For most of its existence, you’ve known where you’re likely to find the band Currents when it played Connecticut. The nationally known metalcore act is originally from Newtown and came up in the usual way, playing smaller spaces like Heirloom Arts Theatre in Danbury and 10Selden in Woodbridge as well as the best-known large rooms for metalcore acts, The Webster in Hartford and Toad’s Place in New Haven.
On Dec. 13, fans of the band can find it at the Dome area of the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, which can fit over 1,000 people.
“The first show I ever played was at the Webster Underground,” said Brian Wille, who joined Currents in 2015, four years after the band initially formed. “It was a metal showcase and we played super early. When I joined Currents, the band already had a big local following.”
Currents still considers itself a Connecticut band. Drummer Matt Young hails from New York, but lead guitarist Chris Wiseman (also known from the band Shadow of Intent) is from Hartford, bassist Christian Pulgarin lives in Shelton and Wille grew up in Bethel.
Currents released its third full-length album, “The Death We Seek” just two years ago, but a new EP released this year, “All That Follows,” features a new sound that can be more layered and atmospheric.
Both “The Death We Seek” and “All That Follows” figure heavily in the current Currents set list. Wille said “The Death We Seek” is “the only album where we can play all the songs on it live.” When the mood shifts from bone-crunching metal sounds to almost classical moments of ambience, the band is able to handle the shifts, Wille said, “because we trust our sound guy with our lives. We try to play these songs as close as possible to the record.
One of the newer songs, “It Only Gets Darker,” was actually road tested before live audiences before the band recorded it. “People didn’t know it, but you could feel how they reacted, how they were carried by the momentum of it. With songs like ‘Darker,’ people know what to do. It all feeds itself,” Wille said.
Wille is thrilled to be doing a big Connecticut show.
“We’re from here, but it’s very rare that we get to play here,” the vocalist said. “We’re everywhere now. We used to try to do a show every year at The Webster, but we can’t do that the way we’d like to anymore. We just got off tour from Europe. We were just in the midwest. This show will end our year.”
Currents is billing the Oakdale gig as a holiday show and is filling the bill with four other bands. Wille calls one of them, Invent Animate, “contemporaries of ours in the scene who have been very influential to our band.” The others are Wind Walker (from New England), Psycho-Frame (from the South) and Fromjoy (from Texas).
Following the Dec. 13 show, Currents will head back to the studio to further explore its new sound. As an ensemble, the musicians still care about their Connecticut roots.
“We have no plans of leaving Connecticut,” the musicians said. They just wish they could play here more often.
Currents plays on Dec. 13 at 6 p.m. at the Oakdale Theatre, 95 South Turnpike Road, Wallingford, with Wind Walker, Invent Animate, Psycho-Frame and Fromjoy. $41.65. livenation.com.
