have as an opener. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to get the crowd going with a support act featuring a backflipping, breakdancing frontman?
Vocalist David Boyd’s performance involves “headstands, running up and flipping backward off the side of walls, and doing backflips off drum sets,” CAA’s Andrew Simon told Pollstar. Factor in guitarist Søren Hansen and drummer Louis Vecchio and it makes for one high-energy concert.
Photo: Jack Edinger
“They definitely leave it all on the stage,” Simon said. “I think fans appreciate that and the bands they’ve opened for appreciate that.”
New Politics has supported 30 Seconds to Mars, Pink, Twenty One Pilots, and Fall Out Boy. And sometimes, like in the case of Fall Out Boy’s reunion shows, New Politics knew they’d be opening for a crowd strictly there for the headliner.
Simon said that in those situations, “you have to make them recognize you and want to research you more. I think they’ve done a very good job of that and it’s allowed them to move to headlining.”
Photo: Brendan Walter
New Politics headlined club dates earlier this year in support of 2013’s A Bad Girl in Harlem. The tour included a number of sellouts, but rather than sizing up venues, the team thought it best to keep initial dates intimate and create demand for the next go-round.
“It was through the live show that people really became invested in them as a band,” Simon said. Now, the goal is simply to keep building a real following, one fan at a time.
New Politics heads back out with Fall Out Boy and Paramore this summer, will be a part of Live Nation’s “Ones To Watch” tour, and plans are in the works for another headlining run in the fall.