Beware of Darkness blows up, in Tahoe at Crystal Bay

Beware of Darkness
Beware of Darkness debuts in the Red Room on Friday, Aug. 26.
Photo by Cara Robbins

So who do three guys from Santa Barbara, San Clemente and New Jersey get together to start a rock band? Craig’slist.

Beware of Darkness coalesced with a modern method but it ascended to the national scene the old-fashioned way: with a hit song.

Released in 2012, “Howl” was featured in a Stephen King movie, played on “Monday Night Football” and performed live on “Conan.” Popularity of the song from the band’s debut 2013 album, “Orthodox,” led to a worldwide tour and the opportunity to perform with Cage The Elephant, Thirty Seconds to Mars and The Smashing Pumpkins.

“It’s been really good to us,” singer-guitarist Kyle Nicolaides said. “It’s like the gift that just keeps giving. And it’s had a lifespan that been pretty astounding. It’s pretty crazy write a song, record it and it takes you around the world.

“And it will help people and make people’s lives better. That was the most inspiring part about touring is seeing the direct result of that of how songs can affect people and how you can create something that affects people and helps people. That was pretty humbling.”

Beware of Darkness, which includes bassist Daniel Curcio and drummer Tony Cupito, follows up the first album on Sept. 16 with “Are You Real.” Nicolaides blew eight amps during the recording sessions. So it’s no surprise that when the band comes through the area to play Friday at the Crystal Bay Casino, that it will pay a visit to Reno’s famed music store.

“We’re going to Bizarre Guitar,” Nicolaides said. “We love (Greg Golden’s) shop. We’ve been there before and I was this close to buying a Les Paul.”

As it prepares to go on tour in September with the Struts, Beware the Darkness is showcasing its songs from the new record.

“We played a show last night (in Santa Ana) and I was so happy with the set and how the band is sounding,” Nicolaides said. “I think we’ve never sounded better than right now. We’re all having so much fun playing and just enjoying it.

“The first album was all over the place, genre wise. There’d be a big rock song and then a piano ballad and then an acoustic song. It was just all over the place. There was a lack of focus. With the new album, we had that focus to just do one thing really well. Make a big rock record that was in one lane.”

“Is This Real?” was produced by Catherine Marks, who was named Breakthrough Producer of the Year at 2016 Music Producers Guild Awards and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Wolf Alice’s “Moaning Lisa Smile.”

“I learned to trust the process and to let go because with any creative endeavor and even in life, you can plan and you can prepare but stuff always happens that you don’t plan for and stuff breaks,” Nicolaides said, referring to the eight broken amps. “So when something doesn’t go as it was planned you have a choice to explore where that’s going to take you and trust that it’s going to lead to some higher creativity.”

    • Beware of Darkness
      When: 10 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26
      Where: Crystal Bay Casino Red Room
      Cover: free

ABOUT Tim Parsons

Tim Parsons
Tim Parsons is the editor of Tahoe Onstage who first moved to Lake Tahoe in 1992. Before starting Tahoe Onstage in 2013, he worked for 29 years at newspapers, including the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Eureka Times-Standard and Contra Costa Times. He was the recipient of the 2011 Keeping the Blues Alive award for Journalism.

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