Pineapple Willows set to perform at ACM’s Live Room

Oklahoma band Pineapple Willows will perform Thursday at ACM’s Live Room in Oklahoma City with The Wavelength opening. The show is set to start around 7 p.m. Admission is $10 or free with a UCO ID.

Pineapple Willows is an emo indie rock or shoegaze pop band with artist influences of Hippo Campus, U2, Beabadoobee, The Beatles and My Chemical Romance, said Danté Frame of Pineapple Willows. 

The band is made up of lead vocalist and guitarist Danté Frame, bassist Dillon Polston and their newest member Andy Copeland who does rhythm, drums and backing vocals. 

They will perform mostly original songs and one cover at the ACM Live Room show, said Frame. He said they will play songs from their recent EP “Pick Up the Tab.” Frame said Dillon Polston wrote most of the EP after returning to the band. Frame said Polston was one of the founding members of the band. 

The band originally was called Diva, but they decided to change the name for a more recognizable one. Frame said a former bass player of the band came up with the name Pineapple Bombs. There were a couple of other bands with the same name, so they decided on Pineapple Willows, Frame said. Frame got the idea to use the word “willows” from a lyric from the first song they wrote. 

The Wavelength will be opening for Pineapple Willows at ACM’s Live Room. The band comprises drummer and singer Rebekah Ruyle, keyboardist and singer Kenna, lead guitarist Logan Kelley, and bass player Riley Luttrell. The Wavelength is a Pop and R&B band, said Ruyle. Kenna, of The Wavelength, is a current student at ACM and is also a part of band OK3 which was featured on “The Voice.”

The Wavelength asked Pineapple Willows to perform with them at ACM’s Live Room. The two bands have previously performed alongside each other. They started performing at shows together after The Wavelength needed an opener for a show at Resonator in August, said Ruyle. They contacted local band baileyboy who recommended Pineapple Willows, said Ruyle. The Wavelength reached out to Pineapple Willows to open for them and they agreed to it. 

Since then they have been playing other shows together. They even performed a cover of a song by The Beatles together at a previous show, said Ruyle. 

The Wavelength will perform mainly originals at the Live Room show that Ruyle and Kenna wrote by themselves, said Ruyle. They also will likely perform two covers which are “Valerie” by Amy Winehouse and “Naive” by The Kooks, said Ruyle. 

The band met because they all work at the School of Rock in Oklahoma City, said Ruyle. Ruyle is a studio coordinator there, Kenna teaches keys and voice, Kelley teaches guitar and bass and Luttrell teaches guitar and bass at the School of Rock. 

They have been playing together for eight or nine months now. After Kenna was on “The Voice,” she asked Ruyle to play shows as a duo and they thought if they ever needed a full band they could ask Riley Luttrell and Logan Kelley to be in the band, said Ruyle. The first gig that they got was headlining at Resonant Head, so they needed a full band. Then they just continued getting asked to perform at places together, said Ruyle.