In a quiet, peaceful York Township suburb, as rain gently splashed on hard concrete, it was anything but quiet at the Goldman’s house.
As Gilad Goldman tuned his white Fender Stratocaster, Teagan Tatcher belted out “Stacy’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne. While Alyssa Colon warmed up on keyboard, Cole Saylor strummed on his bass. Amani Weary, meanwhile, sat behind her sticker-clad drum set and bobbed her head to familiar melodies coming from her friends.
It was just like a scene out of an ’80s high school music comedy: five teens in the basement of their friend’s house jamming out — but in this case — remove the classic movie trope of annoyed parents asking to turn the music down.
Instead, three parents Wednesday night zipped around helping the five young musicians prepare for another intense, thundering band practice.
Though alternative rock band “Before The End” only formed two years ago, their undeniable energy and chemistry led them to booking gigs at venues like King Street Jam and the Hard Rock Café.
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Now, the five York County teenagers will be hitting the biggest stage of their young careers: the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
The group will be up against 10 other high school bands this Saturday — all vying for the coveted “Best Band in The Land” award presented by music and entertainment industry judges.
Three weeks of 10 bands each will battle in the annual High School Rock Off, with the top three from each weekend moving to the finals on Feb. 25.
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As part of the contest, each band will be permitted 15 minutes to play the setlist of their dreams, and judged on crowd interaction, vocals and musical performance, Alyssa’s mom, Christie Colon, said.
For the five high schoolers, their setlist will consist of all original songs written by band members. This includes their personal favorites “Domino” and “Butter Death.”
“I think the easiest part of it is that we all love music, and so when you put a bunch of people that love music in the same room as each other, there’s this sort of chemistry that happens and it just, poof, music just comes out of it,” 17-year-old Amani Weary said. “Because we all love it so much, there’s a lot of passion.”
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The group formed at the encouragement of their mentor, Rod Goelz, who runs a student rock band program in Mechanicsburg.
“He kind of brought us all together and gave us the opportunity to be in a band,” Amani Weary said.
While each band member has their designated instrument of choice, that doesn’t stop members like Gilad Goldman from stepping in on drums while Amani heads centerstage to get lost in the lyrics of a song.
As part of the contest, the first place band will be awarded with $3,000 and the opportunity to perform at a Live Nation or House of Blues Cleveland concert as an opening act.
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Additionally, $250 will be awarded to the first place prize winner’s high school music program.
All twelve finalists, meanwhile, will have the chance to record one original song at Tri-C’s Gill and Tommy LiPuma Center for Creative Arts, which will be produced by Jim Stewart Recording and students from Tri-C’s Recording Arts program.
