November 16, 2011
MANHATTAN— Regional music sensation (the pride of Brooklyn) The UpperClass Men opened for national recording artist Patrick Stump’s SOLD OUT concert at the three leveled lower Manhattan venue The Studio at Webster Hall … and they rocked!
This concert was the culmination and finale performance of the, October 18th, release of Patrick Stump’s solo project entitled Soul Punk.
Spunky, lead mic and founding member of The UpperClass Men, Hollis H.D. offered to be opening acts for Patrick at his concert finale and they were given approval by his agent.
Given that the two musicians follow one another on Twitter, Hollis got in contact with Patrick. From that day forward the two musicians would sometimes interact via Twitter. One day, Patrick tweeted about how; he would soon perform in New York for his tour finale. Hollis instantly replied to him about how if Patrick and his band did not have an opening act that The UpperClass Men would be more than happy to open for them.…. and the rest was history!
Just before starting their set, Hollis informed every one of UCM, “If you haven’t heard of UpperClass Men yet, I guarantee you will know who we are by the end of our performance,” he exclaimed. Two of several songs the band performed entitled “Chuck Norris,” and “Monroe” were crowd favorites. In addition, to their own songs they also covered, Pavlove, a song by Fall Out Boy, which really got the crowd moving.
In acknowledging the size of the crowd, shortly before their exit The UpperClass Men got everyone to do the, “wave.”
A bystander, whose first time it was seeing UCM perform, says she was impressed and that they definitely kept her attention. Even after the fact that The UpperClass Men were packing they received additional cheers, “Woah! Yeah UpperClassmen I love you guys,” a fan yelled.
The UpperClass Men say that if given the opportunity, they would accept the invite to perform again with Patrick but instead at a larger venue and together in songs.
The following performance would be Patrick Stump. Due to technical difficulty intermission took slightly longer than expected.
Nonetheless Patrick Stump arrived; he and his band began their set. A run-down of all the many songs performed were the following, “Let’s Dance/ Spotlight/Porcelain,” ”Everybody,” “Cute Girls,” “Allie,” “Bad Side of 25,” “This City,” “Run Dry/ Crypto,” “Explode,” “ Drum Solo/ In The Air Tonight,” and last but not least “I” In Lie. These songs were catchy; the instruments summed them up greatly. The lyrics had significant meaning behind them, such as in the song “Dance Miserable,” in which Patrick Stump takes on particular political issues. The set performed kept the crowd on their feet. There was shucking, there was jiving, there was rocking and there was head nodding from the performers and the crowd itself.
Shortly before Patrick Stump’s exit he walked into and indulged the front, center of the crowd. The crowd enjoyed it; people began hugging him, and yanking on him left and right. He closed the show with his performance of, “This City is my city and I love it….” The crowd mouthed the lyrics to this song verbatim.
After the show there was merchandise sold. The UpperClassmen and Patrick Stump merchandise was sold at reasonable prices. The UpperClassmen shirts went for $10 and an EP of their live performance from CMJ was $8. Furthermore, Soul Punk and Patrick Stump graphic t-shirts were $20 apiece. The Soul Punk cd sold for $15. Afterwards, Patrick Stump did a meet & greet plus signing for his fans.
The entire concert was phenomenal! Each performer gave it their all and as a result they were parched and their faces gleamed with sweat. The music line up flowed well and the smoke filmed room, plus stage lighting gave leeway to a picture-perfect scenery. With that said, the concert ended on a good note. Major props to The UpperClass Men and Patrick Stump on such a successful show!
