For over 15 years and counting, Scout Bar has earned a reputation of bringing some of the freshest sounds in rock to the stage and has evolved into a premiere rock performance venue. True to the name, Scout has sought out several up-and-coming bands of all genres, while also bringing some of the biggest acts in the music industry to the area, consistently providing high-energy, high-quality performances in the rock genre and beyond. 

This said, make sure to mark your calendars for August 15, when the post-hardcore/alternative metal outfit Dead Girls Academy hits the stage for their Cruel Summer Tour with an electrifying performance not to be missed! Formed only in recent years, the band has garnered a huge fan base which continues to grow exponentially, with DGA lead vocalist Michael Orlando bringing his own audience as the former vocalist of Vampires Everywhere!, a band with a strong following where he felt himself transitioning into the new sound DGA brings to the table. 

“As an artist, I just outgrew it musically and needed something new and wanted a change. It was at that point Ronnie (Radke, of Falling in Reverse) stepped in to start writing the debut album Alchemy, with this name really representing a transition, because that’s really what it was for me,” Orlando said.

DGA’s first single “I’ll Find a Way” was released in 2017, and shortly thereafter the band was touring with such national acts as ISSUES, the Amity Affliction, and blessthefall. It was then that Orlando signed a deal with Victory Records, and later secured a coveted spot on the Vans Warped Tour in 2018 where singles such as “No Way Out” and “Everything” from DGA’s debut album began to chart as well. These successes for the band— whose current lineup includes Orlando (vocals), Zachary Moore (drums), Craig Pirtle (guitar), and Alex Asch (bass)—have led to tours with Badflower and From Ashes to New, and an upcoming European tour with none other than P.O.D. as well as Alien Ant Farm.

“We’re expecting a really big, life-changing tour with that one,” Orlando said, who at one time was actually an aspiring NHL player who eventually picked up the bass as his instrument of choice, a decision that led him down the musical path he’s walking now.

“I was a bass player and a backup singer for years, and decided one day that I was sick of crazy, egotistical lead singers. So I became one!” he laughed. 

The look and sound of DGA is a culmination of influences as well. Orlando counts Phil Collins, Billy Joel, The Doors, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and the Stone Temple Pilots as a few of his musical influences, while his look is more “metalcore Dracula, sort of a Marilyn Manson thing – maybe dark and ominous, but not mind-boggling,” he said.