After making it to the midpoint of the semester, students cannot wait for Spring Break. Whether plans include relaxing at home, lying on the beach, or traveling the world, Spring Break is a welcomed rest for the weary. For some students, this mid-semester vacation allows them to do something that they have always wanted to do.
For senior Zander Roell, Spring Break is the perfect opportunity to tour the East Coast with his band, Boomstick. The band is acting on rough plans that have been in the works since last year.
Boomstick is composed of members Zander Roell, lead vocalist, senior Matthew Bisenius on guitar and vocals, freshman Evan Armstrong, lead guitar, freshman Nathan Guttendorf on drums, and sophomore Noah Patton on bass. Self described as “Too slow and too acoustic to be punk, but not good enough at music to be anything else,” Boomstick members wonder, “Why weren’t we all freshmen together?!”
Boomstick got its start when Roell and Bisenius were just sophomore roommates. “We realized we listened to similar music and so we figured we could write together and play for friends and make ourselves a name,” explains Roell. Both were musicians who missed music in college. The pair started by playing randomly in Red Square, entertaining the people who would show up and listen. “That’s really the roots of the band,” says Roell, “And the response has been positive.”
When Bisenius went abroad to Budapest for a semester, the band was on hold. This year, however, Boomstick was back together and ready to jam. Roell and Bisenius recruited freshmen Armstrong and Guttendorf last fall. The final addition to the band came in the form of Patton, whom they asked to join in the bathroom after a show last semester. Patton’s individual project, Sharks in Venice, will be the opener for Boomstick on their Spring Break tour.
Boomstick can be heard practicing in the laundry room of the Mansion in North Village. “No one’s complained yet and we’ve been playing down there for about a month.” Some of the common topics that the band sings about include drinking, parties, cowboys, and bibles, as well as various other school-related topics. Last year, for example, the band wrote a song about the Snowpocalypse. As college students, they are writing about what they know.
During Spring Break 2011, Boomstick will be rocking out in nine different cities, including Baltimore, Plainsboro, NJ, Allston, MA, Willington CT, New York, NY, and Philadelphia, PA. This tour is just in time to promote the release of their new EP, titled Complicated Drinking Games. It is going to be the band and a few friends in a caravan of cars road-triping the northeast. “We just want to drive around and play music,” says Roell.
The trip took some serious planning. The band had to figure out where they were going to be playing while in each city. They also contacted other local bands around where they were heading to see if any of them wanted to play a show together. Many of the stops are friend’s houses or friends of friends. One special place they are stopping in Massachusetts is known as the Secret House of Pancakes. The band can stay there, play there, and in the morning eat a pancake breakfast there.
For Boomstick, it is not about future success. “I hope to play if it conveniently happens in the future because I really enjoy playing,” summarizes Roell.
For now, “We’re just having a good time.”
Check out their music at http://www.myspace.com/boomstickisaband, and like them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/boomstickisaband.
