By Nicole Moriarty
A lot of people have been going out to the local band shows lately and it’s not just because of a cheap entrance fee. There’s a lot of real talent to be seen and heard over the past six months in our area, and its guaranteed that you know some of the young adults responsible for the dramatic change in our music scene. Bands from Massachusetts are very influential in the modern scheme of rock. Boston produced rockers Aerosmith and Godsmack, and MTV newcomers Staind hail from Springfield. Another Boston band, Halfcocked, is featured on the Shrek soundtrack performing a cover of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation.” All these bands started out as local garage bands and received support from their friends and classmates at small shows in their hometowns. Many people may not know that there a lot of local bands with members from Quabbin Regional High School. Once a month there are concerts featuring these bands at varied venues throughout Worcester County. From the small, do-it-yourself space known as the Polish Hall in Gilbertville, to the Palladium on Main St. in Worcester, students from our school are getting out more and more to hear the sounds of our local scene. Show attendance has increased over the past year, due to the fact that music junkies are looking for a newer, more original sound and the local bands’ sound is satisfying their hunger. “The 'new sound' that I think is now just starting to go mainstream has been kept under lock-up for many years and is now just starting to boom,” says Brian Marcou, a Quabbin student and drummer for August Avenue. “Jimmy Eat World, and the Deftones were ahead of their time, and kids are starting to pick up on this and they’re following the new wave sound, and using it to their advantage and creating more musical music off of it.” August Avenue is a new local band, with a hardcore sound like a Deftones - Alien Ant Farm hybrid. The band plans on recording mp3s of their shows and letting web surfers download them off their web site, as a revolutionary way to record their tracks. Along with the rise in the Central-Massachusetts scene, there’s also been the birth of central-Massachusetts music scene informational websites. These websites host a lot of resources that would be useful to students interested in attending a local show. The majority of the bands have websites that give information and have mp3 downloads. Some of the bands and artists that have mp3s and .wav files for download off their web site are By The Grace Of, Bayou Billy Savior of the Swamp, and Bone Brow. The one band that has been the “band of the summer” for a lot of the students at Quabbin Regional High School is By The Grace Of. The release of the band’s first CD, entitled “The Ebb and Flow of Thought,” propelled the 6-member band to greater success in the central-Massachusetts scene. By The Grace Of is scheduled to play a show on October 27, at the Shea Theatre in Greenfield, MA with Trumore, Absolve, Barium, Hypnotic Kick, Edgar, and Locobazooka 2001 veterans At Will. One festival that attracted a lot of attention from not only the media but from students in our school is Locobazooka. This year, national bands Kittie, Puya, Disturbed, and Godhead had to drop from the lineup due to a problem with getting flights into Boston. Biohazard was booked into the show last minute as another national band. However, there were over 50 local bands to check out at the September 16 show at Green Hill Park in Worcester. Cloud 9 ˝, and T-House of the Almighty, who are featured on WAAF’s Sunday night “Bay State Rock” program played the show on the radio station’s Future of Rock stage. A lot of talent scouts scour Locobazooka hoping to find the next big band, so you never know what the results of that festival will be. So the next time you are looking for something new and exciting to do, log onto a local scene informational website (try http://www.justanotherscene.com) and check out the show listings. Mr. Marcou advises to “Go out and support everyone, either good or bad bands - we can all use the help and support on your behalf!” |
