Garage band camp finishes off with concert
The rock concert featured screaming fans and the lights and sounds of some of the most memorable songs from Pat Benatar, Journey and Led Zeppelin.
The Garage Rock Band Camp at the North Fort Myers Academy for the Arts finished off its two-week camp with a triple-bill in the auditorium on Friday, a great warm up for the “Shrek Jr.” performance later that evening.
The camp, which started last year, grew to 12 musicians this year, led by Joe Hill, a teacher and guitarist. He said it was inspired by the private lessons he gives.
“I like to get the kids together in a band. We thought it would be cool to turn it into a camp,” Hill said. “Christina Moffat, our band director, got the ball rolling and got it done.”
The bands were put together on the first day, where they selected their songs. Hill said some of the songs they knew, others they didn’t. They spent the two weeks getting them together and ready to perform.
For bands that had played together for just two weeks, things went fairly well as the bands got on and off the stage quickly, and received the reactions they wanted.
Many of the younger members of the Shrek cast sat in the front row, and it might as well have been the original artists on stage as the sang, danced and even turned on the flashlights on their cell phones, an homage to the days when people flicked their Bics when a great song played. Olivia Jernstedt, guitarist with the band Stained with Chaos, also played in the camp last year and thought it would be a good way to meet new people and maybe form a band.
“It’s a great time and play different songs. We wanted a wide variety so we each picked a song. We wanted them to be iconic and songs people recognized, such as Another Brick in The Wall by Pink Floyd and Back in Black by AC/DC,” Jernstedt said, adding she likes many types of music and therefore doesn’t have a particular favorite.
Alexandra Dawson, lead vocalist for the band Impromptu Screeching, said she has been singing her entire life despite not having any vocal training besides family karaoke.
“I do what I love. I did this last year and had a great time and met new people. It was cool to meet new singers,” said Dawson, whose band did mostly classic alternative by Foo Fighters and My Chemical Romance. “I would love to do this as a profession.”