I knew that band back when ...
BiCoastalChickie has officially made the jump from Midnight Sun reader/commenter to Midnight Sun guest poster. Here is her first piece:
When I was in college in SoCal, we had a couple of sweet bands (and sevvvvveral crappy ones) that played campus parties each year.
One student was friends with the jam band Particle, who has since gone on to play Lollapalooza and the New Orleans Jazz Fest and tour with 311.
I still have my Linde Dorm Particle T-shirt from when they played there in 2001 ...
One of the guys in my dorm was the drummer for We Are Scientists (pictured), which developed a decent following here and a bigger one in Europe (yeah, they're kinda emo) ...
I loved that he had a master's degree in Engineering and that his full-time job was touring in a band. He has since left the band, though I had a quick chat with him the last time they all played together at Sonar. I have heard We Are Scientists songs on CSI: NY and The OC, so they must have *arrived*, right?
So, what successful bands did you know back when they were just punks playing a mix of covers and original tunes at the local bars or the dorm parties?
(Photo of We Are Scientists from 2006 courtesy of Virgin Records)
I've been The Baltimore Sun's nightlife and local entertainment reporter for a couple years, and it's surprising how much the scene has grown in that time. Most of Baltimore's bars and clubs are unpretentious places with fairly cheap drinks and plenty of character. I like dancing and think this city needs more clubs, but nothing beats having a cold, locally brewed beer with friends in a comfortably full corner bar.
Comments
I went to college with Lee-Hom Wang, who was already a bona fide superstar at that point—just not in English.
In terms of up & comers, I should recuse myself from this question because I used to book bands for my school. But I had the good fortune to book a just-starting-out Erin McKeown back when she only had a tape.
And I did everything in my power to make sure that One Fell Swoop never got a dime from any organization I was part of. They were from a sister college and my school would bring them every semester. (Not just every year. Every damn semester.) They went on to become Dispatch.
Posted by: Patchen | April 27, 2009 12:28 PM
Was visiting a friend freshman year at Elon. She convinced me to check out this amazing guy and his band at a bar. Didn't get the violin, but loved the sax man. Too mellow for me. Still thought they were overrated at the time and still do. Forgot about them, and 3 years later Dave Matthews was heading the HFStival.
Posted by: Sturmy | April 27, 2009 12:51 PM
Sturmy's story is better than mine. Unless you're Chinese. In that case, I give you full permission to annex Sturmy and all his stories.
Posted by: Patchen | April 27, 2009 2:09 PM
Sturmy,
Leroi Moore will be missed, he was very talented.
I saw a band that was booed off the stage for anti-american rhetoric and just spewing hate in general. I (and everyone around me) thought they blew anyway, the band was System of a Down. I still think they blow.
Posted by: Eeyore | April 27, 2009 4:11 PM
During a spring break surf trip in college, me and some buds met Jack Johnson at a record store in Encinitas, CA. A few months later we saw him at the intimate Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis (which was pretty full, but not sold-out). The following year he was at Bonnaroo and, love him or hate him, almost every major US festival and ampitheater around in the years that followed.
Posted by: Dave the wave | April 28, 2009 3:27 PM