The Vindys are back home following a 22-city, cross-country tour last week opening for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo in 2,000- to-5,000-capacity venues.

Not only did the tour provide increased exposure for the Youngstown band, but it helped the musicians make industry connections that could pay dividends in the future.

That tour and other efforts have led to building relationships within the music industry.

“I don’t know if there’s a snowball (effect), but it feels like there has been,” lead singer Jackie Popovec said.

While the band has played shows outside of the region before, the tour with Benatar-Giraldo was its first extended stint on the road.

“I think that it was beyond our expectations,” Popovec said. “You know, we haven’t been to any of these markets before, and the standing ovations that we received in markets we’ve never been to, it was quite extraordinary to be an opening act and for that to happen in places like Denver, where we’ve never been. The whole house is standing for you, and you’re like, what’s going on? It was absolutely nuts.”

The band saw increases in its social media followers from the tour as well as increased traffic for its online store at thevindys.com. But for Popovec, the main indicator was the response she’d get in the lobby after performing while talking to concertgoers at the merch table.

“We had people coming up and saying, ‘Oh, I know Youngstown’ or ‘My family is from there.’ I’d see a couple Youngstown State shirts out in the crowd out west here and there. People were just really proud that this band from Youngstown, Ohio, is doing it, you know,” Popovec said.

The musicians will add “actor” to their resumes later this month when it appears in “The Awoken,” a low-budget psychological horror film that is being shot later this month primarily at The Royal Oaks in Youngstown. The Vindys will play the bar band, and Popovec also will have a small role as a nun. Popovec was an extra in the 2011 movie “I Am Number Four,” which was shot in Pittsburgh, and she’s looking forward to being more involved in this production.

“I’ve always wanted to be the cool punk girl that plays at Royal Oaks, but I never have,” she said. “This is my one shot to play there. I’m excited to just go in and see how they’re making this film … The description of this psychological thriller is pretty nuts.”

For the tour, The Vindys performed as a six-piece band — Popovec, lead vocals and guitar; John Anthony, guitar; Rick Deak, guitar; Nathan Anthony, keyboards; Brendan Burke, bass; and Owen Davis, drums.

The band will have the horn section with it when it headlines the Kent Stage on Oct. 4, and fans can expect a Youngstown and a Cleveland show before 2024 ends.

“My focus right now is to figure out what 2025 looks like as well as writing more music and recording some one of these new songs that we’ve been playing for the last couple of years,” Popovec said. .”I am not going to be chilling out. It’s going to be work time.”

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