The ambitious lead singer Sean Kennedy of Tickle Me Pink looks to re-establish his band back atop the trifling music industry that has spit them out after early success. He is the anxious and colorful ringleader amidst a disorderly rock scene that he desperately tries to manipulate.
Fort Collins, Colo. — The tattoo shop was empty in the early afternoon. Sean Kennedy’s mentor was on phone at the front desk and ignored me when I walked in. The rocker was in the back, I recognized his face from the magazines and the music videos.
He was casually preparing an impression for his next tattoo, if he could find space on his body that already had not depicted colorful significance or mythology that wrapped around his limbs.
Kennedy has an anxious personality. When he’s not writing, recording or rehearsing, he devotes himself to his other passions like apprenticing as a tattoo artist. My intuition tells me he enjoys tattooing, it is apparent from his arms and neck.
Sean Kennedy is the lead singer of the Fort Collins based band, Tickle Me Pink, which in the past few years has seen there fair share of peaks and valleys. Kennedy takes on the leadership role, attempting to steer a group of ragtag rockers toward success, all-the-while trying to maintain and organize his off-stage life.
“I can’t do the usual work day, in fact, I won’t do it,” Kennedy said. “I’ve always seem to do just fine only doing things I want to do, like music.”
He spoke with a low-lying voice, as if the strain of talking too much will affect his singing. He was wearing a mesh tank-top splashed with color and blue jeans. His hair was long, brown with blonde streaks and flat, which sprayed out from underneath his black beanie.
His demeanor expressed that his mind was busy, yet at the same time, he spoke collected. He was optimistic about the show the next night at the Aggie Theatre in Fort Collins. Kennedy hoped to play off the momentum from their newly released, three song extended play album titled “On Your Way Down.”
The energy from the EP was pushing the group that has stumbled the last few years. Tickle Me Pink is relying on Kennedy to position the band to stimulate a new crop of listeners. Just two years ago, the band was poised to become a new powerhouse in the mid-west music scene. Tickle Me Pink was bolstered by rock jock and DJ personality, Nerf, of radio station KTCL in Denver. They were getting plenty of airtime, and were laying-down tracks at the infamous recording studio, the Blasting Room in Fort Collins.
“They put on a performance that I really didn’t expect to be so blown way by but I was,” Nerf said during a Tickle Me Pink performance. “I went out to the counter and bought every one of there EPs they had for sale.”
Nerf claims that in general, rock stars are lazy, and that it is everyone else behind the scenes does all the arduous work. My interaction with Kennedy gave me the opposite impression. Tickle Me Pink is currently unsigned from any record label, putting pressure on him to market the band. With no label, they have not put out a new full length album in five years, much to the dismay of some petulant fans.
“We were geared towards releasing the EP to our Colorado fans,” Kennedy said. “And this show is something to give to fans who have been waiting.”
Sean hopes that the EP and a Colorado mini-tour can reinvigorate their local base. But new music is not the only difference that loyal fans will notice at the show.
New bassist, Darius Pope, will be performing with Tickle Me Pink at the Aggie for the first time. The band’s skid began when the original bassist, as well as life-long friend, Johnny Schou, died of a suspected accidental substance overdose in 2008. Pope is the first bassist out of nine auditioned that the band feels confident in replacing Schou.
“Darius is just a monster,” Kennedy said. “You kinda just know if someone is right for you. You just vibe with them when you hear them play.”
Pre-Show
The Aggie theatre is located in the heart of Old Town, I arrived on time to a mass of people posted up behind the venue, sitting on curbs and leaning up against large trailers, all of whom waiting for Kennedy. The mob consisted of the opening act performers, as well as the roadies and girlfriends.
Kennedy drove himself and pulled up in a large truck. Those who noticed his presence began to unpack vans and trailers, like a group of mid level employees scattering from the water cooler when the boss walked in.
Kennedy greeted the new bassist, who stood out like a sore thumb. He’s a big black man, wearing a striped purple shirt and designer jeans.
