The music goes on, despite all the challenges

The music goes on, despite all the challenges
Heather Gioia

The rail separating the band on stage and the audience was packed like sardines in a can. The crowd went crazy; sweat dripped off faces and flew through the air before landing. The energy was so high everyone hardly noticed or even cared.

On stage was High Fives Died in the 80s, a local Woodbridge, Va. metal band. They were working the crowd like they always do—synchronized head banging, iconic faces and their “Sex Rock” self-proclaimed genre lights.  This was “the show,” the show to make up for yet another let down.

In March 2010 High Fives began to take transformation, and like any other project it would be a long ride complete with highs and lows. At the top of their game, High Fives was playing shows, gathering fans and preparing to drop their EP.

Six months later High Fives found themselves singer-less and faced with the first hurdle on their path to success. Since, High Fives has found a new singer and established a balance between the band, family and work while overcoming the struggles of being an unsigned band.

“It’s part of being a local band, you get shit on,” explained keyboardist Haley Moss.

At first glance you might think High Fives is a synonym for detrimental. The band is complete with ex-military members, parents and expecting parents, those with full-time jobs and oh yeah, that chick with the Mohawk on keyboard. Give them a chance and let them take you by surprise; it is almost better that way.

Taking in different genres and influences spanning from Frank Sinatra to Every Time I Die and including 311, High Fives finds their equilibrium—Sex Rock.

But like for all, success does not come easy nor has it been handed to High Fives. The struggle to be a successful band has meant getting their priorities straight and making their positions on issues clear.

“It is family first, jobs second, band third,” explained guitarist Curtis Hazen, who after leaving the military six years ago understands that playing shows now will not pay the bills, meaning his day job comes first.

“If we were on our way to play a show and I got the call that my daughter was sick, I would leave to go be with her,” explained guitarist Brian Smith passionately, as if giving the band a firm reminder that his six-year-old daughter comes before anything else in his life.

Lucky for the band, they have never had to drop their instruments and back out from a show due to a family emergency.  They have, however, had to battle poor contracts, the majority of which are verbal, and canceled shows when the headlining band just can’t seem to make it.

Time and time again High Fives have found themselves in a sensitive situation of having to be the bearer of bad news—curb stomping fans excitement. Most recently High Fives had to announce to fans that due to an illness in the headlining band, Straight Line Stich, the show was cancelled—the day of.

“We were disappointed, bummed out and angry,” said drummer and expecting father Bobby Baumgartel regarding the cancelled show. “We became full of resentment when they [Straight Line Stich] played the next night in North Carolina.”

As the story goes for most local bands, High Fives is just an opening act for a headliner simply stopping by, and when that band fails to show High Fives, like other local bands, are forced to clean up the mess.

As if the brutal gods of metal, or simply the managers at Victory Records, were testing High Fives to see if they met their self-proclaimed Sex Rock standards, the band soon came face-to-face with new hurdles.

“About three or four months ago we seemed to be having bad show luck,” said singer Matt Thompson, who is the newest edition to the band after Hazen would not have it any other way. “In a short period of time, the two shows we were booked with Victory Records bands were cancelled for different reasons.”

One show with A Hero A Fake was cancelled when the skies opened and blizzard mayhem took over the Northern Virginia region causing all events—and cars—to come to a sudden halt.

Another show with An Early Ending was cancelled when the ghastly roads were just too much to handle and An Early Ending found themselves involved in a car accident that prevented them from making the drive in time.

Lucky for High Fives in both those cases their souls were not signed away in wordy contracts and their fans had not handed over last weeks’ paychecks for tickets; but it still meant that they had no more money than they had the night before.

“We usually enter a verbal contract, where we agree to sell so many tickets to get a certain amount in return,” mentioned the quiet bassist Luke Jones.

“If we sell 50 tickets, we get like four bucks a ticket. If we sell less than 50 tickets, we get less than four bucks a ticket,” the expecting father, Baumgartel, explained. “If the show gets cancelled, we become responsible for providing all of the refunds.”

In a perfect world, High Fives would have the show go on, headlining band or not, making ticket refunds and less then binding contracts a problem of the past.

“Let’s just fucking do it—damn it,” expressed Hazen. “Every show must go on.”

So why not let it? Why not challenge local acts, like High Fives, every time that “too-good to play there” band drops out unexpectedly?

“You step up your game,” said Thompson, who has spent a fair amount of time onstage with High Fives and other local bands learning how to work the fans. “Bring everything a big headliner would—stage show, crowd hyping, musical content—you play a show.”

That’s just what High Fives does every time they take the stage, whether it’s for 45-minute set or a mere 13-minute set they get stuck with when the venue sound tech cannot seem to figure out how to mic the keyboard and laptop—which was the case at “the show.”

Outerloop Productions was able to provide an easy out for High Fives after the Straight Line Stich show was cancelled and lucky for the band, there was no curb stomping involved.

“It is probably the only good thing that came from the [Straight Line Stich] show,” said Jones. “We were super excited to play with The Human Abstract [at ‘the show’], everyone in the band respects and admires them.”

“It was the ‘golden lining’ to everything,” Smith explained after the “high caliber show” with The Human Abstract. “Not only was the band and our fans pumped to see The Human Abstract, but all the Straight Line tickets could be used to get in to the show.”

Making only maybe a couple hundred dollars a show, the band is forced to decide how to divvy up the small amount of money. Do they spend it all to make Thompsons’ brutal vocals bombard fans at shows at a higher velocity? Or towards replacing all those broken drum sticks Baumgartel has collected or maybe his drumheads that are covered in purple duct tape protecting the wounds—or is the money better spent on more High Fives merchandise or studio time?

Ironically enough, High Fives sold the most tickets to The Human Abstract show (cancelled Straight Line Stich Show) and had the shortest set and somehow misplaced the money they earned (which still has not been located). It didn’t matter though; as usual they brought their game and proclaimed their Sex Rock sound, leaving fans yearning for more—they achieved their goal.

 

**Editors Note: Since published, High Fives Died in the 80s has parted ways with Thomspon and has been excited to welcome original singer Jeremy Todd back to the band.**