From detention to distortion: Beauty School Dropout hits the road with 'Baby Warped' tour including Pittsburgh stop

Brent “Beepus” Burdett, the bassist for Los Angeles’ pop-punk band Beauty School Dropout, believes his time in summer school this year will be “way cooler” than his previous stint during middle school.

“I was in seventh grade, and I didn’t do my biggest project and so I was ‘sick’ before that class. So I go to the nurse, call my dad, and I’m like, I’m throwing up, and he said, ‘Cool, I’ll pick you up. Just turn in your project.’ I was like, but I’m so sick.

“He’s like, well, if you didn’t do your project, then you go to summer school. And I not only didn’t get to go home, I went to summer school, and it was the worst summer of my life.”

This year’s version is the idobi Radio Summer School tour, which features seven bands in a Warped Tour-like festival. This tour’s lineup — Rain City Drive, Taylor Acorn, Charlotte Sands, Beauty School Dropout, Arrows in Action, If Not For Me and Huddy — hits Pittsburgh’s Stage AE on Aug. 6.

Beauty School Dropout, which is signed to the Verswire label that includes Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus as a strategic partner, are set to release their next album, “Where Did All the Butterflies Go?” on Sept. 5. Singer Cole “Colie” Hutzler said it feels like the start of a new era for the band.

“I think this is a big leap into a new sound for us,” said Hutzler, who sported a Pittsburgh jersey when the band opened here for Blink-182 in 2023. “Still some of the original sonics that we’ve used, but I think overall, it sounds way more live and like a true band vs. I think we’ve been a little bit more polished in the past, and we’re trying to just go big or go home now.”

In a Zoom call earlier this month from Los Angeles, Burdett, Hutzler and guitarist Bardo Novotny discussed the tour, the support they’ve received from Hoppus, “Grease” and more:

Who are you looking forward to the most, seeing them play?

Hutzler: Rain City Drive.

Burdett: Yeah, I haven’t seen Rain City Drive play yet. So I’ve known Matt (McAndrew, vocalist) for like a decade. So I’m just really excited to see them.

Novotony: I’m really excited for Charlotte Sands. Her new vibe is so sick. “Hush” is a new song she has. Ah, it’s so good.

It seems like it’s a lot of similar-minded bands where community is pretty important to all of you?

Hutzler: For sure. It’s actually everything, yeah. That’s pretty much what’s kept us going all this time, through the highs and lows. I think we are very fortunate to have, even beyond our friends, just such a loyal fan base of people who genuinely care about us and each other. And that’s been such a great infrastructure for us to have over the years.

This is a little bit modeled like the Warped Tour, so did any of you guys ever get to go to Warped Tour?

Hutzler: Oh yeah, I was a Warped Tour baby. I was actually conceived at a Warped Tour.

Burdett: (laughs)

Novotny: It’s true. I was there.

Burdett: (laughs) Bardo’s actually 50. We also all grew up just going to Warped Tour-era music shows as well. That music defines us pretty heavily.

Are you hoping that this tour gives off that same sort of vibe?

Burdett: Yeah, I’ve been calling it Baby Warped.

Hutzler: We’re hopeful, we’re definitely hopeful. I feel like the fact that we got to play the D.C. Warped going into this tour really, hopefully set the tone for the way that we like our shows to go, which is high energy, moshing, crowd surfing. That’s all the chaos you would expect from a typical kind of pop rock punk show.

Are you looking forward to the changing time slots every night?

Hutzler: I don’t know. Wait, for the…

Burdett: I think it’s cool that they’re allowing each artist to have a later slot or an earlier slot. It’s just, I think the most respectful way to do it. There’s no egos involved in that anymore.

Hutzler: Wait, is this for Summer School?

Burdett: Yeah.

Hutzler: We’re switching every day? No way.

Burdett: (laughs) This is classic Colie.

Novotny: Also classic me. I was just been planning the dates that my girlfriend’s gonna come out and see us, and I was looking at last year’s poster. So I also equally have no idea what’s going on. (laughs)

Burdett: Let me explain, basically we change time slot every day.

Hutzler: But we have the same amount of time every day?

Burdett: Yeah. It’ll rotate.

So I guess there won’t be a big difference where you’re playing?

