Get ready to dance, Colorado: Here come Hank & Cupcakes, Vance Romance

By Lukas Leben

The University of Colorado’s Program Council is shaking the walls of the University Memorial Center’s Club 156 Saturday night, presenting Brooklyn’s energetic electropop duo Hank & Cupcakes and Denver’s Vance Romance, with its self-proclaimed “love for sexy basslines and floor shaking dance beats.”

Hank & Cupcakes, which formed in 2008 in Tel Aviv, Israel, features husband/wife team of Ariel “Hank” Scherbacovsky and Sagit “Cupcakes” Shir. According to the duo’s website, the band name is a reference to renowned author/poet Charles “Hank” Bukowsk and his real-life lover Pamela “Cupcakes” Wood (author of “Charles Bukowski’s Scarlet”).

The band is currently on a U.S. tour in support of new album Ca$h 4 Gold , and touts a sound similar to the Ting Tings or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, according to its website .

Opening for Hank & Cupcakes is Denver’s Vance Romance, which calls its music LDM, or live dance music. The single “Eyes on You” has a funky, slow groove and features heavy bass that brings a mellow beat to quell thoughts of that impending calculus exam.

Vance Romance’s general manager Quinton Blue said the two groups share a similar sound: Both have a female singer, both mix live and electronic aspects and both share stylistic elements.

“I think that anyone who likes one band will like the other too,” said Blue.

While Hank & Cupcakes will be the headlining act, Vance Romance will bring its laid-back Colorado vibe to Club 156 and will woo the crowd with chill, danceable beats.

Blue said there will be six members on stage performing: two on instrumentation, a lead singer and three background vocalists.

“We’ll have our own sort of mini choir for this show, which will be really cool,” said Blue.

The intimate club in the UMC (located in room 115 — on the first floor, through the Connection game room) has a capacity of just 155, so students should get tickets as soon as possible.

“We’ve played some small stages before, but we’ve also played some big ones,” said Blue, “so we know how to handle ourselves with any kind of show.”

Vance Romance is working on an album that is slated for release right around the New Year.

“It’s a full-length album that we wrote, recorded and produced all ourselves — and one of our friends mixed it,” said Blue.

Club 156 has been a venue at CU for more than 50 years, is run by Program Council and usually brings in two or three shows a month.