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 JHS Band Scene:
With a sound inventive and deeply rooted the development of a brand new genre of rock, it becomes difficult to overlook the band Flipside. The band’s recent performance at Jesuit became just a glimpse in what could become of this intrepid and probing band. Consisting of Jesuit seniors Adam Wild, Mike Byrne, Dave Berg, and Marc Bertuldo, Flipside is a band that is quickly making their presence felt in the Sacramento rock scene. The four core members of the band all previously played together in the band Of The Kind, and left the band last November to start up Flipside. The band now states complete freedom over their music, and have shown music fans just how capable they are. Flipside has been together for four months, and are already showing just how far they have come.
The band lists their major influences as Sublime and The Beatles and also local area bands such as Kai-Kln, Piccolo Music, The Pockets, and Velcro Swingers. This combination makes the band nearly impossible to stereotype or classify, and keeps people listening. “I take a lot of what I attempt onstage from artists like Beck and The Beatles.” says Bertuldo. Flipside has proven their stability by being able to incorporate several different riffs and parts to the music with mastery. When it seems so easy to classify many high school bands as “garage” or “cover bands”, Flipside has effectively all but destroyed the mold. Best be described as a quasi-feature, far above standard, next generation rock performance, their sound is truly unrivaled; and the profound combination of every rock medium is what takes this group to the next level.
One of the greatest and most impressive things is that everyone has a hand in the music. Notes Berg, “The band cohesion is very solid. As long as we keep playing more in the future, things should continue to go very well.” No one person in the band dominates the songwriting/arrangement, and all the band members are able to feed off of each other. Evidence of this is clearly seen in songs such as “Son Of A Gun”, which have a unique personality all their own that could rival the ballads of even the most experienced bands. While the band still performs three to four songs from their days with Of The Kind, it is obvious to see this is a band with a much wider perspective and feel for the elements that make up the music. “We are much more unified now.” Says Bertuldo. “Our ideas are on the same level, and this has lead to our creating brighter sounds.”
The band has adopted several methods to get themselves known and plan towards upcoming gigs, such as keeping dates in mind and having a friend talk to club owners and help them establish dates. One of the goals of the band is to work on another demo tape soon, and schedule more live performances. Flipside is planning possible upcoming shows at Bojangles, The Well (Folsom), and Virgin Records. Once the band is able to find a label, an album could be in the works with a tentative release date in June. The upcoming shows should help push the band and make the area more aware of what they have to offer to the music scene.
On goals for the future, Byrne comments “We are going to try and get our name out in the Sacramento area, so we can have a following once we get to San Diego, and have fun together as a band.” The band will be entertaining and interesting and to watch in the upcoming months. With the first show being noted as an impressive performance, the band now has something to build on and can continue to expand the possibilities with their music. Flipside shows just how much talent lies within the local music scene, and serve as an example of how much can be admired by bands just going out and having fun. As enticing as the label offers and CD parties are though, the band won’t forget that there is no pressure on them to achieve, and that they can already be considered a success. “We plan to just keep writing good music.” says Bertuldo. “Just keep writing songs people can enjoy, keep up the energy, and keep having fun- that’s what it’s all about.” |
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As compared to previous
performances, they have become much more animated and theatrical onstage than ever before.
“We’re having more fun now.” says bassist Adam Wild. “If you are able
to show the audience you are having fun, they will feed off of your emotions.”
Certain examples of this were seen throughout the show. Lead singer Marc Bertuldo conveyed
a spark of spontaneity that easily became one of the highlights of the concert. During the
performance of the song “Lady Booze”, Bertuldo dashed off the stage and
completed a full circle sprint around the audience. “We have become real ‘spur
of the moment’ ” comments drummer Dave Berg. “It basically depends on the
crowd, and how much we are able to flow off of them.” It is this that makes Flipside
a complete show, and lets the audience enjoy every second of the exhibition.
With the Jesuit performance
being their first live performance, the band sought to get a feel for playing and get the
word (and sound) out. Flipside also pushed their demo tape, which sold out by shows end.
The demo, which was composed in just four hours with the help of two friends of the band,
was made available to local area clubs as a way of drawing attention and letting people
hear for themselves.
Like a good wine, the boys of
Flipside have easily gotten better with age. A great deal of growth and development took
place over the past few months, and it was this growth that made the band much more solid.
“(The recent show) got us a good response.” Adds Berg. “People liked the
variety, and we had a much better stage presence. The music is also much more technical
than compared to the past stuff.” Flipside is prepared to focus on the future of
their songwriting and performing, and incorporate a lot of imagination in their music.
They are also considering “sampling” parts of songs more often, much in the same
way they incorporated Beck’s “Where Its At” in a song at the recent show.
As the band has performed and practiced more, they have experimented with newer techniques
in songwriting, resulting in a more varied, unpredictable set. “We were able to see a
lot of other bands act and perform.” says guitarist Mike Byrne. “We saw how we
could make things more fun for the audience, and we went from there.”
With all the band members
planning to attend schools in the San Diego area next year, recording together and being
able to continue artistically will be easily possible. Flipside plans to keep writing and
performing at priority for the time being, however, and keep making a creative impression
for other bands to follow. A change of scenery to a larger music scene will be great for
the band, and help in gaining them larger-scale exposure.
