|
Once teenagers spent summer evenings with their parents—watching television, eating around the dinner table and playing board games. Those days are long gone.
Now teens would rather go out for a night on the town. But being underage, it's hard to find fun evening activities in Los Gatos. So as an alternative to excessive boredom or wild partying, the Thursday night summer concert series is back.
For the second consecutive summer as an extension of the "Alive ... and Loving Life" movement, every Thursday night local bands will perform, starting July 29. The free concerts will continue through September in the Old Town Amphitheater in Los Gatos.
The July 29 show from 6 to 9 p.m. includes a lineup of punk, pop and hard-rock groups, suitable for teenage fans. The six-piece Cupertino band A Life in Vain, featuring screamo and post hardcore music, will perform at 6 p.m., followed by the San Francisco band Tragedy Andy at 7 p.m., a four-piece pop, indie, emo and punk group. The show concludes with the five-piece emo, punk and screamo group Mistakenly Talented, at 8 p.m. The members of Mistakenly Talented are making the eight-hour drive from Blythe, Calif., to perform at the concert. Background information about all the bands is available at www.purevolume.com.
Two Los Gatos High School students, senior Nicole Wasserman and junior Taylor Baxley, are leading the effort to provide regular music venues for teens every Thursday night, with the help of community volunteers like Chris Miller. Nicole said other summer concert series events in town like Jazz on the Plazz and Music in the Park are great, but don't cater to the music tastes of youth. Rather, they emphasize blues, jazz, mariachi, rock & roll and Celtic tunes.
"We don't want to hear that kind of music, but we can appreciate that kind of the music," Nicole said.
"Alive ... and Loving Life" is a program designed to support youth and promote a safe community. The program was started in memory of Eric Quesada, who died following an alcohol-related car accident in November of 2002, at age 18. The concert series is sponsored by a division of ALL called Passions, Community Against Substance Abuse, Friday Night Live and the Los GatosSaratoga Community Education and Recreation Department. For more information about future Thursday night performances, contact Nicole Wasserman at nicnac055@aol.com.
Donations will be accepted during the concert series to help newlyweds Tara Eichinger-Berendes and her husband, Josh Berendes. Tara survived a head-on car collision near Salt Lake City on June 1, just 10 days after the couple's wedding. Their family, friends and community members have given emotional and financial aid to the Los Gatos native. More information is available at www.tarajosh.com.
|
