![]() ![]() with opening acts Teenage Halloween and Devon Kay & the Solutions starting at 8 p.m. “There’s not a tighter band in the world than our band when we’re on it.” “As a band, we are far better now than we ever were,” Felumlee said. The boutique studio is outfitted with top-of-the-line gear and a gorgeous live room. “The recording session we did down here was remarkable,” said Rossi, who opened Bombsight’s new location in the 800 block of West Chestnut in May. Thirty years on, Smoking Popes are on top of their game. “People are singing every word, some people cry. “A lot of the cities we play, we only get there once every few years,” he said. But Felumlee said they get the most gratification from playing the songs people know and love. “It’s kind of neat to see people who fell in love with you in college and they now have kids.”Īs Millennials and Gen Z-ers increasingly pop up in the crowd, the Smoking Popes is finding new fans and new songs are in the hopper. “We played Connecticut a few months back and there was a guy who had his 20-year-old son with him,” he said. “I’m kind of like the fourth brother,” said Felumlee, who's noticed intergenerational crowds at recent Smoking Popes shows. He said the interpersonal dynamics are pretty much the same as they were three decades ago. He spent the time away from Smoking Popes playing in Alkaline Trio. “It’s more for cardio -because we’re old.”įelumlee, 49, has known his bandmates since high school. “We’ve played most these songs thousands of times,” Felumlee said in an interview at Bombsight. You can never take the 90s out of the 90s kids. But most rehearsals serve a different purpose now. People on Reddit have listed things that made the 90s special, and we are all going to get nostalgic. They’re slowly writing new songs - the last release was "Into the Agony" in 2018 and a single, "Madison," dropped this summer. But he convinced the brothers to venture south to record at Bombsight. It’s just unbelievable to me.”įelumlee said the band typically meets up halfway in Aurora, renting a studio for a couple hours for a brush up. “So then watching in the studio, I was hesitating to not stare at them, but it’s so radical to record someone of that talent. While a student at Olympia High School, Rossi first saw Smoking Popes at Illinois State University's Bone Student Center. The Smoking Popes got their start in a far northwest Chicago suburb and keep a home base near the city, but Felumlee moved to Bloomington three years ago - which is how Bombsight Studios owner David Rossi found himself in his west Bloomington recording studio with his favorite band as they laid down tracks for a new album. Neil Hennessy replaced Kellenberger in 2008 until Mike Felumlee rejoined in 2015. The band reunited in 2005, initially with drummer Rob Kellenberger on the roster with brothers Josh, Matt and Eli Caterer. But a deal with Capitol Records went south three records in and by the turn of the century, Smoking Popes was done. The ‘90s post-punk band achieved early success opening for Green Day, propelled into the spotlight with a hit song on the “Clueless” soundtrack. It’s their first appearance since selling out Nightshop in 2019. Chicago rock band Smoking Popes is back in Bloomington this weekend for a one-night-only set at the Castle.
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