Silent Fury knows the rock band life is never as glamorous as it appears on MTV. Traveling long hours on the road, unloading and setting up equipment, playing gigs — the local Syracuse band has put in countless hours of energy to do what mainstream bands make look so easy.

‘We’ll have 16-hour days for a half-hour set,’ said Mick Fury, lead singer of Silent Fury. ‘But I wouldn’t change any of it for anything. This band is what I love to do.’

Silent Fury — made up of Fury on vocals and lead guitar, Josh ‘Wildman’ Dean on drums and Joe Nasty on bass — has become a force in the Syracuse music scene. The band members have crafted a relatable brand of rock that has earned them a following around the area.

‘We play straight-up rock ‘n’ roll. It’s loud and angry, but it’s what we love playing,’ Fury said. ‘Most songs I write are about relationships that didn’t go well and my frustration, and people can definitely relate.’

Silent Fury is set to open for ‘90s alternative-rock act Cowboy’s Mouth on Wednesday night at the Westcott Theater. In the past few years, the band has put its name on the map by sharing the stage with prominent major label acts, including the Goo Goo Dolls, Vertical Horizon and the Spin Doctors.

‘We’re obviously excited to play with a band like Cowboy’s Mouth,’ said Fury. ‘Bigger bands mean having bigger crowds, which gives us more energy to feed from when we’re doing our set.’

After sales soared past the 4,000 mark for the trio’s 2009 debut, ‘Sunday Stillettos,’ the band is now playing shows in support of its newest effort, ‘Girl in My Head,’ released November 2010. Fury and company released both albums on the band’s own independent record label, Real Rock Records, but the band islooking to make a name for itselfby signing with a more widely recognized label.

The band never considers a gig to be small, Fury said, whether it is a two-hour headlining set or opening for another band. The group has toured the entire East Coast, playing shows in New Hampshire and Florida and everywhere in between.

By playing local venues closer to home, such as the Westcott Theater, Silent Fury accredits Syracuse’s revamped music scene to some of its success as an emerging rock group.

Fury said Syracuse is getting bigger bands because venues are being redesigned. He cited the Lost Horizon, a club at 5863 Thompson Road, as a place that used to be a ‘dive venue.’

‘With venues like that, the reopening of the Westcott and the upstairs room of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que being a great place to play, Syracuse is a good place for a band to get going,’ Fury said.

Although the band has played more than 150 national tour dates in just a 10-month span, following on the heels of two successful records, Silent Fury has defied the traditional format most rock bands seem to follow.

‘We’re not one of those bands that say, ‘Hey, we’ve been best friends since high school, and we’ve been playing in each other’s basements forever.” Fury said. ‘Being in a band is kind of like dating two other dudes — there’s a lot of compromising and keeping each other happy.’

Silent Fury has garnered success in the local scene by packing venues with concertgoers using its distinctive rock style. The band also has both of its albums available on a national level on iTunes. But Silent Fury is still a long way from reachingits fullest potential, said the band’s frontman.

‘My goal for this band is to be the absolute best, No. 1 band on the planet,’ Fury said. ‘It seems like a crazy goal, but why even be in a band if you don’t set the bar high?’

ervanrhe@syr.edu

Published on February 15, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Erik: ervanrhe@syr.edu | @therealvandyman