The fleet has arrived

Who: Thee Armada, with Parade the Day, Carawae, Ambellina, The Final Stretch and Madore
When: 4/19/08 - Doors at 6 pm
Where: South Texas College
Cost: $10 

By Amy Nichol Smith
asmith@themonitor.com

Thee Armada is taking Texas by storm.

The pop rock 5-piece has already conquered their hometown of Houston with their first single "Rock, Shock & Load" dominating the radio and they keep winning Battle of the Band contests. Thee Armada has earned spots on tours such as The Taste of Chaos and The Vans Warped Tour in Houston. Now they're on tour with Parade the Day and Carawae and coming to play a show McAllen at South Texas College tomorrow night.

The band's sound has been compared to American Hi-Fi, Bowling For Soup and most often, All-American Rejects. I had a chance to chat with one of the Brians (Shelton) and the lead singer, Josh Caddy.

What's the best thing about touring?

Josh: The best part is playing to people who have no idea who you are, so then we have the opportunity to impress them and make them fans. Which is what we really need because we have been getting all of our fans in Houston and we need to branch out so, that's the best part, I think, about the tour.

What's the worst thing about touring?

Josh: The bad part is, sometimes you don't know where you're going to sleep. So you kinda have to ask people at the show, "Hey, can I crash at your pad?"

When you decided this was what you were going to do with your life, who gave you the best piece of advice?

Brian: This is going to sound weird, but I was watching Oprah with my mom at like, one o'clock in the morning one night because she DVR'ed it and Tom Hanks was on there. And it was the story of this aspiring actor who was at a play, watching his friend and then Tom Hanks snuck in the door just to catch a few minutes of it and he freaked out like, "Oh my gosh, it's Tom Hanks, my idol." And he went up to Tom Hanks and he said, "What advice would you have for an aspiring actor?" And he, Tom, said, "Well, persevere, guys. That's all I can really tell you is persevere." And at first I was like, man, that's it, that's all he can tell you? He's Tom Hanks. And then the more I kept thinking about it the more I realized that really is the best advice is persevere.

What is something you've discovered about each other while on tour you wish you'd never known?

Brian: Hmm. I dunno. That's touchy.

Josh laughs.

Brian: Um, yeah, I'm going to say this and probably get killed for it. Um, our uh, our bass player, he might have somewhat of a foot odor. But that's all I want to say. He's such a great guy and we love having him in the band, but that would be the one thing that sometimes late at night when we're driving in the van and you know, we're trying to sleep and I'll just get a whiff and it wakes me up.

Josh: You know, for the most part, we're all pretty regular, normal, chilled out dudes and we all click real well.

What's on your iPod right now?

Josh: Okay, right now I'm listening to Cobra Starship, a band called Acceptance, who is no longer a band unfortunately and another group called The Jonas Brothers.

Who would you say are your biggest influences collectively?

Brian: I don't even know if we have one collectively. It's like a gumbo pot of like, you know, stuff.

Josh: Look, we all ... Brian plays guitar the way he plays guitar. Mike plays bass the way he plays bass and I sing the way I sing and we sound like we do. We don't try to sound a specific way.

How will you know when you've finally made it? What is the pinnacle of success?

Brian: Well, at least for me, the pinnacle of success will be when we tour in a tour bus.

Josh: When we're making enough money each night to afford a tour bus, sleeping comfortably and doing it full time.

What are you most looking forward to at the end of this tour?

Brian: Sleeping in my bed.

So is most of your music like your single, positive and upbeat or is "Rock, Shock & Load" a fluke?

Brian: That's actually a fluke. We usually play death metal. We just decided to write a pop, catchy song and look what happened.

Josh laughs after a long pause.

Brian: And I just want to clarify that no, we don't play death metal. I just wanted to say that we try to bring fun into it all.

Who: Thee Armada, Parade the Day, Carawae, Ambellina

For more info: http://www.myspace.com/theearmadamusic

Amy Nichol Smith is a freelance writer for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4420.