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Vertical Horizon Headlined "Crystal City
Rocks" In June of 2006
A SPECTACULAR FOOD & MUSIC CELEBRATION ON CRYSTAL DRIVE
This was a fun event. Our client put on a free concert for the residents
of the Arlington Virginia/DC area at their annual Crystal City Rocks
event. See Vertical Horizon Photos below.
The reviews for Vertical Horizon at this concert have been great! Even
with their new drummer they are moving forward.
To book Vertical Horizon
Click Here.
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You can't keep a
good band down.
Take Vertical Horizon, who have survived a turbulent ride that began with
their platinum-plus smash Everything You Want, rocketed through a year and
a half of sold-out shows, hit a brick wall when their former label
inexplicably dropped them, slowed briefly into a period of reassessment,
picked up speed as they renewed their commitment to themselves and their
fans …
… and now they blast back with Go, their Hybrid Recordings debut and a new
standard for passion, honesty, and exhilaration.
As always with Vertical Horizon, the music is the story. Their sound,
which became a radio staple with Everything You Want, is even stronger
here. Its key ingredients – solid writing, a vast dynamic range,
thundering rhythms, and vocal harmonies soaring over wave after wave of
muscular guitar – kick into action during the opening seconds of “When You
Cry,” rise to a high point in the thoughtful verses and resonating
choruses of the album’s first single and video, “Forever,” and sink
beneath the dreamy depths of the last track, “Underwater,” a masterpiece
of delicate arrangement and dark imagery.
Each song brims with drama and emotion – but perhaps “I’m Still Here” best
captures the message of Go. There’s pride and triumph in the words (“The
cities grow, the rivers flow … but I’m still here”), and though the focus
is personal, a declaration of faith within a relationship, a broader
meaning is evident too:
Vertical Horizon is here. They’ve kept the faith – in their fans and in
themselves. And Go is their gift to those who have waited …
Flash back to the summer of ’00. Vertical Horizon is on fire. Everything
You Want is climbing toward two million sales. They’re playing sold-out
shows with Third Eye Blind and Nine Days. Billboard will soon honor them
as the Adult Top 40 Artists of the year as “Everything You Want” hits the
top of their Hot 100 and Adult Top 40 singles charts.
Yet Matt Scannell is already focusing on what lay ahead. “Everything You
Want was the record I had always wanted to make, but at the time we were
unsure about who we were as a band,” he remembers. “It was a very
difficult process. And having gone through that, I felt much more ready to
tackle the next one.”
After wrapping up eighteen months on the road behind Everything You Want,
the band took some time off and then regrouped to work on the follow-up.
“That way,” jokes Keith Kane, “we weren’t sick of each other anymore. We
were excited to get back into it. It was definitely a creative time.”
Their choice for producer on Go was inspired. Though he had recorded
several major bands, John Shanks was celebrated more for his work with
Sheryl Crow, Michelle Branch, Melissa Etheridge, and other female rockers.
“But he’s the best producer I know in terms of vocals,” Matt points out.
“He’s a guitar player too, and he’s just as much into guitar sounds as I
am. And since guitar sound is one of Vertical Horizon’s defining
characteristics, I knew he would be a great match.”
The sessions for Go went smoothly and quickly. After three weeks of
pre-production, stretched over a three-month period to keep the feel
fresh, the band spent no more than two months tracking at Henson Studios
in L.A. “That was maybe half the time it took for Everything You Want,”
says bassist Sean Hurley. “At that point we were built for speed, able to
turn on a dime. It’s like we’d been exercising and were ready for the
game. And we were playing a lot better than we ever had.”
Then came that grim twist that’s become almost a cliché in this business:
A purge at their label sent Vertical Horizon’s main supporters off into
corporate exile, and almost overnight, despite their track record, the
band lost its record deal. “That totally sucked,” Keith admits. “We were
completely demoralized. There were definitely days when I wasn’t sure if
Vertical Horizon would play another note of music.”
Those days passed quickly, as the greater truths sank in: “First of all,”
Keith continues, “we’re brothers. Just as important, we knew that we
couldn’t just turn away from this record without fighting for it.”
“We stepped back and asked ourselves whether we had the will to keep doing
this,” Sean adds. “Then we kept seeing our answer on the faces of our fans
and hearing it in their voices as they sang along with us.”
“That’s why, a year after everything went down, we were talking about how
we would move forward,” Matt concludes. “Bands that aren’t so close to
each other and to their fans couldn’t have survived any of this.”
Their plan was to move slowly. Each member set time aside for his own
projects: Matt co-wrote with Richard Marx and toured as his lead
guitarist; Sean played on some of those dates and also filled his calendar
with album and soundtrack dates. Keith and Matt did an acoustic radio
tour, recalling for longtime listeners the early days when Vertical
Horizon was mainly a duo act working clubs around Washington, DC. The band
acquired the rights from RCA to license Go and signed it to Hybrid. They
made sure to play Vertical Horizon shows too, though at a pace designed to
build their energy rather than wear them out.
“It was,” Keith recalls, “a great way to transition back into the chaos of
a full band tour.”
Now, with the re-release of Go, chaos – wonderful chaos – is imminent.
Since their longtime drummer Ed Toth became an official Doobie Brother,
they’ve been tearing through summer concerts with Craig Mcintyre as their
fourth member. “We’re fueled by our belief in this music and give that
back in return to all of us onstage and everyone in the audience,” Matt
says. “It’s incredible; we’ve been playing sets that run for an hour and a
half, and I always feel at the end like we’ve been up there for five
minutes. We’re just warming up.”
What, then, are the band’s goals as Go takes off? Matt thinks for a
moment, and then gives a typically candid reply: “The real answer is that
I want it all, which means playing to as many people as we possibly can.”
In other words, it’s about beating the odds, exceeding even the
expectations of their fans, and following this road as far as it goes –
somewhere beyond the horizon, vertical or otherwise.
To book Vertical Horizon
Click Here.
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