VENDED
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DateOct 31, 2025
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Event Starts7:30 PM
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Doors Open6:30 PM
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Ticket Prices$18.00 Advance / $20.00 Day of Show
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VenueEmpire Underground
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AvailabilityOn Sale Now
- 31 October 2025 7:30 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
“Breaking out of a Des Moines basement in 2020, (Vended) have become one of the hottest properties in heavy music, thanks to their brawling brutality and sadistic brand of audio violence.” – Kerrang!
Vended pushes the limits of combustible energy and raw aggression in every song and performance. The core element at the band's heart – in the music, message, and theatricality – is authenticity. Vended unleashes a bold, honest, passionate take on heavy music and stands determined to raise the flag for a new generation. Their goal is nothing less than world domination. No compromises.
A fearless intensity and confessional power drive songs like “Am I The Only One,” “The Far Side,” and “Nihilism.” These are anthems for the broken-hearted, pushed aside and left behind. A Vended song is nothing short of complete catharsis, exorcising demons real and imagined, inside and out.
Vended’s self-titled debut album is a visceral affair produced by Chris Collier (Prong, Stillwell, Korn) and engineered by James “Fluff” Harley.
Collectively refusing to settle for anything less than the sound of the actual band their audience knows them to be, Vended eschewed the “cheat codes” of modern recording, pointedly operating without a click track. Recorded in Bakersfield, California, and self-released outside the traditional label system, Vended is a fiery mission statement. Raw, urgent, and immediately engaging, Vended simultaneously demonstrates the young band’s rapid growth, representing five artists operating at peak capacity.
Vended (pronounced Ven-dead, shortened from “vendetta”) first gathered in early 2018 and were determined to avoid the mistakes of lesser bands. Rather than hastily cobble together a few half-hearted songs, Griffin Taylor (vocals), Cole Espeland (lead guitar), Jeremiah Pugh (bass), Connor Grodzicki (guitar), and Simon Crahan (drums) secluded themselves away in their drummer’s basement, toiling in relative obscurity until they were confident in what they created together.
After crafting an artistic identity for two years, Vended emerged as a terrifying creative animal, tightly coiled and ready to strike. A capacity crowd of 250 witnessed the band’s first headlining show. Since that fateful night in their hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, Vended never lets up on the attack.
Vended landed on the cover of Kerrang! just two years after that first headlining gig. The same year, Revolver heralded them as one of 10 Bands Leading the New Wave of Nü-Metal, with City Morgue, Code Orange, Loathe, Nova Twins, Orthodox, Spiritbox, Tallah, Tetrarch, and Wagrasm (UK).
They’ve dominated on support runs across the US and headliners/festivals in Europe and South America, grinding it out in vans, bringing their musical missives around the world.
They supported Bring Me The Horizon, Avenged Sevenfold, Korn, Knocked Loose, P.O.D., Jinjer, Bloodywood, and Bullet For My Valentine. Their various treks also include show-stealing sets at major festivals, like Sonic Temple, Welcome To Rockville, Aftershock, Blue Ridge, Milwaukee Metal Fest, Inkarceration, and various Knotfests (including South America); and overseas at Bloodstock, Hellfest, Copenhell, Evil Live, Mystic, Nova Rock, and more.
Tracks like “Asylum,” “Burn My Misery,” and “My Wrongs” – collected on 2021’s five-song What Is It//Kill It EP – immediately connected with listeners who demand brutal honesty from art. The band described the following year’s unforgiving “Ded To Me” as nothing less than “a straight f**k you!”
An engaging, charismatic frontman who isn’t afraid to show vulnerability onstage or off, Griffin Taylor grew up listening to Ani DiFranco and Dresden Dolls Amanda Palmer with his mom and worships at the altar of everything from Rainbow Kitten Surprise to Japan’s Maximum The Hormone.
His varied influences, from singer/songwriters to massive Broadway hooks, act as weapons in his arsenal as he twists Vended’s songs into vehicles for his anxieties, pain, confusion, and angst.
Espeland, Grodzicki, Pugh, and Crahan each bring a distinctive, unique personality and set of influences into the creative process. The varied ambitions overlap in a shared drive for chaotic excellence. The resulting barrage of crushing, anthemic songs is instantly relatable to the disaffected and disenfranchised of any age, delivering on the promise of heavy music at its emotional best.
Vended (the album and the band) pushes forward with relentless drive, perseverance, and passion. Vended approaches every song – as they do each performance – as if it could be their last. They leave it all on the stage, night after night, and the album is no different. No longer teenagers, the band looks unflinchingly at the world and within themselves. Vended face down all obstacles together, summoning strength and courage within their art while never forgetting to have a reckless good time.
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