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At a hot and energized Spotlight at The Paramount — a stage and general admission area ensconced inside a bar attached to Huntington’s premiere live venue — the fast-rising hard rock band Plush performed Wednesday as they embark on their first ever headlining tour of the United States.
The quartet — composed of ax-wielding frontwoman Moriah Formica, lead guitarist Bella Perron bassist Ashley Suppa and drummer Faith Powell — performed a set loaded with tracks off their self-titled debut album and their brand new EP, “Find The Beautiful.” The performance included their fan-favorite cover of Heart’s “Barracuda,” their first-ever single “Hate,” which climbed up the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart in 2021, and “Left Behind,” the lead single ahead of their EP which also ascended the charts.
“Find The Beautiful” showcases the full range of the band’s capabilities thus far on their journey. The anthemic “Left Behind” and the raging “Hope It Hurts” — both in drop-B tuning, meaning the band’s string instruments can pummel the audience with lower frequencies — are among the heaviest in their catalog sonically speaking. Much of the band’s music covers heartbreak and other negative emotions, but Formica has penned heavier lyrics as well, such as those heard on the EP’s title track.
“Obviously there’s a lot of negative emotions,” Formica said when asked about her songwriting in a full-band interview about an hour before taking the stage Wednesday evening. “A lot of it centers around the typical heartbreak, but a lot of it also centers around mental illness, struggles with that and navigating through life as a young adult.”
‘Night and day’
When asked about what they are most proud of throughout their three years of continued success, the bandmates pointed to growth.
“How far we’ve come as people, as a band, the fact that we’re even on our very first headline tour right now, I would say personally, that’s what I’m the most proud of,” Formica said in.
“We’ve grown individually, but also as a band too,” Perron added. “The show we put on three years ago compared to the show we put on now is night and day. To have these longer sets, to keep growing and experimenting, looking back on all we’ve done in three years, its a short amount of time, it’s something we’re all really proud of.”
On stage, the leather jacket-clad Formica commanded the audience with her powerful pipes emblematic of Heart’s Ann Wilson, while Perron alternatively smiled and snarled as she shredded to the audience’s delight. The bell-bottom-rocking Suppa’s thunderous and melodic bass playing bolstered the riffs of her bandmates to her left. Powell, whose polite nature, Formica noted, contrasts with her powerhouse drumming, showcased her during an instrumental the band crafted for the tour.
Champions
Over the past three years, Plush, whose members all hover a couple of years either side of 20, opened for groups they have admired since they were kids first learning their instruments. Mere days after releasing their debut album in 2021, the band was brought on Halestorm and Evenescence’s co-headlining tour.
“That was absolutely insane,” said Formica, who cited both acts as major influences. “That was one of those things that you just don’t see coming and you dreamed about as a kid. It was really surreal to be able to watch them each night, watch how they command a stage and to just get to talk to them. It was really amazing and definitely a tour that I think all of us will remember for the rest of our lives.”
The group also opened for Alice In Chains, a favorite of Suppa’s.
“I listened to a lot of Alice In Chains growing up, so I would say [I was inspired by] Mike Starr and Mike Inez and bass players, and also Robert DeLeo from Stone Temple Pilots, those were probably three of my biggest inspirations growing up,” she said. “Something about their bass playing, it’s so melodic but also rhythmic. It was so crazy when we got to tour with Alice In Chains and I got to meet Mike Inez for the first time. It was like meeting an old friend, it was so amazing, he’s so sweet.”
In March, the band wrapped up its time on a tour opening for Falling In Reverse and Disturbed.
“I love Chris Turner from Oceans Ate Alaska a lot; I’ve never seen a drummer play more precise than him,” Powell said. “Luke Holland [of Falling In Reverse] is an amazing drummer too. I’ve been watching his videos since I started drumming and I looked up to him so it was really cool to go on tour with him.”
Stars ‘in the making’
With only a few weeks of between the Disturbed shows and their own headlining tour, the experience is still fresh with the group.
“For a lot of the tours that we’ve been on, the headliners have been so gracious to us and so welcoming to us,” Suppa said. “We just want to make sure as headliners now — which is so crazy to say — that we’re doing the same for our openers, we’re making them feel welcome, at home and comfortable at these shows.”
Many audience members waiting for the band to take the stage Wednesday said they became Plush fans after catching them as an opener over the past couple of years. In 2019, before Plush was formed, Lindenhurst resident Jim Yodice saw Formica open for the band Christian metal band Stryper, and even join them onstage for a song at The Paramount when she was just 18. Immediately following that show, he took to Instagram, posting a selfie he snapped alongside the singer with the caption “remember this name because this [is] a star in the making.”
“Her talent knows no boundaries, and the rest of [Plush] is amazing too,” Yodice said Wednesday evening.
The next stages
As for when fans can expect Plush to release their second album, Formica pointed to next year. The band will tour the states the remainder of the year, and they pointed to one show on the western leg of the tour as particularly meaningful. On Aug. 27, Plush will play the Whisky a Go Go, a venue on Los Angeles’ famed Sunset Strip, the breeding ground for some of the biggest bands of the ‘80s from Motley Crue to Guns N’ Roses.
“For me playing the Whiskey is definitely checking one of those big boxes,” Perron said. “Growing up always listening to a lot of the ‘80s hair bands because the guitar playing was just ridiculous — it doesn’t even matter what the band is, from that era, the shredding is unreal — so playing such an iconic and historical venue like that is definitely checking off a box.”
After lapping the states, Formica said she hopes the band can tour overseas. When asked what got the band this far and what will propel it forward, the vocalist pointed to “drive and passion” as well as those in the band’s corner.
“It’s all of us together and the people you have backing you up, surrounding you and supporting you, whether it be family or management,” she said. “It’s everybody, together.”
