At 6 p.m. this Friday, Aug. 18, the free outdoor summer concert series will feature Sweats on the outdoor stage located on the Central Avenue side of the Deane Center for the Performing Arts building at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro. Donations are always appreciated. 

This concert will be moved into the Coolidge Theatre if it rains.

The members of Sweats write, play, and record original rock and roll in New York’s Finger Lakes, keeping this genre alive in the era of digital music. They sing with voice, not Auto-Tune. They play rhythms, not algorithms. They love to set a groove that makes people move.

In 2022, the band released their sophomore album, “I End Where You Begin,” a sprawling rock record with songs that span the gaps between groovy neo-soul, handcrafted songwriter’s rock, and the big jam fest vibes. The album was recorded and mastered by Mike Caporizzo on a Neve console at Pyramid Studio in Ithaca, New York (Anthrax, Ginuwine, Aaliyah). 

Summer 2023 has been a banner season for the group, including Travis Durfee (vocals, guitar), JM Sincock (drums), Rob Kurcoba (bass), Tony DeLuca (keys), and Nick D’Aloisio (guitar). 

The album debuted as the band expanded its live shows at theaters and festivals in New York and Pennsylvania and opened for national touring groups.

“Whiskey Thursday,” the first single, anticipated an album of dynamic rock and roll that tells the stories of lives disoriented and rearranged around love and loss. The track is built on Sincock’s propulsive drums and Kurcoba’s throbbing bass line that hold steady as D’Aloisio pushes woozy guitars over Delcua’s dizzy synths. 

The second single, “Lose My Mind,” channels the ethos of “Rage Against the Machine” through the churning vibes of “Queens of the Stone Age”. Lyrically, Durfee’s vocals explore the thoughts that find enemies among us in a nation that feels on the brink of a deeper struggle between reality and illusion. The track grows from the pulsating bass and drums to the cataclysmic splash of guitar, voice and synth. 

The last track, “Nicks,” is a meditation on love and loss filtered through the barroom haze of craft brews and jukebox tunes. The song’s dramatic crescendo embraces the acceptance and belonging that clears the salt from any nicks, cuts, or broken hearts. 

Founded in 2016 by Rob Kurcoba and Travis Durfee, Sweats was soon garnering local love for its energetic live shows and early demos.

Their first full-length album “Caught in Wave” (2020) was well received by critics. “Rock based and to my ears very accessible,” praised Divide and Conquer Music. ”The songs seem to cross a number of sub-genres and time periods of rock.”

When the dust began to settle after the world had come to a screeching halt in 2020 due to the global pandemic, it appeared to Sweats that not everything should go back to the way it was.

The group revisited the grind and crafted another batch of tunes released in “I End Where You Begin.”

Audience members are welcome to bring lawn chairs and sit on the grassy area in front of the outdoor stage or on Central Avenue, which will be closed to traffic between Main Street and the Warehouse Theatre from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. 

The last two free concerts in the outdoor summer series on Fridays at 6 p.m. are Houston Baker on Aug. 25 and Joe Stanky & The Cadets on Sept. 1

For more information, call the Deane Center at 570-724-6220.