Walk The Moon lands at Legends

Walk The Moon is an alt-pop band on the rise.

The Ohio-based quartet found itself playing before a house of music industry professionals in New York City a couple of years ago, which led to a signing on the RCA Records label and performing on national TV shows, like “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

Now, with a new EP released earlier this week, called “The Tightrope,” a follow-up to their self-titled album that came out last year, Walk The Moon comes to Appalachian State University’s Legends Music Hall for a show on Wednesday, Jan. 30.

The doors open at 8 p.m., and tickets are $13 in advance for ASU students and $17 general admission and the day of the show. The BYOB limit is six bottles with an ID.

While there have been a few labels attached to the sound of Walk The Moon, they can best be described as “fun music for not-so-fun times.”

As a result of the group’s upbeat approach, its hit song, “Anna Sun,” charted worldwide. The band features lead singer, songwriter and keyboardist Nicholas Petricca, bassist Kevin Ray, Sean Waugaman and guitarist Eli Maiman.

“I think it is all about the energy,” Ray said about Walk The Moon’s concerts. “We’ve always wanted our shows to be a place where you can walk in and leave all of your negative energy at the door, not worrying about being too cool to move around and get crazy. I think that approach has helped us to remain an energetic band.

“When we were playing small, little bars where nobody knew us, we had to be real energetic to keep people interested. And I like that it has carried over into now, as we are still as energetic – if not more – than we ever were. Sometimes, bands get less energetic as they get more well known, feeling like they might not have to try as hard. We feel like every audience is a new challenge and a new opportunity to get people to move around and have a unique experience that they may have never had before.”

Walk The Moon comes out of the fertile ground that is the current Cincinnati, Ohio, music scene. Groups, such as the Afghan Wigs, the Heartless Bastards, Wussy, Over The Rhine, Buffalo Killers, The National, the Dallas Moore Band and funk legend Bootsy Collins, all have roots in the Queen City.
“Cincinnati is amazing,” Ray said. “It is really a unique gem of a scene. Within the last 10 years or so, Cincinnati has experienced a renaissance in all arts, from fashion to graphic arts to music, design and theater. There are a lot of small clubs there that support the local scene. I think the best thing about the Cincinnati scene is that the bands all support each other, where in a lot of markets, bands are fighting for that attention and getting that spot above every other band.

“In Cincinnati, they come to each other’s shows, and they want to see each other do well, because they want to see the scene survive. Cincinnati is kind of out of the way of the typical touring routes, so the city relies on its local music scene to keep it going and to get people from out of town interested. We still go to shows when we’re back home, and we still get excited about what local Cincy bands are doing.”

For more information on Walk The Moon, visit http://www.walkthemoonband.com.