This band and this show. I’m telling you, for while there, it didn’t look like either was ever going to happen. Thankfully, both defied the odds and cleopatrick, along with their best friends/opening act Ready The Prince, were finally able to give Washington, D.C. a show to remember.
But before we get to their long-awaited performance at a sold-out Songbird Music House, let’s take it all the way back. Vocalist/guitarist Luke Gruntz and drummer Ian Fraser are from the small town of Cobourg, Ontario, and have been best friends since they were 4. For as long as they can remember, they’ve wanted to be in a band together but even they weren’t sure it was going to happen. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s Gruntz, describing the story of their breakout hit:
“It’s one of the craziest, most ironic things that’s ever happened,” he said. “I was going to college because I was too scared to put all my chips in the band pile, and that’s what ‘hometown’ is about: it’s a song about feeling like we’re doing all this stuff and we’re working so hard and we’re just never going to be heard. It’s literally a song about people probably never hearing our songs. And then by some act of the universe, that song ended up unlocking all the doors for us.”
With more than 77 million streams, it’s safe to say the word is out on cleopatrick. And yet, their D.C. show still almost never happened. Originally the duo was scheduled to perform just before Halloween, but the band ended up having to cancel the last five shows of their North American tour thanks to the pandemic.
cleopatrick then announced they were hitting the road in 2022 with Royal Blood … just as soon as they made up the last few dates on their previous tour. Finally, and mercifully, the small-town band and the long-awaited D.C. show finally came together for a killer performance that rocked the sellout crowd. Playing tracks from their debut album, BUMMER, cleopatrick ensured those music-loving souls who braved a pandemic (and a snowstorm!) were thoroughly entertained.