Saratoga News
Cover Story
Photograph by Zach Beecher
Although security tried to keep the crowd under control, young music fans at the June 7 show loved to show their appreciation for the bands by crowd surfing.
Bands Rock
And teens were rocking along at the Saratoga Community Center
By Jennifer McBride
All the bands at the June 7 show, including the nationally-known band Voo Doo Glow Skulls, featuring Frank Casillas (left) on lead vocals, gave an impressive show and worked the crowd of enthusiastic teens.
It may have looked like a midsummer Halloween party, but it wasn't. The crowd that gathered at the Saratoga Community Center on June 7 was there for the music.
With Warner Hutton House closing and school out for the summer, the teens of Saratoga may be thinking they have nowhere to go for some good, clean fun, but the Saratoga Recreation Department has come to the rescue.
There's no need to pay the steep prices at Shoreline Amphitheater or the HP Pavilion to enjoy live music--the recreation department is bringing rock and roll right to town.
The summer of music kicked off June 7 with a five-band lineup at the Saratoga Community Center. The line of music lovers stretched around the corner as teens--and even a few adults--waited eagerly to get inside and rock along to such local bands as 5606, Skars of Britain and The Knockout, as well as national touring bands Suburban Legends and the Voo Doo Glow Skulls.
Some chose to take full advantage of the night and dress up in anything from a foam Thor costume to a Batman and Robin cape, or a mohawk and torn fishnets. Others went the casual route with jeans and a T-shirt from their favorite band of the night.
While local teens and 20-somethings comprised the majority of the crowd, it was easy to spot an adult or two with a toddler in tow on the sidelines, rocking along with the best of them.
The band 5606 opened the show with a high-energy set that had the crowd on its feet, dancing and singing along. But the second band, Skars of Britain--which brought with it an impressive crowd of loyal fans, despite its last-minute addition to the lineup--brought the house down with its No Doubt-esque brand of ska, rock and pop. Looking dashing in their uniform cherry-red suits, the members of Skars of Britain don't carry the usual rock instruments with them on stage--they wield trumpets, trombones and upright basses, and they make it look cool. Anyone who says the school marching band or jazz band is just for nerds should have a conversation with the Skars of Britain.
It seems Thor and Robin dressed up especially for their favorite band, Skars of Britain. Thor turned out to be 20-year-old Derek Jennings of San Jose, and Robin was 18-year-old College of San Mateo student Pat Dear. Jennings and Dear said the whole idea of dressing up in costumes at the Skars of Britain shows--they say they never miss a single one--started on, of course, Halloween of last year, when they attended a Halloween night concert at The Cave in downtown San Jose. Skars of Britain happened to be the night's entertainment, and Jennings and Dear fell in love with the seven-member band. They say they've been diehard fans ever since.
"Well, one, they're awesome people, two, they rock the stage and their music is awesome, and three, they have catchy tunes," Dear says of his favorite band.
"Yeah, they're awesome on stage," Jennings agreed. "We go to every one of their shows."
Unfortunately, their partners in crime--Spiderman, Batman and Space Ghost--were missing in action that night, but the pair still danced enthusiastically and sang along to every tune that night.
Adam Henig, recreation supervisor for the city of Saratoga, hopes there's plenty more where the June 7 show came from. He says summer concerts aimed at teens used to be a regular event around Saratoga in the early 1990s but seemed to fizzle out a bit after that, until he came on board a few years ago. He thought the concerts were such a great idea, he set to work trying to revive the tradition.
"I just saw so much potential in the concerts. We did this one show and so many people came out, I thought, we should do this more often," he says. So, he began scheduling regular shows at the after-school center, the Warner Hutton House. "I barely had to do any promotion, and lots of people would come. They would tell me how much they loved it, because there's not much to do around here besides go to the movies or hang out in the high school parking lot. It was so successful."
With the Warner Hutton House closing, the recreation department decided to move some concerts to the community center. The venue is so much larger, he says, that it broadens their choices of acts to book. The June 7 concert was organized in partnership with local concert promotion company, "Concerts in the 408," which booked Suburban Legends and Voo Doo Glow Skulls, two bands who tour nationally and have large fan bases. Henig says the local teens enjoy seeing acts such as those, but for the most part, the recreation department prefers to book bands with members from Saratoga. If Saratoga-based bands are not available, it will go with bands from San Jose, Campbell or Los Gatos.
"For example, we could book a band from East Palo Alto, but their teenage fans are probably not going to travel that far, whereas with a band from San Jose or Campbell, they are much more likely to come," he explains.
Musically, the majority of the bands it books are in the rock, pop, punk or ska genres. Henig says that just seems to be what the teens want to see.
"Plus, those are the bands that call us, wanting to play these shows," he says. "We don't get a lot of country bands calling us. These are the kinds of shows that do well."
Henig says, the more fans that pay the cover charge--which is, on average, anywhere from $5 to $13--the more money that is generated for local teen programs.
The next show on the concert calendar is a "final goodbye concert" at the Warner Hutton House on June 30 at 7 p.m. Local rock band 5606 will headline, and the supporting bands will be Pounders, Undergone and My Own Victory. The show is being sponsored by the Saratoga Youth Commission.
Henig says he hopes another teen center like the Warner Hutton House will open soon. Until then, local music-loving teens can rock at the Warner Hutton House for the last time on June 30--and say goodbye in style.
For more information about the final teen concert at the Warner Hutton House on June 30 at 7 p.m., contact Adam Henig at 408.868.1272 or ahenig@saratoga.ca.us.
