Whatever They Want To

Power-pop quartet Audacity

Audacity
AudacityPhoto by Bryan Crowe

Hailing from Fullerton, Calif., power-pop quartet Audacity is loud, brash and melodic, known for break-neck live shows and a tireless tour schedule. In 2013, Audacity released its third studio album, the Weezer-esque Butter Knife.

“We always tell people we’re a rock ‘n’ roll band,” Audacity drummer Thomas Alvarez says. The band’s influences, he says, include punk rock like Redd Kross, the Descendents and Minutemen, but also plain old pop like The Beatles — a sweet, sunny, high-energy mix perfect for So-Cal afternoons at the skate park.

Alvarez thinks Audacity’s stuff recalls the era in between ’60s rock ‘n’ roll and what many consider punk rock: a sound often referred to as garage rock. “Garage rock is such an open term,” Alvarez says. “We kind of just write whatever we want to. We have a lot of different-sounding songs.”

Butter Knife album-track “Pick Slide” is a straight-ahead, larynx-shredding, punk rock anthem; “Hole in the Sky” and “Onomatopoeia” recall Weezer; while the album closes with the piano-based, Beatles-esque “Autumn.” Top to bottom, Butter Knife is chock-full of tasty pop hooks played with tinnitus-inducing ferocity.

The first time Audacity played Eugene it didn’t go well. Alvarez says they were set to open for legendary punk band Man or Astro-man? The headliners had to cancel, and the crowd was pretty bummed. But Audacity came back anyway. “The last time it was awesome,” Alvarez says. “Tons of kids came out.”

Behavior Castle presents Audacity, White Night and Martian Manhunter 8 pm Friday, Jan. 3, at Paper Moon Studios, 542 Blair Blvd.; $5.