Pop’s Nightclub and Concert Venue hosted the final round to Battle for Pointfest. The band, based in Fenton, performed to one of their biggest crowds in the final round of Battle for Pointfest. During the Battle for Pointfest bands compete in a series of rounds to be named the winner and receive the opportunity to play at the annual Pointfest festival. City of Parks won the first place title for the second year in a row.
“We had a lot more confidence going into Pointfest this year,” drummer Brian Grubb said. “We wanted to defend our title.”
City of parks was chosen the winner along with Isabella and The Judge. In years past the battle for pointfest judges will only select two, but due to the success of the bands they allowed all three to perform.
Each band was given tickets to sell with their name on the ticket. This way the judges were able to calculate which band brought in the most viewers. City of Parks sold the most tickets to the final show of Battle for Pointfest. They sold 160 tickets, of those 129 people showed up with a City of Parks ticket.
When City of Parks won the battle for pointfest in 2015 Grubb said the band was not ready for the festival. At the 2016 festival Grubb and the band believe they will take advantage of their opportunity. Now that City of Parks will play at pointfest for the second year in a row they have their focus on the show.
“We felt like there were a lot of rookie mistakes last year,” Grubb said. “We were totally unprepared, so this year it was if we make Pointfest we are going to do it right. So we put everything into this, we called everyone we knew to sell tickets to have the opportunity to go back. This year when it [winning] happened, it was huge because we want to do it right this time.”
The original City of Parks lineup consists of Webster student and guitarist Joey Olswozy, bassist Blake Boyster, drummer Brian Grubb and former lead singer, now guitarist, Dan Grubb. The band, which formed about two years ago, recently added a new lead singer, Lloyd Schueler.
Schueler became the fifth member of City of Parks when former lead singer Dan Grubb went through surgery in Dec 2015 to remove a tumor from his throat. The tumor was found to be harmless, but Dan Grubb had a hard recovery ahead, so the band started looking for a temporary lead singer. Dan Grubb was expected to make a full recovery anywhere between two and six weeks. Dan Grubb works with a vocal coach in order to rehabilitate his voice.
The band planned for Schueler to sing until Dan Grubb recovered and was able to reassume his role. The original plan intended for Schueler to step into backing vocals and guitarist. Then Dan Grubb would reassume the role of lead singer, but the band now wants to keep Schueler as the lead singer. When Dan Grubb recovers he will become the backing vocalist and the second guitarist.
“[The band now] is so much better,” Dan Grubb said.
With the addition of a new lead singer, the band hopes to record another album that features Schueler’s voice. City of Parks inspirations are wide spread but one their biggest influences in State Champs. City of Parks hopes to follow in the footsteps of State Champs and record an all acoustic album or even a few acoustic
“We’re big fans of acoustic music, there’s a lot of bands who get a big push by just having a very well-recorded acoustic song,” Boyster said.
In addition to the acoustic album, the band hopes to enter the competition to play in the 2016 Battle of the Bands for Journey’s Warped Tour. The band decided not to enter the competition in 2015 because they were just starting up. Boyster and Brian Grubb believe they have established their presence in the St. Louis pop-punk scene. With the release of their album the two believe they are ready to enter the battle for Warped Tour 2016.
“[Last year] we didn’t really have anything professional and our Facebook was very bare bones,” Brian Grubb said.
City of Parks hopes to team up with local band Isabella and do a string of shows in Missouri. The ultimate goal is to be able to do shows outside of the Midwest, but Boyster said the band needs to stay near St. Louis for the time being.
“At this point we just need something small, maybe an hour or two hours away,” Boyster said. “We are not trying to dive head first. We have to get our little toes wet and then our feet.”
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