If the Taking Back Sunday concert at the Bryce Jordan Center last semester wasn't intimate enough for you, Friday's show at SoZo, 256 E. Beaver Ave., which only holds about 250 people, should be a little more suitable.
The Color Fred, the new project by former TBS guitarist Fred Mascherino, will be headlining the Nittany Booking-organized show at 7 p.m. tomorrow.
Mascherino, who was in Taking Back Sunday for about four years, said Color Fred was similar in sound but with more pop and catchiness.
"It runs the gamut," he said. "There's some loud, Foo Fighters-ish rockers ranging down to a piano ballad."
After working his way up the musical ranks with Taking Back Sunday, Mascherino said he is eschewing his clout and going with a "grassroots" approach instead of piggybacking off of his former bandmates.
"I'd rather people just find out about it and like it for what it is," he said. "I'm trying to do everything myself. I don't have a manager, I did all the artwork for the album, and the lyrics in the liner notes are all hand-written."
That being said, Nittany Booker Garrett Bogden is still surprised Mascherino is playing SoZo.
"I didn't think he'd play a venue this small," he said. "The last time he was in State College, he was in front of 3,000 people."
Greg Gabbard, owner of City Lights Records, 316 E. College Ave., said he liked what he heard of Color Fred's debut album, Bend to Break, released on Tuesday, and said it might have crossover potential.
"Obviously, it's going to be Taking Back Sunday fans buying it at first, but it could have legs," he said. "It could find a new audience for [Mascherino]."
Although Color Fred is basically a solo project, Mascherino said he will have a backing band at the show and won't be completely unlike Taking Back Sunday, down to the double vocals of which he grew fond during his time with the band.
"I didn't go for the more typical solo acoustic project," he said. "I tried to write music that people who have listened to the music I've made the past few years will like."
The Color Fred's first record was released this week, but the seeds for the project were sewn about five years ago, when Mascherino was still with Breaking Pangaea, the emo band for which he sung and played guitar before joining Taking Back Sunday.
In his time with both bands, Mascherino recorded some music he didn't think would fit with either project, but because he spent so much time touring, he never really had a chance to do much with it. About a year ago, he began working it in when TBS had some breaks from touring, and eventually found himself with about 45 songs. He whittled it down to 12 for the album, which he began recording in September.
Mascherino said that, in addition to being a culmination of music he's been working on for about five years, the CD was "probably the most environmentally friendly thing out there." The packaging is more than 90 percent recycled cardboard and the booklet is 100 percent recycled. The plastic part that holds the CD itself is made of cornstarch and dissolves in water. He said he hopes that more artists will use this sort of packaging.
And while Bend to Break is the end result of a half-decade's work, Mascherino said it's not the end of the road. He plans to tour for a long time promoting it and writing new material along the way. "Basically, I just want to spread the word," he said.
