We've Got A Flyer On You: Fred Mascherino Talks Playing Mixed Bills with Taking Back Sunday, The Color Fred, Terrible Things, The Lemonheads & Say Anything (Heading East Records)

We've Got A Flyer On You will (hopefully!) be a new recurring column here at The Witzard. It's set to feature, examine, and re-visit mixed bill/genre, once-in-a-lifetime, iconic, and otherwise noteworthy Punk/Hardcore show flyers and their corresponding line-ups. As often as possible, we plan to speak directly with the promoters, bookers, flyer artists, soundmen/women, show attendees, and, most importantly, the artists themselves. If all goes well, we're even hoping to, eventually, cover a handful of shows we attended ourselves in years past, as well. For this slightly re-vamped edition of We've Got A Flyer On You, we'll be spotlighting a noteworthy musician, rather than a singular infamous show, for each installment.


Fred Mascherino is the guitarist, frontman, and namesake of West Chester, Pennsylvania-based Indie Rock/Emo band The Color Fred (T.C.F.) Mascherino recently started his own label imprint, Heading East Records, whose first release was T.C.F.'s second album, A Year & Change. It re-collects 12 singles written, recorded, and released over the course of a 12-month span throughout 2021, plus, some "change" à la two additional tracks. Mascherino has played with a bunch of different bands over the years, including Stickman from 1989-92, Brody from 1993-99, Breaking Pangaea from 2000-03, Taking Back Sunday (TBS) from 2003-07, The Color Fred from 2007 to present, and Terrible Things from 2009-14, as well as brief touring stints with both The Lemonheads on their 2012 It's A Shame About Ray 20th Anniversary Tour and Say Anything in support of their 2014 effort, Hebrews.


Mascherino appeared on two of TBS' beloved albums, Where You Want to Be (2004,) Louder Now (2006,) and The Louder Now CD/DVD: PartTwo (2007.) Terrible Things featured Fred Mascherino along with a rotating cast of players, including Josh Eppard (Coheed & Cambria, Weerd Science) and Andrew "Andy" Jackson (Hot Rod Circuit,) as well as members of Once Nothing, Silvertide, VERSA/VersaEmerge, and The Color Fred. We recently got a chance to speak with Fred about his years spent on the road playing with the aforementioned acts and often partaking in mixed bill shows. Our interview below has been lightly edited for general clarity. The Color Fred's new album, A Year & Change, is now available on Heading East Records.


I. What are some of the most varied mixed bill/genre show line-ups you would say you were fortunate enough to partake in with your various bands, Fred?

Fred Mascherino: I've done Warped Tour five times and I remember one year, Katy Perry was on it, so that can get pretty eclectic. Also, when I was with Taking Back Sunday (TBS,) we did a tour opening for blink-182 & Cypress Hill played after us. There was a long time when I didn't feel like regular club shows were varied enough, but I see it a little bit more now.

II. What are some of the most memorable shows during the short periods of time spent playing with Taking Back Sunday, The Lemonheads, Say Anything, Terrible Things, Stickman, Brody, and Breaking Pangaea?

Mascherino: There are always shows that stand out and it's usually because it was very good or it was very bad. Breaking Pangaea & Brody (my earlier bands) had tours with house shows or things that were a little "sketchy" and those are memorable because at the end of the night, you [would] wind up in a trailer park in Boise, Idaho and [it was] the funnest night of your life. And, somehow, that leads to being in TBS and opening for Green Day in an arena. I'm always in it for the experience, so I kind of loved all of those things regardless of the size.

III. During the lead-up to this very interview, I found various flyers for shows (I believe) you played with The Company We Keep, The Front Bottoms, blink-182, Extra Arms, Scott Reynolds, Saves The Day, Anthony Green, Don't Sleep, From Autumn to Ashes, and Bob Nanna. Do you have any specific memories associated with these specific shows?

Mascherino: Saves The Day was special because it was my first tour playing with Taking Back Sunday. Anthony Green opened for The Color Fred on our first tour and that was his first time playing solo. Scott Reynolds, who sang for ALL, was my favorite singer in high school and we toured together in my van. I have stories for all these bands. There was a good period of time where all I needed to listen to were bands that were my friends and that was super-special to me.

IV. Do you have any particular memories or stories you would like to share/tell from your time spent on various Vans Warped Tours prior to its demise?

Mascherino: Man, Warped Tour was warfare haha. It was hard on the body; the heat, no sleep, no dressing rooms. You're just outdoors 24/7. I've done it on buses, but, also, in vans. A really great memory from Warped was with Taking Back Sunday: I had just joined the band and no one had seen the "new" line-up yet. They put us on as the last set in Philly, my hometown. They said there were 22,000 people there and I was used to playing fire hall shows. It was probably the most excited that I could ever be. We pulled it off and that was the beginning of my era in that band.

V. What are some of your personal favorite aspects about being able to play mixed bill/genre shows with so many different types of bands and musicians?

Mascherino: I produce bands these days and I've worked with everything from Hardcore to Hip-Hop to singer/song-writers. I just enjoy when people are at their best no matter what style. If they know who they are and are the real thing, not just playing a style to fit in; that's what I look for.

VI. How did it feel getting to play a handful of Emo Night shows back in 2020 with The Color Fred and your one-time Taking Back Sunday bandmate Eddie Reyes and his then-band, Fate's Got A Driver?

Mascherino: It was awesome! My band, The Color Fred, played a set of TBS songs with Eddie on guitar and my guitarist, Steve [Angello], singing. I hadn't hung out with Eddie in, like, 12 years, so it was really special for me to be around him for those days.

VII. Would you mind telling us about how this first The Color Fred full-length release in 15 years, A Year & Change, came to be in its current form?

Mascherino: I was getting further away from playing a couple years ago. Things just weren't clicking with anyone I tried to play with. It does get harder when everyone grows up and has their families, but I can't be happy without this part of me, writing music. I basically hit a point where I had to make a major change in my life. It all started with the song "Don't Give Up On Me." I had that guitar riff around for a while. I put together the recording set-up I needed and made that song. Once that was laid out as the framework, there was more motivation to find other people and I found my current band, Keith [Gibbons], Monte [Holt], and Steve [Angello]. We spent a year with a goal of writing and recording one song a month. We worked as a team where I recorded everything, Steve mixed the songs, [and] everyone played on it and sang back-ups. Keith bought some video equipment, so we had lots of content. We wound up with 14 songs and that's the album.

VIII. What are you currently working on or preparing for release, if anything, in a musical capacity?

Mascherino: Because we did each song one at a time, our album has a variation of styles on the songs. The last two songs we did were "Creatures" & "Save Yourself." We really love how those came out, so we're going to try to make a batch of songs that are more focused on that style and see what happens.