Moment of Truth

Their sound is a mix of pop hooks and meat hooks, the pretty and the pained, velvet and vigor.

And so it's a little surprising that on a recent Tuesday afternoon, Tyler Simmons, singer/guitarist for emotive Vegas rockers And She Whispered, is getting ready to go belt out some opera numbers.

"We actually practice some weird songs," the Coronado High School junior says prior to some vocal training with fellow singer/guitarist Andrew Caruso. "It basically teaches you how to keep your mouth and your stomach a certain way so it keeps it powerful."

Whatever it is, it's paying off for these dudes.

Though And She Whispered has been together for less than a year, the group recently won the Xpoz "Battle of the Fans" band competition, besting dozens of other acts at a series of local showcase concerts to earn a highly coveted spot in the latest installment of the annual Extreme Thing Music and Sports Festival, which takes place Saturday.

Suddenly, a band that got its start playing to five people at The Farm will be taking the stage in front of thousands at the largest all-ages concert of the year in Las Vegas, sharing the bill with such big names as The Used, Five Finger Death Punch, Less Than Jake and others.

"It's huge," Simmons says of getting the chance to play the fest. "It's gotten so competitive over the years. It brings so much exposure to your band if you play. It's an amazing opportunity. It's almost unreal. We've been talking about it for the past year, as soon as we started the band. We've been really dedicated towards it. It's so weird, being able to play it."

This is magnified by how young the group is.

Drummer Nick Bennet is the oldest in the band at 21, while Caruso is a freshman at UNLV.

Bass player Trey Little and Simmons are still juniors in high school.

"It's pretty much just school, come home, do homework and then practice every night," Simmons says. "My grades have definitely suffered because of doing all the band stuff," he says with a chuckle. "We put a lot of time into it."

To wit, the night of Extreme Thing, after Whispered gets done playing, they'll pack their gear and immediately drive to Cleveland, where they're set to record their debut EP for Standby Records, who also works with fellow Vegas rockers Destruction of a Rose, among others.

But unlike their local labelmates, Whispered's sound is less metallic, more melodic.

The band eschews mosh pit inducing breakdowns in favor of pop finesse, with Simmons and Caruso trading mostly cleanly sung vocal lines.

The band does come with some bite, though, intermingling gruff outbursts in the mix at times, but for the most part, the emphasis is on harmony over heaviness.

"A lot of local bands nowadays, they just try and make it as heavy as possible," Simmons says. "But we're just trying to make something that you'll remember, something that you'll like to listen to, something that's catchy and musical."

It's a big sound, evocative of big moments.

The latter of which the band will be experiencing for the first time this weekend.

Simmons insists that there are no nerves regarding his band's turn in the spotlight.

He seems eager to turn Whispered into a shout.

"It just makes you really excited," he says of playing in front such a sizable audience. "When you see a big crowd like that, it's just like, 'OK, this is the time to show what I've got.' "

Preview

Extreme Thing, with And She Whispered

11 a.m. Saturday

Desert Breeze Skate Park,
8275 Spring Mountain Road

$17 in advance, $20 day of show,
VIP tickets $35; (800) 745-3000

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.