It hasn’t been much of a long road for Scottsdale, Ariz., band The Summer Set, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy in their short time together.
The members of the five-piece pop-rock band are still relatively young, with all their ages hovering at about 21. But even though the band self-released their first EP only three years ago, they’ve become quite the road warriors since.
The Summer Set will make a stop at the 9:30 Club in Washington on Sunday. The group has toured with artists like Sing It Loud, The Cab, Cartel and have hit only a few snags in that time.
“I think promoters and club owners might think that we’re just kids,” bassist Stephen Gomez said. “But I feel like younger artists do get a lot of respect from musicians who are older … because we’re doing the same thing they are, but at a younger age.”
But the prospect of some people not taking the young band seriously doesn’t faze Gomez and his bandmates.
“I don’t really worry about it too much,” Gomez said. “I don’t really need, or want, the respect of some promoter or club owner; it’s not a really big deal. My job is to play music and hopefully put on a good show.”
That attitude is paying off big time as the band is in the midst of arguably the biggest stretch of touring in their careers. The Summer Set has been relentlessly hitting the road since the October 2009 release of their debut full-length Love Like This. The band’s 9:30 Club stop is a part of their duty as openers on the huge Alternative Press Tour.
“[The AP Tour] definitely has been the best tour we’ve done, and certainly the biggest we’ve ever done,” Gomez said. “The shows have been doing really well — most of them have sold out or have been close to selling out and that’s great.
“And it’s cool to see, on our third or fourth time back in some cities, how our fan base has grown, and there’s more kids singing along,” he added. “It’s cool to see the progression.”
And the 40-plus dates on the AP Tour aren’t the only shows the band is excited for. They were asked to be a part of the Bamboozle music festival in East Rutherford, N.J., as well as the coinciding Hoodwink Festival, where some Bamboozle bands are asked to perform covers of another artist.
At the latter festival, The Summer Set will be performing a set of Taylor Swift songs, something that the band is very excited for.
“It’s funny, man — I don’t even really listen to a lot of pop-punk anymore,” Gomez said. “I actually like a lot of pop-country music [now, and] also like folky, indie stuff.
“It was probably about two and a half years ago I just decided to turn on my country radio station back home, and I was thinking ‘You know, I’ve never really given this genre of music a chance,'” he added. “And one of the first songs that was on the radio at the time that I really gravitated towards was ‘Our Song’ by Taylor Swift. I was really into that first record of hers, and then she put out Fearless, and I was really into that. And then my band members got really into her when she put out [Fearless], so when we got asked to play Hoodwink we all decided we’d play Taylor Swift songs.”
And as if playing one big tour and two big festivals this year wasn’t enough, the band will also embark on the entire Warped Tour this year — something they have never had the chance to do before.
But what lies beyond Warped is actually up in the air, with no steadfast plans of another tour or a new record but, not surprisingly, it doesn’t sound like that ambiguity is bothering Gomez.
“I think everyone always has ideas. I guess we’re all just working on things separately,” Gomez said. “There’s no plans of [a new record] really right now. I think we all always have ideas in our heads and songs on the backburner that will someday see the light, but no plans yet.”
And maybe, for once, an open schedule is a good thing.
The Summer Set and The AP Tour will be at the 9:30 Club on Sunday. The show is sold out, and doors open at 5 p.m.
klucas@umdbk.com
