If you weren't at the Garage on Friday, April 14th, you might as well just resign yourself to despair right now. Three local bands, Kingsferd, Mindless Conception, and of course, The Flahertys, performed from 8:00 to 11:30pm.

The members of Kingsferd attend the Apple Valley Zoo School. The first to perform, they played a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" and some Incubus songs. Kingsferd brought a good-sized crowd of fans in, but most of them just leaned against the wall, and when the band finished, almost all of them left. Kingsferd was quite good, though.

Mindless Conception's members are 1999 BHS graduates Ben Benefield and Joe Hummel, current BHS junior Jared Lutz, LHS junior Todd Slepicka, and Todd's little brother. The band played covers of "Free Bird" and Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters." Ryan Flaherty joined Mindless for the vocals on "Enter Sandman," probably the biggest crowd pleaser.

The Flahertys' members include Sean and Ryan Flaherty, Brooks Rudolph, Paul LeTourneau, and Erica Krumm, who normally does some of the vocals, but was deathly ill on this date. The band played ten songs, including Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls," The Smashing Pumpkins' "Cherub Rock," and a few originals, including "Charlie Daher," an ode to manliness. The band agreed that the song that went the best was their cover of The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Around the World," "Even though Sean almost passed out," said Brooks. "Note to self," said Sean, "Don't donate blood before show again." Although noting that the band had limited time to set up, being as how they were the middle band to play, Ryan felt that "the crowd reacted very well."

The audience did indeed enjoy the show. "I got them to sign my broken drumstick," gushed Desire' Olstead, "it was the best experience of my life!" "They were awesome! [The "Charlie Daher" song was] very humorous," said Charlie Daher. Jon Keljik's favorite part of the show was "when Sean took off his shirt [during "Around the World"]." Whatever their reason, everyone in attendance had a great time. Garage supervisor Eric Billiet informed me that the total attendance was 101 people. "Part of what we're trying to do is mix up bands from different schools to get bigger crowds," he explained.

Keep an eye out around BHS for future band performances at the Garage. This show was awesome--don't miss the next one. Or, as Sean eloquently said, "It was just good and stuff."