TEMPE, Ariz. — Local eco-hardcore band Climate Chainz stopped playing at the midpoint of their very first performance last night, departing immediately for Los Angeles to seek better creative opportunities, friends and family confirmed.
“I was counting off the third song of the set when the whole routine just started to feel stale. Same old audience, same old venue,” said drummer Wade Thompson, referring to Cactus Hank’s, the 70-capacity bar at which they sold nine tickets. “We got as far as we could in that little town. So we packed up, said our goodbyes, and headed off.”
An abandoned setlist suggested that Climate Chainz was planning to play all five songs from their upcoming EP Penguin Corpses, but they cut the final two songs, “Sea No Evil” and “Water Wars,” to begin their six-hour drive to Hollywood. In addition to the need for larger venues, sources within the band admitted a desire to work with top-flight producers.
“Our EP was fun, and I’ll always be damn proud of that record… but we’re never going to work with a local producer again,” said singer Brenna Graham, whose brother Charlie engineered the unreleased EP because he was the only person who could work GarageBand. “You see what an L.A. producer like Rick Rubin was able to do with burnouts like Johnny Cash and Eminem, so just imagine what’s possible with a fresh voice like ours.”
Various local sources indicated that while they would miss Climate Chainz as part of the Tempe scene, they knew it was only a matter of time before the band moved on to greener pastures.
“It’s been amazing to watch these kids grow. With that first song, they were just figuring themselves out, but they really locked in with the second one. That’s when I knew they were just too big for us,” said Hank Perez, longtime owner of Cactus Hank’s. “It felt like watching The Beatles in Hamburg, but instead of The Beatles, it was some teenagers who listened to one Bad Religion album and went to Guitar Center.”
At press time, Climate Chainz were reportedly speaking out against the corporate nature of music in Hollywood and mulling a move to Austin.