MIKE MC LAUGHLIN
photos
Lead
guitarist Doug Mikula (above), 18, practices
with fellow Drive rock band member and bassist
Mike Vernon (below), 18.
|
"I want to
be a rock star," said the 21-year-old Monmouth
University student from Tinton Falls.
He's not kidding, either. In fact, he's quite
passionate about it.
"When you find something that you can do
without even thinking about it, without even
really trying and you're just being yourself,
that's what you should do," Neff said.
Neff is the vocalist and oldest member of the
Tinton Falls rock band Drive. Other members
include Neff's younger brother Mike, 17, on drums;
lead guitarist Doug Mikula, 18; and bassist
Michael Vernon, 18.
Drive's music has been featured on local radio
stations, and the band is one of five area groups
that will perform at the first Keyport Battle of
the Bands.
The free event -- originally scheduled to
coincide with the Keyport's Mid-Summer Street Fair
Aug. 2 -- was postponed because of bad weather. It
begins at 6 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of the
Stop & Shop/Keyport Plaza Shopping Center at
routes 35 and 36.
The top prize includes recording and video
production time at Unreal Productions, Keyport --
valued at around $1,000 -- and a headline
appearance at Freehold's San Gennaro Festival
Sept. 21. The San Gennaro Festival -- a street
fair featuring Italian fare held in conjunction
with the borough's AntiqueFest -- last year
attracted about 15,000 people.
MIKE MC LAUGHLIN
photos
Drive rock
band vocalist Tom Neff (above), 21, rehearses
with band members, including his brother, Mike,
17.
|
Other
prizes include two hours of rehearsal time at a
local studio and gift certificates from local
merchants.
Each band will perform a 30-minute set during
the three-hour event, which is hosted by the
nonprofit Keyport Business Alliance. A panel of
four local musicians and aficionados will then
rate bands in four categories: professionalism,
showmanship, musicianship and crowd interaction,
said Tony Costa, organizer of the event.
"We're trying to keep this as unbiased as
possible, so the judging won't be based on what
type of music is played, but more on how it is
played," he said.
Should judges score two or more bands equally,
the audience will cast the tie-breaking vote,
Costa said.
Of the 30 bands that sent tapes, CDs and media
kits trying to qualify for the show, the five that
made the cut represented the best in their genre,
Costa said. There are styles that range from a boy
band of 11- and 12-year-old musicians (Pryde) to
classic rock (Live Animals), to Drive's
thunderously poppy, modern punk sound.
"We wanted to get a diversity of bands," Costa
said. "There's a lot of good music being produced
right around here and we wanted to try to get a
good cross-section of it."
From an armchair adjacent to the cramped Tinton
Falls basement room where Drive holds practice,
Neff admitted he had no idea what the top prize
for the Battle of the Bands was. Other band
members had only a vague idea.
"I guess that shows you how much we care about
winning," Neff said. "We like doing shows like
this because you get to hear some great bands and
play for people who wouldn't normally hear you."
Keith Brown: (732) 643-4078 or kbrown@app.com
Published in the Asbury Park Press 9/10/03
Click
Here to subscribe to the Asbury Park
Press
