Vindys singer Jackie Popovec talks Pittsburgh show & supporting Pat Benatar on the road

PITTSBURGH ― We've come to think of The Vindys as sort-of a local band, right?

Hailing from just-up-the-road, in Youngstown, Ohio, the high-energy rockers have warmed audiences at two Donnie Iris birthday concerts, after all, and had a song "Are You Ready?" featured in a Pittsburgh Pirates promo. The Vindys also played local places like Wooley Bully's Juke-Joint in New Brighton, the Harmony Inn, Stage AE as part of the Women Who Rock cancer research fundraiser and the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

This summer, the Vindys amp up their national presence on a tour supporting Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo.

Catch the Vindys closer to home June 22, when the band headlines Thunderbird Music Cafe in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood. The Roof opens the 8 p.m., 21-and-older show for which tickets cost $15 at thunderbirdmusichall.com.

"It's special to me, because this is our first-time headlining Pittsburgh since I honestly can't remember," the Vindys' vivacious lead vocalist Jackie Popovec, said. "It's such a shame because we're just 50 minutes away."

The Vindys savored their 2022 and 2023 performances at UPMC Events Center in Moon, joining The Clarks as warmup acts for Beaver Valley's resident rock star Iris.

"I feel we've really become like a family, with Donnie Iris' clan and The Clarks as well," Popovec said. "It's funny to be in this industry and circling around each other and seeing what each one is doing and always having each others' backs."

At that 2022 show, Popovec even wore an Iris concert T-shirt on stage, joining King Cool and The Clarks' Scott Blasey on a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" and The Beatles' "A Little Help From My Friends."

"I don't know where I found that shirt, maybe a thrift store? I'm a big collector of band tees," Popevec said. "The first time we opened for him, I think it was at the Canton Palace Theatre, I had him sign it for me. Since then, we've become good friends."

She tried partaking in one of Iris' monthly cigar gatherings at Jergel's Rhythm Grille, but quickly learned cigars were not her thing.

"I couldn't hang with him at a cigar bar, but we keep in close contact and text every once in awhile."

The upcoming Pittsburgh show will showcase Popovec's soulful, sultry singing style, teamed with searing guitar sounds from John Anthony and Rick Deak, plus the enticing grooves and textures of Owen Davis on drums, Brendan Burke on bass and Nathan Anthony on keys.

The Vindys are starting to road-test new and unreleased music.

"I'd like to gauge the interest in some of our newer music," Popovec said last Tuesday morning in a phone interview after a workout class.

The past few years, the Vindys core six-member band regularly has added a trombone, saxophone and trumpet player for live dates.

"I really like it because I lean toward a jazzier vocal, and the guys are so heavy rocking on the guitars," Popovec said. "It balances out the whole band, kind of like (Pittsburgh's) The Commonheart. The more the merrier to me. We all play our parts and I like the dynamic we have on stage."

Blending pop and soul into their sound, The Vindys formed in 2014 after meeting at the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University. The band's name pays homage to their roots by referencing Youngstown’s daily newspaper, The Vindicator.

The Vindys have shared the stage with Marcus King, ZZ Top and Phillip Phillips, with the group's “Are You Ready” used to promote several sports franchises as well as ESPN commercials. The Vindys music video for “Bugs” screened at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City as one of only eight music videos selected alongside national artists like The Black Keys and Lizzo.

That sophomore album, "Bugs," blends rock, blues, and vintage pop, designed to be versatile enough for a jazzy supper club or rock and roll arena.

A sound versatile enough for the horn section and Popovec's soulful voice to make Black Sabbath's thundering "War Pigs" an electrifying cover choice in Vindys shows the past several years.

"We always look for the one song that would mix into our own music in and out of the song in the same key. I'm always searching for those older songs that people may have forgotten about, or they love but haven't heard a ton on the radio lately," Popovec said. "We also do the Allman Brothers' 'Whipping Post' in and out of one of our songs. I like to throw a curveball at the audience. We are such a dynamic group, however if you throw in Black Sabbath and people are like 'The Vindys just did Black Sabbath?' Your mind just explodes with like, 'why did they just do that?' And 'how dare they think they can do that' (laughs). And 'oh my, God, they just pulled it off.'"

Popovec's well-seasoned, and in some cases classically trained, bandmates "are improv masters," she said. "So I'm able to have fun with it."

That improv experience should come in handy when July rolls around, and The Vindys begin trying to win over audiences at Benatar's concerts.

"We're super grateful for the opportunity," Popovec said. "She's one of the top five voices I tried to emulate when I was growing up. I was a bored kid and I'd try to repeat all these massive voices like Whitney Houston and Ann Wilson from Heart and Pat Benatar."

Seeing the operatic trained Benatar still dazzling on vocals at age 71 inspires Popovec and gives her confidence she will have a long career as a singer, too.

Sometime this month, The Vindys will release a new single to coincide with the Benatar tour that stretches from Atlantic City to Las Vegas, over to L.A., and up to Washington State.

The tour actually delayed the release of the Vindys' forthcoming and still-untitled new album.

"This tour happened so last minute, we had to switch gears. We actually had blocked off all July and August to record the new album and release it," Popovec said. "But when Pat Benatar calls, you can't say no."

Popovec said she felt proud and a bit overwhelmed to have been chosen as one of five prominent Youngstowners profiled in an Ohio PBS station's documentary about that east Ohio city.

"I represented the Vindys, of course. I can't believe we've been able to do all we've done, but it's because we're standing on the shoulders of greats like Donnie Iris and Michael Stanley up in Cleveland and Belkin Productions and all the northeast Ohio rock legends."

They're Ohioans, though Beaver County can lay a bit of a claim.

As Vindys guitarist John Anthony said in a 2021 interview with The Times, "My family's all from Beaver County. I grew up in New Castle," he said, "but my mom's side is from New Brighton and my dad's side is from Rochester."

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Vindys singer Jackie Popovec talks Pittsburgh show & Pat Benatar tour