During an especially rough patch in husband and wife Ben and Kristen Mench-Thurlow’s lives, the two were reminded of the cathartic powers of emo music. A longtime love for the genre, paired with Ben’s background as a booking agent in the contemporary and performing arts industry sparked a unique idea for a show: a fusion of the raw passion of emo music with the grandeur of orchestral arrangements.
“We wanted to work on a show that would blend both worlds and bring new fans into a traditional setting in front of a band they love, with music they grew up with and a whole new element of an orchestra,” Ben Mench-Thurlow said during a recent phone call.
The co-production by the Mench-Thurlows became Emo Orchestra, a pairing of a rock band’s live performance with an orchestra. The 15-piece group of instrumentalists, led by conductor Evan Rogers, first went on tour in the fall of 2023 with Hawthorne Heights, performing just under 30 shows in the U.S. Each of the events features original songs from a rock band, along with emo anthem covers from other acts including My Chemical Romance, New Found Glory, Panic! At The Disco, Blink-182 and more.
The production’s second iteration will spotlight an orchestral collaboration with Escape the Fate and hit tour stops at the Garden Amp in Garden Grove on Friday, May 17 and the Orpheum Theatre on Saturday, May 18.
Escape the Fate’s performance includes their catalog of hits and new songs from “Out of the Shadows 2.0,” the group’s latest album released in April. For lead vocalist Craig Mabbitt, there was always hope he’d hear the band’s music with an orchestra.
“It’s been amazing on a personal artistic level to hear these songs with the orchestral arrangements, and just the whole vibe of the tour is amazing,” Mabbitt said. “It’s in beautiful theaters that you wouldn’t necessarily see these types of bands play normally without the live orchestra. It’s also a celebration of the music and nostalgia of the good (and) bad memories that you might have.”
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A subgenre of hardcore punk, emo, is short for emotional and is characterized by raw, pained and vulnerable lyrics. For the emo-naive, a sample serving of the music might include Rites of Spring’s “All There Is” to My Chemical Romance’s “I’m Not Okay” and Dashboard Confessional’s “Screaming Infidelities.” Today the subgenre has been adopted across music fueled by angsty teens from pop star Olivia Rodrigo’s “pretty isn’t pretty” to the late rapper Lil Peep’s “Better Off (Dying).”
“Teenagers are going through the same, if not worse, things that we went through when we were teenagers, and this music really helped a lot of us growing up,” Mench-Thurlow said.
Emo music was the soundtrack of Mench-Thurlow’s adolescence, so becoming a booking agent for some of the genre’s most prominent names was a natural progression. Today, he is a music touring agent at Reliant Talent Agency. As an emo at heart, he understood that the genre has a history of incorporating instrumentals, and what better way to pull on the broody heartstrings of fans than using the actual strings of an orchestra?
“Bands in the scene from The Used, Story of the Year and Underoath used string sections in those early and mid-2000s records,” he said. “It just pairs so well with this music and bands that helped shape this genre of emo and alternative rock. There’s something emotional and special about stringed instruments and hearing a cello or bass play that low. You can’t get that timber out of any other guitar, bass, keyboard or synth. It’s got to be live.”
Each Emo Orchestra show is meticulously curated to create a gothic and high-culture setting, the stage is lit with candles, and a ‘busking corner’ in the lobby provides a unique pre-show experience where performers play for attendees as they make their way to their seats.
“We sort of think of these shows as an apology letter to everybody that attended Warped Tour for 20 years, making everybody stand on blacktop and wait for 11 hours to see their favorite band for 30 minutes,” Mench-Thurlow jested.
The shows are geared to be for all ages where perhaps emo parents can bring their kids, or parents who are orchestra fans can find common ground with their emo-inclined children. The Mench-Thurlows’ production also aims to expose kids to music and instruments they may not otherwise encounter.
“While arts in schools are consistently at risk, we hope that our fans are bringing their families to inspire that next generation of [artists]” Mench-Thurlow said. “We hope that kids see violin, upright bass, cello, flute or clarinet players and see that no matter what instrument they play, they can be in a rock band, a hip-hop group or a country band. I hope they see that the instrument they decide to play is not defined by a genre.”
Emo Orchestra
Where: Garden Amp, 12762 Main St., Garden Grove,.
When: 6-10 p.m. Friday, May 17.
Tickets: $55 at ticketweb.com.
Also: 6-10 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at The Orpheum Theatre, 842 South Broadway, Los Angeles. $29.50-$69.50 at Ticketmaster.com.
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