When Rent for Cheryl takes the main stage at PorchRokr on Saturday, the performance will be the capstone in several weeks of firsts for the band.
First time performing overseas. First time playing in Scotland and England and France. And, most importantly for Akron audiences, first time headlining PorchRokr.
Rent for Cheryl is a regular at the annual music festival in Highland Square — although just how regular is up for debate. In trying to remember how many times they’ve played the event, band members landed somewhere between three and six times.
“We’ve played it a lot,” said drummer Ronnie Copfer.
“As soon as we became a band, that was on the top of our list,” added guitarist Joe Ibrahim.
But this year marks the group’s first time headlining the festival, which draws upwards of 20,000 people to the west side neighborhood.
“It’s a goal. It’s been a goal,” singer Isabelle Post said of headlining PorchRokr. “We’re just constantly trying to elevate ourselves, and it feels like we hit a mark. We’re so excited. We’re working really hard to make the set so [expletive] good for everyone who’s gonna be there.”
Rent for Cheryl ready to ‘rock out’ at PorchRokr
On a Wednesday evening in late July, Rent for Cheryl practiced its 90-minute PorchRokr set at Copfer’s house. The band, which also includes guitarist Kyle Cook and bassist Miguel Tarin Torres, is spread across Akron, Kent and Cleveland. The group formed around 2018, and the current lineup was solidified several years ago.
Before practice begins, the five friends chat and catch up on the front porch. But once they enter the basement and take their spots, they shift into work mode. Pedals, cords and amps fill the otherwise clean space. The band runs through the set smoothly, chatting briefly in between songs to make adjustments or discuss the setlist.
This reporter was sworn to secrecy on the setlist, but it includes a mix of songs from the band’s past albums.
Rent for Cheryl expects to release its fifth album, tentatively titled “Mountain Songs,” this fall. Described as “super folk” and “stripped down, acoustic,” the band recorded the album last winter in a cabin in Hocking Hills.
But don’t expect to hear any of those songs Saturday.
“We play to the environment,” Ibrahim said. “All those songs are very chill, very slow. We’re gonna go up there and give the exact opposite type of performance. We’re gonna try to rock out, have everyone moving, have everyone absolutely pumped.”
Rent for Cheryl is prone to shifting genres.
“I would say, indie alternative, but with heavy influences from a lot of different genres: rock, pop, blues, funk, jazz,” Copfer said of the band’s sound. “We have so many different influences as individual members of the band. We’re not really just one genre of music.”
Rent for Cheryl has stacked summer schedule post PorchRokr
Audience members will hear a range of genres in the band’s PorchRokr set. During rehearsal, strands of jazz, funk and rock sift throughout the room. At one point, a ska influence is detected in a song. Bringing it all together is Post’s soulful and melodic vocals and the impressive musicianship of Ibrahim, Copfer, Cook and Tarin Torres.
For those unfamiliar with Rent for Cheryl, it’s worth noting that the band loves to jam out. There’s a lot of improvisation in its live sets, which can sometimes go for two to three hours. Some might even call Rent for Cheryl a jam band.
“I don’t mind the jam band [term], but there’s two parts of it,” Ibrahim said. “A big part of us kind of does do the jam band thing a little, but there’s a lot of strategy, and there [are] songs where it’s very orchestrated.”
Or, as Cook so succinctly put it, “We are a band that jams, but we’re not a jam band.”
Jam band jokes aside, Rent for Cheryl takes its work seriously. And it is work. While all five members have jobs outside of the band, the goal is to eventually pursue music full time.
After PorchRokr, the group will keep the momentum going through the end of the summer with several shows in Northeast Ohio, including a set at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights. With “Mountain Songs” wrapped, the members are already thinking about album number six. They’d like to get back to New York to perform and maybe head to Los Angeles, too.
“It’s hard to relax because I feel like we’re all … trying to strive for this goal, and to get us to a place where we can do this all the time,” Post said. “We want the full picture of what you would think it would look like. We want to be in the studio all the time. We want to be creating all the time. We want to be performing. It’s truly what we love to do.”
