Vesperteen

WCPO Lounge Acts

Colin Rigsby of colorful pop band Vesperteen performs live and chats for WCPO Lounge Acts.
What is it about Columbus that’s inspired so much joyous, colorful pop music lately? From world-beating duo Twenty One Pilots to up-and-comers Vesperteen, our neighbor to the north is doing something very right. Fronted by drummer/singer Colin Rigsby, Vesperteen channels the glammy vibe of Queen shot through with the sexual energy of 1980s Australian pop-rock icons INXS and the electronic bent of contemporary groups like Bleachers and The 1975.
The band’s self-titled 2015 EP features their signature digital pop anthem, “Shatter in the Night,” a rousing track that mixes programmed drums and keyboards under distorted vocals and guitars for an epic song that belongs in front of massive festival crowds even as the group makes its way up the musical ladder in sweaty rock clubs. The other tunes on that six-track effort stir in elements of gospel (“I Never Knew How to Love You”), ambient rock (“Obsess/Possess”) and the aforementioned INXS-like pop (“Feathers so Hollow”).
It makes sense that Twenty One Pilots drummer Josh Dun has tweeted out props to Vesperteen and worn the group’s merch, as he and Rigsby both drummed in the Columbus Christian-associated band House of Heroes before moving on to to their current projects. (They also reportedly share the same drum tattoo on their arms.)
After writing, recording and touring the world with House of Heroes for a decade, Rigsby took a break, only to find himself working on new music that turned into his solo project. The one-man-band’s name is a play on the word vespertine, which, fittingly, refers to something that flourishes in the evening. You know, like a rock band.
The mash-up sound has clearly made an impression on the group’s many followers (known as the Vesperteam), who were tapped earlier this year to star in a crowd-sourced video for the bouncy new wave single “What We Could Have Been.”

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