Billy's Band - Ivyside

Meet Ivyside...

The lead singer...and lead guitar, Andy

Matt, the bassist

...and Billy, of course, on drums

Billy been playing guitar since he was in second grade (he's in 11th now) and slowly branched out to percussion when he joined band in school (4th grade). You may be familiar with what they say about each instrument attracting a specific personality... Well, Billy is a drummer...through and through! He's fidgety, he's intense, he's emotional and sensitive...and at times explosive. Just like all good drummers -- hey, remember Animal on the Muppets??? LOL He's been in a couple bands but this one seems to be the perfect fit. The other guys, Matt and Andy are great kids...a bit older than Billy, but they are always there for him.

Matt and Andy found Billy through a mutual friend and had him haul his drum set up to Andy's house to "audition". