Strung Out @ The Orpheum
Thu Aug 30, 7:00 PM - Fri Aug 31, 6:00 AM

Way back in 1989, Jason Cruz got the bright idea to start a punk band with his guitar-playing buddies Rob Ramos and Jake Kiley. It wasn’t the kind of plan that required much more preparation than play fast, play loud, play all the time. No one thought this high school band would become a career. Yet here we are, nearly three decades later, and Strung Out is not only still active but thriving, a paragon of punk and an inspiration to thousands of fans (and musicians) worldwide.While Strung Out has made their name on intense, frenetic slabs of metal-influenced tech-punk, there is more to the band than meets the eye. It might come as a shock to learn the band’s new eight-song release, Black Out The Sky, is an acoustic affair, but as Cruz says, it’s not nearly as surprising for the band members.“Every song starts on an acoustic guitar for the most part,” Cruz begins. “If it’s a good song, it can be played acoustic. For about the past five years, I’ve been pushing the band to try an acoustic release. These guys are great musicians—we can do anything.”Cruz and his bandmates—Kiley, Ramos and bassist Chris Aiken—began working on Black Out The Sky in January 2017 with producer Kyle Black, who they had previously teamed up with on 2015’s blistering Transmission.Alpha.Delta, and who played a role in the band deciding to re-work two older songs, “Matchbook” and “UnKoil,” for the release.“Kyle is a fan of the band,” the singer says. “I am the kind of person who wants to stray and go out into the unknown when I’m in the studio, but Kyle represents our fans. He didn’t let me stray too far with the melody or the music—just far enough to keep it fresh.”With no set deadline on the release, the recording process went on for nearly the entirety of 2017, allowing for song arrangements to bloom in ways Strung Out songs never had before. “The songs came out really super-dark, not jingly-jangly acoustic stuff,” Cruz says. “We had to get other musicians involved. Some of it is sparse and intimate, and some of it has a lot going on.”