Crocodile Rock

While dance-punk duo Crocodiles were planning a cross-country tour to promote their upcoming debut full-length Summer of Hate, which is set to be released April 28 on Fat Possum Records, they received an unexpected offer from their label: ditch playing at dive bars and house parties midway through the tour and jump onboard as opening act for Omaha new-wave group the Faint and English electronica act Ladytron.

“We had already been booking a U.S. tour that would have kept us out till the end of April,” says Crocodiles singer Brandon Welchez in an email. “They [the Faint] contacted someone at our label or something. We were happy when we found out because it meant that we would be playing to more than 20 people a night.”

“We’re playing all sorts of shows for the first half — basements, back yards, bars, basketball courts, bazaars, bowling alleys, beaches, burping contests, et cetera,” writes singer Welchez.

But when the band meets up for their first gig on the Faint/Ladytron tour in Baltimore, a month after kicking off their own tour at South By Southwest in Austin, the sizes of the venues and crowds will grow exponentially.

For Welchez and Rowland, the change in venues shouldn’t matter too much, they’ve played in front of large crowds in their previous bands, the Prayers and the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, and their lively onstage antics shouldn’t be affected either.

As to which type of show they would rather play, the Crocodiles will wait until it’s over until they say for sure. “We’re still a pretty new band and we’ve done plenty of touring, but it’s all been house shows, dive bars, and more unorthodox places. So, it’ll be fun to play some of these theaters and things, but I can’t really say what I prefer until after it’s all done.”

Catch up with the Crocodiles at their homecoming gig at the Casbah on May 11 with the Spectrum.