"Bear with me dude, this phone isn't doing too well on these potholes," Alex Varkatzas, lead singer of rock group Atreyu said on the other line as they cross from Jersey City into Brooklyn. And he has just made a startling discovery.
"Wait, what's that? Aw, f---, a parking ticket. Are you kidding me?"
Varkatzas and his Orange County-based band Atreyu are having a rough Thursday on the road during a leg of their U.S. tour, which rolls into the Showplace Theatre on Sunday with Eighteen Visions, Lamb of God and Chimaira.
Whether this tour will increase the band's level of success remains to be seen, but it appears they don't have to worry about how to pay for that ticket.
Together since high school, Atreyu released an EP titled "Fractures In the Fa?\0xA4ade of Your Porcelain Beauty" on Tribunal Records, and its underground success immediately prompted Victory Records to scoop them up. Their first Victory single, "Ain't Love Grand" is known in the hardcore scene. The song was featured on a sampler with Snapcase and Taking Back Sunday that was inserted in many big Victory releases, including Thursday's "Five Stories Falling."
But Atreyu has traces of every genre imaginable in their latest disc, "Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses." Released over the summer on Victory Records, the album features the influences of thrash metal, hardcore, 1980s hair band rock and metalcore.
Buffalo missed out on Atreyu this past fall when they toured with Snapcase and Boy Sets Fire. The band has been on the road since the release of "Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses" and they are more than happy with the results, whether they play on metal or hardcore bills.
"The response has been great everywhere. It's a really fulfilling, awesome experience. Touring makes everything worthwhile," Varkatzas said.
Atreyu will spend the first half of the summer in Europe and the second half on their first headlining tour. They begin recording the follow-up to their Victory debut later this month and expect to release a new record in March of 2004.
Although the band is named after the hero in "The Never Ending Story," Varkatzas is quick to point out that there is no meaning behind it.
"Our friend Scott came up with it. We don't mean for it to represent anything, just kind of a cool name, y'know?"
But it's their music, not their name, which has aroused the most reaction. The scene seems divided on Atreyu. On one hand, their fiery performance and use of just about every hardcore punk-related genre in their music has gained them a decent amount of diehard fans. But their appeal is lost on some people.
"The screaming is not passionate at all. It's like he's talking to you in a screaming voice, 'Pass me the apple cider.' I just don't buy it," said Bob Kiekbusch, a junior psychology major and hardcore fan. "If they are out to be the hair band of hardcore, well they have a lot more work to do."
Anyone who heads down to Showplace on Easter to see Lamb of God - one of the most hilarious band names out there - should keep their eyes open for the infernal madness that is Atreyu. The jury is still out on their record, but reports on their live performance have been nothing short of sensational.
Perhaps "Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses" displays the shy, unconfident, book-reading Bastien, the subtle protagonist of "The Never Ending Story." But on stage, the band has the potential to live up to the beast-slaying, Luck Dragon-riding reputation of the movie's exuberant hero. And who knows, their next record might match the heroic proportions expected of any band that calls itself Atreyu.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
