Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Rock 101
While School of Rock offers vocal instruction and instrument lessons for guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, there is a big focus on performance.
“The Rock 101 Program is where the kids start to learn how to perform together,” Garry said. “They’re not trying to put on a big concert. It’s a very lowkey way to start learning band skills in addition to instrument skills. We find when kids start that program, they become much more engaged, which is really the brilliance of the program. Because they’re engaged, they practice more at home. You see a huge upslope in their learning curve. Then it moves into the Youth Performance Program.
“Part of the reason we chose ‘Stop Making Sense’ is it involves stage craft, and we like to be able to work on that,” Garry continued. “It’s a show where we’ll have as many as 14 kids on stage at once and this time, they range in age from 12 to 18. Talking Heads music isn’t necessarily that complicated on any instrument. It’s all about the groove and the complicated part is figuring out how to make it all groove together. To see 14 kids on stage, looking at each other and realizing they’re all part of a whole and happy to be part of that whole is amazing.”
About Talking Heads
Talking Heads formed in 1975 and released its debut, “77,” two years later. Like Blondie, the group was more commercially successful than the Ramones, Television and other contemporaries from New York’s CBGB scene. Eight Talking Heads singles made it to the Billboard Hot 100, with “Take Me to the River” reaching 26 in 1978 and “Wild Wild Life” hitting 25 in 1986. The band’s lone Top 10 single, 1983′s “Burning Down the House,” peaked at number nine.
Talking Heads began as a jittery new wave act but continued to evolve during its 16-year existence. David Byrne (vocals, guitar), Jerry Harrison (keyboards, guitar), Tina Weymouth (bass) and Chris Franz (drums) began including elements of funk, Afrobeat and world music while working with producer Brian Eno on the gold albums, “More Songs About Buildings and Found” (1978), “Fear of Music” (1979) and “Remain In Light” (1980). The musicians took what they learned from Eno and used it to self-produce the group’s most successful album, “Speaking in Tongues” (1983).
The tour in support of that platinum selling album featured the standard Talking Heads quartet augmented by keyboardist Bernie Worrell of Parliament, guitarist Alex Weir of the Brothers Johnson, a percussionist and two female backing vocalists. For “Stop Making Sense,” Demme, the director of “Melvin & Howard,” “Philadelphia” and “The Silence of the Lambs,” filmed four nights of performances at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood in December 1983.
“We did ‘Stop Making Sense’ 10 years ago, when the school was just about two years old,” Garry said. “They pulled it off brilliantly. It was a defining event at the school. Those kids went off to the next season’s shows and they brought in that experience and transmitted it to the other kids, and it amplified across the rest of the student body. That was really cool to see.
“One of the reasons we’re doing ‘Stop Making Sense’ again is to get that experience to a new student body,” Garry continued. “We have a new student body every year that wants to get experience in both stage craft and figuring out how to make the groove work when you’ve got so many people involved in one song.”
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Getting involved
The 2003 comedy starring Jack Black, “School of Rock,” introduced the term to many music fans but the concept predated that film. The first School of Rock opened in Philadelphia in 1998. School of Rock Mason, 755 Reading Road, Suite 1, Mason, opened in 2012. There are now more than 350 franchise locations in 15 different countries. Enrollment is open now for the Mason location’s next round of classes.
“Rehearsals for our next Youth Performance show season start in February and then the performances will be in May,” Garry said. “For this season we’re doing a Classic R&B show and a Hair Metal show. We’re doing Foo Fighters, the Police and Radiohead. We’ve now done more than 200 shows since we opened in 2012, ranging from the Beatles and the Who to Aerosmith and the Allman Brothers.
“Our school has a pretty tremendous reputation,” Garry added. “We’ve put people on the all-star team every single year since we’ve opened. The all-star team is 175 students so there are actually multiple teams. To put it in perspective, there are only 350 schools. Most schools do not put somebody on the all-star team, so the quality of our program is quite strong. It’s a great thing to help these kids be able to work with other musicians and finally express their talent.”
Contact this contributing writer at 937-287-6139 or donthrasher100@gmail.com.
How to go
What: School of Rock Mason presents “Stop Making Sense”
Where: The Brightside, 905 E. Third St., Dayton
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20; doors open at 7 p.m.
Cost: $10 in advance, $15 day of show
More info: 937-410-0450 or thebrightsidedayton.com
Artist info: schoolofrock.com/locations/mason
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