The big silver door behind them swung open and without hesitation the opening acts began to shuffle in. People, instruments and amps bottle-necked through the rear door just behind the stage, in anything but an organized fashion.
I asked Kennedy what he does for a pre-show routine.
“I played Frisbee golf today,” he said with a smile, exuding confidence.
He seemed calm, and took a deep breathe and got to work. The actual show is the easy part he said, the next few hours is long.
I sat back watching the chaos that is setting up a stage for a rock ‘n’ roll show. After a few minutes of this unfolding, Kennedy looked at me, ripped-off his same black beanie, shuffled his fingers through his long, multi-colored hair and said that there is way too much stuff do.
Tickle Me Pink performed their sound check with Kennedy running back and forth on stage. He was sweating into the same tank top that he had on the day before. His goal was complete harmonization as he analyzed the intricate details of each knob, string, lyric and drum stick. This task seemed to symbolize his real life, which he relentlessly attempts to balance and harmonize. As he seemed flustered, the other band members worked their instruments, in and out, but spent more time testing new riffs and antagonizing each other.
They matched instrument with instrument, and instrument with microphone, and microphone with microphone, and microphones to the lights. When this process was done, Kennedy was noticeably frustrated as he propelled out the back door, leaving the band behind.
The members of Tickle Me Pink rocked Old Town with
their heavy-hitting melodies including "Typical," "Madeline"
and "Strange Life." The band played for a sold out crowd
of loyal fans, dancing, moshing and singing to every word.
Photos courtesy of The Rocky Mountain Collegian.
The Show
I spent time with the fans outside waiting in line. Younger kids were sporting “Tickle Me Pink” T-shirts and said this was their sixth show. For others that I spoke with however, they were first timers.
“I’ve never seen them before, but I like to support local bands,” said Joe Olson a Fort Collins resident. “I’ve heard a lot about them.”
It seemed like tonight was going to be a good turnout. A concern of Kennedy's was whether or not the band could sell out the show.
Kennedy returned to the venue after the opening acts had already taken the stage. He disappeared for an hour, while the rest of Tickle Me Pink fraternized with fans and family and drank beer. Kennedy doesn’t drink.
He surprised everyone when he shed his ever-present black beanie. On his sabbatical he apparently decided to have about three inches cut from his hair. One band member said he had never seen it that short. It revealed his gauged ear piercings I hadn’t noticed before. It was more of the same punk-rock supplements that personify a style of music.
Kennedy arrived with his girlfriend, who is also his hair stylist. She offered to get him something to eat, but scolded her to not bring back any cheese.
“I don’t eat cheese on show days,” he told me. “Dairy cuts your throat and makes you suck at singing.”
As he waited for his snack, he finally had time to sit down before the show, to relax. We talked about what he sees for the future of his band. He explained that finding a label is the forefront of the band's priorities.
“There’s a lot of material that were sitting on, and more that we want to say,” Kennedy said. “The industry is in a fragile state right now.”
Backstage, people continue to come in and out. For the most part, Kennedy ignored them. He told me that it was a slippery slope to delve too deep into the promotion aspect of the music industry.
“Once you start to focus on that kind of shit, you lose sight of the music, and I'm guilty of that a lot of times.”
As the crowd outside began to get more and more rowdy in anticipation for Tickle Me Pink, Kennedy looked more and more relaxed. He seemed to slip into a dauntless comfort, as if there is no where else he is supposed to be, and this is what he is supposed to be doing.
He expressed ultimately, that whether the band continues to prosper or not, he is surrounded by friends and not shoved into a classroom or an office where he would be glued-down and fidgety. Instead, he can scream, curse, jump, hive-five, head-bang and even kung-fu-kick in front of fans that enjoy seeing him do it.
“We want to be happy with our music that we are playing every night,” he said. “We want to turn as many people on to our music as possible. But our number one goal is to enjoy what were doing.”
Contributions by Media Editor Nick Hensley
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