TimeFlies Take Dallas By Storm At The Palladium Ballroom [Exclusive]

Posted by on March 27, 2012


“Who are you here for?” a Palladium parking attendant asks as I roll my window down slowly.

“Timeflies and Sammy Adams…”

“You’re going to have the park in the lot behind you. This is reserved for the artists.” We pay our obligatory ten dollars to park, and walk to the side of the Palladium where Jared Glick, Timeflies’s manager, asks us to meet him before sound check.

It’s 6:45, and there’s already a line of overzealous fans forming at the door in the hopes to see Timeflies up close and personal.

Five minutes later, Cal Shapiro one-half of Timeflies, appears wearing a black cardigan hoodie and Ray-Ban sunglasses, greeting us as he walks up to the door.

“Hi, I’m Cal. Did Jared get you passes yet?”

“They have to have passes to get in,” says the security guard impetuously at the door.

“They’re with us” Cal retorts, as he ushers us through the back door and into the main room where it will be filled with screaming fans later that night.

Earlier in the day, I sat down with their manager over lunch at Mi Cocina (and admittedly few mambo taxis) to talk TimeFlies’s meteoric rise. “Just a few months ago” he says, “we were getting paid next to nothing.” Now we’re in Dallas, the furthest point away from Boston, doing a show at one of the biggest venues in Dallas for 2,000 people. It’s amazing.”

Much of Timeflies’s success can be attributed to their weekly “Timeflies Tuesday” installments released on Youtube that has garnered over 13,000,000 views. From Disney’s infamous “Under The Sea Ballad” with super-producer Rob Resnick on steel drums to the Eagle’s “Hotel California”, Timeflies’s covers have catapulted them from blogosphere to a viable duo catching the interest of major labels. It’s tough because “everyone wants to be involved,” says Jared. Labels all begin as “friends willing to help out.” The moment they ask to be involved, “I have to break it off. It’s almost overwhelming.”

Opening for recent Sony signee Sammy Adams, Timeflies performed material from their latest “The Scotch Tape” album, reaching as high as number 9 on the iTunes charts last year. During the performance, Cal stopped in the middle, much to chagrin of their fans, to freestyle over Diddy’s “I’m Coming Home” while super-producer Rob Resnick manned the keyboard. Given a random list of topics from the crowd that included Tony Romo, The Mavericks, and SMU, Cal’s freestyle was the highlight of the night, showcasing his rapping abilities while impressionable young women hung on his every word.

Scores of fans mobbed the duo as they made themselves available after the show in the front of the venue. For over a hour, they shook hands, took pictures, and signed apparel for everyone who attended the show. As the crowd around them began to dwindle, one teenage fan with a mouth full of braces told her friend on the phone, “I just met Timeflies. They’re such good guys. I totally can’t wait for them to come back to Dallas next year.” Admittedly, my inner teenage girl couldn’t help but feel the same way too.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

+