'This is how they start': Rockers Trapt say acoustic show in Northampton will put hits in a new light

NORTHAMPTON, Pa. — There's no question the music Trapt has put out in the past 23 years since its song "Headstrong" topped the charts is hard rock.

But even songs such as grunge and nu metal hits "Still Frame," "Echo" and "Stand Up" started with an acoustic guitar, the band's vocalist and guitarist Chris Taylor Brown said.

“It’s an easy way to see what you’re doing — get in a room with some friends or by yourself, just sit on a couch and sing along to what you’re playing," Brown said in a call from his Cincinnati, Ohio, home.

“I think it’s the way a lot of bands write songs."

That idea was the impetus for the full band acoustic show that Trapt brings tonight — Saturday, Oct. 4 — to Gin Mill & Grill in Northampton.

The show will open at 6:30 p.m. with supporting acts Never Ready, William H. Taft and Honky Tonk Medics.

General admission standing tickets, at $20 each, remain available at Ticketweb.com.

"We wanted to bring a show to the fans that was, like, this is the initial sound of what these songs are — this is how they start," Brown said.

"And just break it down to its simplest elements.

“Fans, they think it’s a completely different show. … It’s a completely different vibe and the songs just give off a whole different dimension, different emotions, than a full electric show, you know?"

'Expect to hear their favorite songs'

Brown said the show will include 15 to 20 songs culled from Trapt "acoustic nights" he did on the band's social media, during which he asked fans what they wanted to hear.

"I did that for months just getting ready for the tour," he said, so I got a real good idea of what fans want to hear. We’ll be basically playing the set that fans called for.”

Online setlists show Trapt playing acoustic versions of "Still Frame," "Echo," "Stand Up," "Waiting," "Contagious," "Who's Going Home With You Tonight" and, of course, its platinum breakthrough hit "Headstrong."

"Fans can expect to hear their favorite songs, for sure," Brown said.

He said revisiting a career that now has stretched nearly 23 years since the band's self-titled major label debut album, which also went platinum, has been "great, man."

"It’s just cool to play that music for a lot of fans that are excited to hear it," Brown said. "And fans that want to hear us play songs live. So it’s just a blessing.”

He said the band is planning a tour marking the 25th anniversary of it signing a record deal — which was on Sept. 11, 2001, the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center, he said.

He said it was the acoustic tour that led to Trapt's most recent release, the 2024 disc "The Fall," on which several songs were far more understated and restrained, moving the group beyond its grunge and nu metal history.

“A lot of the songs were written getting ready for the acoustic touring, and just going through the last few years," he said of the disc.

"Every time we put a record out, it’s just kind of a snapshot, a diary, of things I’m going through, lyrically.”

'These songs are showcasing it'

Brown said he's particularly excited about the new album on which the band is working, to be called "Resurrect," with release likely next year.

“A lot of bands say, ‘These are our best songs’ when they put out a new album, but we haven’t said that," he said.

But “we’re thinking this album — we’re excited. It’s heavy, it’s melodic, it’s good songwriting. Everything that Trapt does well, these songs are showcasing it."

Brown noted that Trapt has never released two albums within two years of each other, and said that shows how good the songs for "Resurrect" are.

"I just got a burst of creativity," he said. “And just so vastly better songs than ever in my life, really. I mean, that’s just how it feels to me."

Brown said that more than half of the disc's songs — seven — are done, and "we’re planning to do another four or five."

"We’re gonna start releasing new music later on this year and start teasing it pretty soon, in the next month or so," he said. "I just can’t wait to start releasing the songs."