Drop Dead, Gorgeous Show Dates:
Oct 2 @ Scout Bar in Houston, TX
Oct 3 @ RBC in Dallas, TX
Oct 4 @ The Rock Box in San Antonio, TX
They were teenagers from Denver with chaotic angst, huge hooks, breakdowns, and something to say. At the height of the post-hardcore and so-called “emo” explosion of the mid-2000s (which saw My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Avenged Sevenfold reach massive heights), Drop Dead, Gorgeous carved out new synth-soaked pathways with unmistakable vocals and unhinged emotion.
Drop Dead, Gorgeous returns in 2025 with their first new music in over a decade. Produced by Elliot Polokoff and mastered by longtime collaborator Kris Crummett (Dance Gavin Dance, Sleeping With Sirens, Get Scared), “Six Feet” recaptures their signature tension—hooky, hostile, and cinematic. The band isn’t trying to relive their past, but they aren’t running from it, either. Drop Dead, Gorgeous may have gone quiet for a time, but their impact never faded. Now, with fresh music and sharpened vision, they’re writing a new chapter—not as nostalgia, but as an experienced and focused continuation of what they started.
Their 2006 full-length debut, In Vogue, a touchstone release for Rise Records, inspired many like-minded kids to form bands with its theatricality and authentic confessional attitude. Singer Daniel “Stills” Stillman gave a literal voice to fans who connected to the band’s combination of bombast and charisma. “We were just these young kids who were thrown into our dream,” remembers bassist Jake Hansen, who notes that drummer Danny Cooper was only 15 years old. “I was the oldest, at just 18.”
“We didn’t know anything about song structure or how a band was supposed to function back then,” says Stills. “We just wrote what felt right, and that honesty ended up being what connected.”
In Vogue didn’t just tap into the moment; it helped define it. “I first heard Drop Dead, Gorgeous on a Rise Records sampler,” Counterparts vocalist Brendan Murphy told VICE in a loving ten-year retrospective. “Seems shortly after that, everyone’s MySpace song was ‘Dressed for Friend Requests.’ Kids ate it up because of the seemingly perfect balance between screaming and catchy choruses.”
Ex-Geffen Records CEO Jordan Schur brought them to Suretone Records, a joint venture with Interscope that became home to Weezer, New Found Glory, The Cure, From First To Last, and the late Chris Cornell. The result was the dark concept album Worse Than a Fairy Tale (2007), produced by nü-metal pioneer Ross Robinson (Korn, Slipknot, At The Drive-In). The band played the Vans Warped Tour the same year, and with The Used and Rise Against on Taste of Chaos in Australia and New Zealand.
Drop Dead, Gorgeous collaborated with producer Matt Goldman (Underoath, Anberlin, Meg & Dia) on The Hot N’ Heavy (2009). With additional production from The Chariot’s Josh Scogin and mixing by Saison guitarist Beau Burchell, The Hot N’ Heavy achieved the band’s biggest chart success while merging the sound of their debut album with more polished aggression and metalcore intensity.
But the whirlwind took its toll. By 2011, the band had quietly disappeared.
Stills and Cooper returned to Rise Records with Bleach Blonde, a band combining pop-rock and alternative elements. As synth duo 888, the pair saw strong streaming success with the title track of their Island Records EP, Critical Mistakes (2016). Sadly, guitarist Kyle Browning passed away in 2021.
