If you don’t know who DNCE is—it’s time to get caught up! DNCE is a new band featuring Joe Jonas, who I find confusing to explain because his former band is also his family name and even though they are no longer "The Jonas Brothers," they will always be the Jonas brothers (I hope that made sense). Anyways, back to the band! Joe Jonas now shares the stage with guitarist JinJoo Lee, bassist/keyboardist Cole Whittle, and drummer Jack Lawless. They are amazing—and here’s why:
1. Their Sound
My sister describes it as “a poppier 1975”, I describe it as a “a tune that makes you move”. You can’t sit still listening to them.
2. Their lyrics...
…are totally genius! From hilarious to real to breathtaking, their lyrics is brilliant, take a look:
Cake By The Ocean…see you licking frosting from your own hands (my favorite line)
But would you pay my rent? (Or how I prefer to sing it: pay my tui-tion)
When you’re standing there in your underwear, and my t-shirt from the night before… (o frisky!)
Yeah I want to tell everyone, that you are, you are my only one, screaming at the toOOOop of my lungs, but I’m whispering, I’m whispering, I’m whispering…because I don’t wanna jinx it (THE FEELS!)
3. Their name/image
DNCE. I know what you’re wondering—where’s the ‘A’? I was wondering the same thing, but not to worry Joe has the answer. There’s no ‘A’ because it’s “When you’re too drunk to spell ‘Dance’.”
4. Their philosophy
If Joe’s insightful explanation didn’t suffice, JinJoo's definitely will, “It’s complete, it’s imperfect, but it’s still all right. You don’t have to be a great dancer to dance—you can dance however you want to, and still have so much fun. That’s really the beauty of this whole thing.”
5. Their background
For starters (the obvious one)—Joe Jonas. We know he’s a hilarious, sweet, and talented singer and even actor (we can’t forget JONAS and JONAS: LA no matter how short lived they were). He even had a solo album, which at the time totally unfortunate it didn’t get the recognition he deserved but everything happens for a reason and now he’s formed this beautiful beautiful band.
Then we’ve got guitarist JinJoo Lee from South Korea whose guitar skills are amazing as fxck you wouldn’t believe she taught herself to play guitar at age 12 so she could join her siblings' band. I’ve been teaching myself to play guitar for maybe 2 years now and let me tell you, I doubt I’ll ever sound that good. Then again, she did play for Jordan Sparks, the Jonas Brothers, Charlie XCX, and CeeLo Green, so she does have an insane amount of experience.
You know who else has played for the Jonas Brothers? Drummer Jack Lawless from New Jersey! He was into his first year of college when he got the gig and dropped out to join them on tour and it was totally worth it! He even toured with Night Terrors of 1927 and Soft Swells.
Last, but certainly not least, bassist/keyboard player Cole Whittle from Richmond, Virginia! (AY shout out to Virginia! My home state!) Cole Whittle graduated from Berklee College of Music, and also helped start Semi Precious Weapons—an underground party band, that toured with Lady Gaga, and Ke$ha!
6. Their LIVE performance
They are as energetic and animated on stage as they are on the EP. Even better—from what I experienced, they’re really nice people! I was lucky enough to be at their show in Brooklyn on October 23rd (the day their EP Sway came out) and the night began with DJ Danger aka Joe Jonas! Now he was wearing a mask but this girl, Clarissa, said (and I kid you not), “That’s totally Joe! Those are his hands! I KNOW his hands!” …You can’t make this stuff up people.
Anyways, after he pumped up the crowd with the perfect set of songs DNCE finally took the stage playing their EP songs, covering a few songs AND playing MORE of THEIR songs! I really liked Naked and I look forward to hearing that again. Now I was standing by Cole Whittle’s side of the stage and I must say I was totally impressed and in awe at his constant switching of instruments MID-SONG! I can’t even talk and text at the same time and this man is playing two instruments at once.
All this emotion was clearly too much for me though because after the concert when we waited (a really long time in the cold) for them to come out, I had completely blanked on what words were when Joe passed by. So Joe, if you happen upon this article and read thus far—Hi. You’re a really cool person. *Virtual hug*
Luckily though my mind was able to make sentences for the other members, and this is when JinJoo called my friends and me “sweet girls”. (I’m still fangirling about this.) Ah, I love concerts. Especially this concert. You could tell they wanted to take as many pictures and talk with as many people as possible before leaving. And as a new fan of the band—I truly appreciate that.
Thank you DNCE.
The band is currently on tour and will be back in the New York area on November 16th at Webster Hall. Make sure to check out their website for more information. I hope you’re now in the know and are at least a little bit excited to hear them! If you’re not…well what can I say? Alright, I’m gonna have some cake by the ocean now.
Disclaimer: The information on their backgrounds and more can be found on DNCE’s website.
