DHS Band Scene Rocks On
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When I started my freshman year at Darien High School in the fall of 2005, there was not much of a music scene. There had been a little bit of buzz about bands in middle school, but by the time freshman year came, no one was performing live around town. Bands like Whiskey Tree, who frequently played at school events, were the only ones anyone had heard of. The bands that played at The Depot mainly featured screamo bands from out of town, whose concerts consisted of a group of self-loathing kids screaming at you for half an hour.
However, thankfully this changed. By the time my band, The Seascape (Class of 09 grads Patrick Smith, Mike Muney and Jake Seymour) started playing at The Depot, there were a few more local acts. The Depot decided to stop booking out-of-town acts and have more band nights for those rocking DHS.
Over the past few years, more and more bands have turned up the volume and burst out on the scene. Bands like classic rock act The Colony (composed of juniors Alex McGuire, Chris Losito, JJ Holmgren, Ryan Dirvin); metal band Tempest (juniors Zach Heyde, Misha Kushnir, Tommy Festo, and freshman Michael Festo); the alternative band Crazy Old Language (Class of 09 grads Juan Sucre, Charlie Nicholls, Dane Gebauer, Chris Gray, RJ Irizarry); and most recently, the faculty band Staff Infection composed of custodian Rodney Brown, English teacher Matt Pavia, choral teacher Christopher Andrade, Middlesex Middle School music teacher Dylan Spielvogel, special education teacher Kai Underwood, and special education aide Charly Fish.
During my time at Darien High School, indie music was the genre of choice for band nights at The Depot. Westport band Midi and the Modern Dance frequently played alongside The Seascape and Crazy Old Language. Midi favored a folk-pop-rock style, The Seascape played a sort of garage pop, and Crazy Old Language leaned towards a Radiohead mode of alternative rock.
As the classic rock generation of music dies off, one band is setting the TONE to bring it all back, no pun intended. TONE has been around ever since they started high school, and have been playing consistently superior sets ever since. Made up of seniors Kenny Weiss, Nick Trautman, Alex Wildish, Chris Stovall, and newest member junior Elizabeth Leimkuhler, TONE started playing sets made up of only covers, but have began to introduce their own original songs.
Drummer Chris Stovall talks of the bands goals for the future, “We hope to finish writing all of our songs because we have a bunch of songs that we have just haven’t finished writing. We have about six or seven songs that are about three quarters written,” Stovall said.
Amidst all of the song writing and jam sessions, TONE hope to release an original album or at least an EP, and are also looking forward to playing some bigger gigs, ‘We have a lot of offers to play at events around town and we hope this will lead to even bigger and better gigs. We love playing at party-like atmospheres and we hope to play some more parties.”
TONE has always been about one thing: having a good time. Almost always, TONE gets everyone in the crowd dancing and feeling good. As for next year, lead guitarist Kenny Weiss said, “We’re just hoping to write some new material, play more school events, meet more people in the music world and grow as a band. I think we still have a lot of growing to do as a musical group in high school. Our dreams are to play festivals and to change the music scene in Darien,” Weiss said.
Singer/bassist Nick Trautmann has high hopes for the years to come, “Well next year, TONE is going to ‘reach for the stars’! We hope to make oodles of musical innovations over the summer and return to DHS more powerful than you can ever imagine!! Oh, and my brother’s band “Stealing Free Samples” is coming up into the high school next year and they’re actually pretty good. You can look them up on Facebook!” Trautmann said with subtle enthusiasm.
The Colony, following in the footsteps of TONE, plays a similar breed of classic rock, though they play songs from a more varied time frame. The Colony is also writing their own songs, and their goal is simple. Front-man Alex McGuire said, “We’re trying to put classic-style rock back on the map.”
However, one band hopes to add some thrash to amplifiers of DHS. Junior metal band Tempest is the only one of its kind here at DHS. Formally known as Prisoner of War, rhythm guitarist Tommy Festo discussed the reason for the name change.
“The old name just didn’t suit our music style any longer,” he said, “We’ve developed a lot more as a band since our last appearance in Neirad.
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We have a few originals finished, and a lot more still in development,” Festo added. The band had its first gig at a party in late May of last year, starting at the bottom like true professionals.
It is not just the students who are ready to rock the halls of DHS. Faculty band Staff Infection is living up to it’s name and spreading throughout the music scene like an infectious disease, a good disease, at that, and front-man Rodney Brown says that there is no cure in sight. “As of now we plan to get together a few times over summer break to rehearse,” Mr Brown says, “Our pattern has been to get together once a week. We did one of the nights of the Darien Days Carnival in July.”
Band member Christopher Andrade who is also skipping out on vaccination said, “We are planning to stay together - the planned event that led to our formation fell through, but we've been having such a good time that we figured we'd keep going.”
He also spoke of the progress the band has made since its formation, “We're learning some new repertoire and trying to figure out a rehearsal schedule for the summer. Beyond that, we don't really know at this point. We'd like to do some more charity events; we helped to raise more than $1,000 for The Depot and there are a few other organizations that we could help out in a similar way.” As for next year, I think we can all be sure that being tainted by the Staff Infection is inevitable.
Graduation last June brought about the demise of The Seascape, Midi and the Modern Dance, and Crazy Old Language. Yet, the future is looking better by the strum for the Darien music scene, as more and more bands emerge from Middlesex. As long as Darien High School students continue to make music and share it with each other, the Darien music scene will only improve and continue to rock The Depot and DHS students for many groundbreaking years to come.
Class of 2009 graduate Patrick Smith is a freshman at New York University
