South Florida just can't get enough of
The Academy Is
Warped Tour 2006
By Leah Pritchett
Coming off their headlining slots on the Truckstops and Statelines Tour, the guys from The Academy Is rocked out at Warped Tour this year with an incredible vibe that blew the crowd away. After an intimate show backstage for the winners of their meet and greet contest they gave a harmonizing presentation that set the anxious adolescents in serene humbleness.
With their catchy lyrics and amazing presence, The Academy Is had fans singing along to their tunes and clapping in excitement as they announced they were going to sign autographs and pose for pictures.
Thankfully, I was able to talk with lead singer William Becket about his excitement on being invited again to be on this year's Warped Tour.
"It feels great to be a part of this tour," he said, giggling. "It's a big honor, you know. We were excited to be a part of it; it's a good opportunity."
If you're playing at Warped, the sets are rather frantic and messy: you don't know when you're going to play or if you're even going to play. But to Becket the spontaneity is what keeps the festival exciting and refreshing.
"Warped Tour is always different, it's not so regimented and scheduled. That's why I like it," he said. "It's very get-up-and-go punk rock, so it's a little different than the tours that we're used to doing in clubs and small arenas. But we can pretty much handle anything."
And we hope to see these guys on their own headlining tour once again since the boys are in the process of recording a new album. They've been writing songs and putting them together on their tour bus, hoping that right after this tour they can head out and start recording.
Their previous album Almost Here came out about a year and half ago and Becket said he knows this next one is going to be unbelievable.
"It's going to be a big step for this band. I'm heavily influenced by my surroundings [and] we've seen a lot of the world in these past two years," he said. "For Almost Here we were writing songs in our apartment and now that we've seen and have experienced so much–we played in front of lik 15,000 people in Japan, we've headlined in the UK–it's pretty amazing. I can't wait."
Becket hopes that The Academy Is can once again rally up a large crowd like in Japan on their next tour. And it pretty much seems that way because every time they hit South Florida, their fan base just keeps emerging and growing. To get the latest upcoming tour dates and album release you can visit their official webpage www.theacacademyis.com.
Email Leah your thoughts: outloud@outloud.com
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