Pop Evil

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Passion. Dedication. Fortitude. Leigh Kakaty is the embodiment of these three qualities, and for good measure, too. For two decades, he has needed to mine the deepest of reserves in order to drag Pop Evil up from the blue-collar grassroots of the band’s local Michigan scene to stand proud at the top of the modern rock game. Soaring successes, bitter defeats... Leigh Kakaty has stood face-to-face with it all along the way. Leigh Kakaty has survived it all.

What Remains, the band’s eighth full-length album, is the culmination and story of this journey with Pop Evil, laid bare like never before. Continuing in the recent vein of 2023’s acclaimed Skeletons album, What Remains is both sonically and thematically Pop Evil’s heaviest ever offering; a thundering collection of arena-ready modern rock and metal hits in which Kakaty opens heart, mind and soul – pulling no punches and taking no prisoners in doing so. “There are a lot of issues and things that I’ve dealt with in this journey of Pop Evil that I’ve buried for a long time,” the frontman explains of this document of resilience, perseverance and accountability.

Pop Evil was born in North Muskegon, Michigan in 2001, Kakaty drawing on the lessons of a youth first shaped not by music, but by high school basketball leadership, team work, the drive to improve in the lonely hours put in at the gym at 5am, the will to win suppressing any fear of defeat – in order to fight tooth and nail their break-out moment.

“I was hustling and learning every day to make my dreams come true,” Kakaty recalls of his time playing local bars and slinging early EPs out of the back of his truck. “Studying never interested me. Neither did getting a regular job. A knee injury
wrecked my shot at playing sports. Music was all I wanted to do from that moment, and I didn’t give myself a backup plan. Pop Evil gave me a purpose, and a reason to get up every day. It became a crusade.”

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Apr
11
2025
100.3 The Edge Presents
w/ Devour The Day, Return to Dust, ONI
Doors: 6:00 PM / Show: 7:00 PM
All Ages