Novotny: Honestly, it’ll be cool. I’m excited for it. I think why we’re excited for the whole (tour is) because it is like a circus, really quick sets, a bunch of bands. It’s like a little buffet of music, which is really cool.

Hutzler: All I can say to our fans is be there on time. Actually, if you’re traveling, be there on time, please.

Are the new singles (“On Your Lips” and “Fever”) a sign of what’s to come?

Hutzler: Absolutely.

Burdett: Absolutely yeah. I feel like you can hear the amps breathing on our new records.

What else should people know about the new album?

Burdett: It’s intended to be listened in its entirety, as every album should be. I think we were very intentional with how we laid it out, all the songs that we put on it. It’s our child of love, and it’s just supposed to be digested whole.

Do the pieces sort of fit together? I know with the way the music industry is now, it’s like single, single, single, and people just listen to the one song.

Burdett: Yeah, I think like that and also just like the storyline, the underlying context of unrequited love and also just the emotions that we’re trying to convey come out as you listen through the whole 14 songs.

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It’s been five years since the band got together. Does it feel like five years? Does it feel like it’s flown by?

Hutzler: It has flown by. It’s funny because it’s like, it makes sense. But then when someone says like, even earlier, someone was like, oh, yeah, you started in 2019. I was like, what?

Burdett: (laughs)

Hutzler: Like, wow, I can’t believe we’ve gone this far and done it this long. It’s crazy. And it still feels so early. That’s the craziest part is it feels like we’re just now starting.

Burdett: It feels like I’ve known these boys though my whole life. That’s the coolest part about this. I feel like we were like childhood best friends, even though we met as young adults.

You were here a few years ago opening up for Blink-182. How important was that tour for the group?

Hutzler: Super. I think that put a lot of respect on our name. (laughs) Yeah, I think that was a huge one for us. It was just a learning experience above all else, to go from, because our first real headline tour was probably like eight months before that, right? So it was like we went from 200 caps to 25,000 caps in a span of eight months. And I think that that was an incredible speed-take of Touring University because you get to see all of the different nooks and crannies of what goes into the production side. And I think now we’re more than ever well-trained for what this next decade of touring has to come.

Was that daunting to play the stadium shows, those arena shows so early in your career?

Burdett: The first day of the Blink tour was, not even daunting, I think it was just like we didn’t know what to expect. We had played everything from tiny clubs to like 2,500 caps at that point and a few festivals but going to then 25,000, you just don’t understand the scale of what it’s like to not be able to see the people that are all the way up and all the way back. It’s weird too because you can only see this, it feels like a 500 cap in front of you. But then you realize there’s people behind you like 100 feet up. Crazy experience.

How big of a champion has Mark Hoppus been for your group?

Burdett: Oh, Daddy Mark.

Hutzler: He’s our freakin’ man.

Burdett: It’s been cool to have someone so goated in the scene champion us relentlessly for the last few years. He believes in us and I think whenever we’re doubting ourselves too, it’s cool to get the texts that we get from him, just telling us that he believes in us.

Hutzler: I feel like it’s also been really cool to see the evolution of how he believes in us, because I feel like it was almost like this adolescent, when we first got signed to the label, it was like he believed in us. But I feel like now it’s almost like he’s impressed by us, which is cool. I feel like upon hearing this album, sending him everything, he was like, oh, oh wow. OK, cool. That has definitely been really reaffirming.

So he sort of saw the potential early on, and now he’s seeing that potential sort of unleashed?

Hutzler: Yeah, for sure. It’s been really cool.

Burdett: To quote him directly, he said, this is…

Hutzler: We’re the best band in the world. Can I join your band?

Novotny: All the bands should just quit now that this is out.

Burdett: To quote him directly.

All: (laugh)

Burdett: He said, this is the album that you guys talked about making when I first met you. And I think that that was just really cool, because we feel the same way. So that was validating.

With the band’s name, have you watched “Grease”? Is that something you guys do?

Burdett: Oh yeah.

Hutzler: We’ve never watched it as a group though. You know what, we’ve got to do that this tour. We’re going to tie Huddy down and make him watch “Grease” with us. We’re all going to crawl into his bunk. Ah ah ah, we’re watching “Grease.”