It’s 6:15 p.m. at The Westcott Theater and The Vanderbuilts can’t get on stage for a sound check. The other bands are taking too long, andthe stage manager tells the band to show up at 8:15 p.m. for their set.

But the five college friends are relaxed, laughing as they walk down Westcott Street, their breaths spiraling up into the chilly January night.

On this evening, Jan. 16, they’re playing the second slot, sandwiched between Homeward and Phantom Chemistry as openers for The Young Rapscallions. “What We Forget,” The Vanderbuilts’ second studio album, dropped March 1.

After two and a half years together, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry seniors and alumnus are still as carefree and easygoing as they were when they won Syracuse University’s Battle of the Bands in October 2010.

“If people didn’t like our sound that much, we wouldn’t have gotten the opportunities that we have,” Max Newland said, “and all the help from so many different people out of the goodness of their hearts, just because they like the music we play.”

Sam Kogon, Dave Riddell, Aya Yamamoto, Newland and Grennan Milliken had instant musical chemistry, winning Battle of the Bands three weeks after their first practice. From the beginning, their sound was original, fusing guitar, bass and drum parts blended with keyboard, banjo and violin in cheerfully offbeat harmony.

The bandcan be described as a hybrid of indie-folk, rock and pop, with a sound echoing David Bowie and Bob Dylan. But The Vanderbuilts like to keep their genre undefined.

The parts are always in motion. Kogon sings lead in soulfully smooth but ranging styles, though sometimes keyboard and banjo player Riddell and bassist Newland take over vocals, while Kogon and Riddell dash across the stage between the guitars, banjo and keyboard.

“What We Forget,” their newly released full-length album, is a more polished incarnation of The Vanderbuilts’ energetic sound. Produced by Grammy award-winner Jay Newland, with added violin arrangements from Finnegan Shanahan, the bold concept album has more nuanced layers and refined playful riffs, yet still jumps styles from song to song.

“We don’t necessarily know how we sound. Our sound changes, but we know how to play together,” said Kogon at a February practice in his apartment, adorned with psychedelic Jimi Hendrix posters.

As Newland tuned his bass guitar boasting a deep red spackled finish, he added, “We know each other now. I know some weird chords that Sam’s just going to jump to. I know I can look back at Grennan (on drums) and sense when he’s going to do something random. I think that just comes from our comfort level.”

The Vanderbuilts, a play on American railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt, is the one name they didn’t all hate. They originally planned to change it, but countless shows, a growing fan base and two studio albums later, the name stuck.

Back before the show, the band decompresses in Yamamoto’s snug living room. She and Riddell drink loose-leaf tea while Kogon scarfs down dinner, wielding drumsticks as chopsticks. A colorful painting sits on a stained old couch next to a coffee table strewn with the game Bananagrams, burnt incense candles and a copy of Dante’s “Inferno.”

The conversation jumps from Kogon explaining his broken arm — he slipped on ice and is stuck wearing a sling — to a discussion on the IFC series “Portlandia” before finally moving to the night’s set list. By the time they’ve agreed on songs and scribbled the list on a ripped paper bag, it’s time to head back to The Westcott.

In the past two years, The Vanderbuilts have opened for popular indie bands Cults, Titus Andronicus and Caveman — even warming up the crowd for Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Leon Russell at a Westcott show last September.

On the freezing walk back to the Westcott, the band members joke about The Young Rapscallions’ drummer Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who played McLovin in “Superbad.” They dare each other to walk up and say the line, “Hey you, McMuffin!”

Inside, a small crowd is huddled on the stained black tile floor as Homeward ends its set screaming a hard-rock cover of Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” The Vanderbuilts quickly set up, hastily complete a sound check and kick off their half-hour set.

“Do you guys want to move up front?” Kogon asked the scattered crowd. “It would be cooler…”

The set bounces from new, catchy, riff-laden tracks like “Erasing Time” and “Down, Down, Down” to older folk-twanged favorites “She Takes the Cake” and “I’m Coming Home,” awash in Yamamoto’s authentic violin plucks. The quiet crowd begins to grow, bobbing their heads and tapping their feet as the set progresses.

By the time The Vanderbuilts walk offstage, sweaty and smiling around 9:15 p.m., The Westcott Theater has a pulse.

In an interview two years ago, fresh off of the SU Battle of the Bands win and about to release their first EP, The Vanderbuilts said they were just having fun and simply trying to show Syracuse they existed, unsure and unconcerned with the future.

“We’re just kind of going with it right now, wherever it goes. We’ll make the decision when we come to it,” said Newland in the interview.

Now, fresh off of the “What We Forget” release and two months from graduation, the crossroad is here, and the band plans to stay together. Though they each have careers to worry about, Kogon, Riddell, Yamamoto, Newland and Milliken still enjoy playing music together. Now, they’ll do it in New York City.

“In the beginning, I wasn’t sure where it was going or what kind of shows we would play. I didn’t foresee us playing shows as high-profile as Leon Russell,” Yamamoto said. “Now, the band will be in a new place, and I’m really looking forward to experimenting more.”

Published on March 4, 2013 at 12:59 am

Contact Rob: rjmarvin@syr.edu