After Five Years Together, Set The Score Are Now Calling It Quits

There are a lot people we would love to thank but there are just too many of you to list individually. Thank you all for supporting our band, whether that be by coming to see us play at a show, buying merch, picking up a CD, downloading/streaming our music in any way, it means the absolute world to us and we are forever grateful.

We hope to see you all one last time at our final show at Wrangler Studios on March 31st."

Bummed, I was, reading that. So here's more or less an obituary of Set The Score.

After forming in 2013, the band's debut release came in 2014, the three-track 'Two Step Forwards' - which kick-started their long-term studio work with Belle Haven's Christopher Vernon - was some catchy if rough-around-the-edges pop-punk. Their first real breakthrough came with their 2014 single '. . . But Still So Far From Home' (which I distinctly Jarrod Alonge plugging online), which garnered them a lot of attention at the time and with very good reason. In March 2015, the band dropped their new damned solid five-track EP, 'Render Me Useless', birthing two of their best songs; 'Waste' and 'Mask'.

Not long after this EP's release, however, vocalist Michael Romeo left the band to pursue other work full time (and also start up Transit Gloria). Here, the band brought in suitable new singer David Bell, re-did 'Waste' with his vocals, and looked to the future. After a one-off single in the shape of 'Deep End' in September 2015, Set The Score hit 2016 hard in April with their wicked 'Where We Sit' EP.

For me, this final EP was the band's finest work, inspiring to write what is probably one of the best and worst reviews I've penned for this site over the years. With four out of these five songs being produced and engineered by Ocean Grove's Sam Bassal with 'Brave Face' being by produced and engineered by Sam Bianco & Christopher Vernon over at Northwood Studios, and then it all being mastered by Piper Payne at Coast Mastering in the States, 'Where We Sit' is Set The Score's pop-punk slam dunk on all fronts. Sure, the band never once reinvented their genre's wheel; they just did it a lot better than so many of their peers. Which sometimes makes all the fucking difference in the world.

However, with the last release from the band being 'Homebound' (found below) from last year; very few STS shows happening nowadays; Stuck Out, Stand Atlantic, Stateside, Columbus, Harbours and Between You & Me getting much wider attention; guitarist Matt Van Duppen moving onto Thornhill as their second guitarist and manager; this news has probably been on the cards for a while now. But in any case, we'll miss them dearly, myself most certainly included!

RIP Set The Score. Thank you kindly for all of the sweet songs and all of the great memories over the years.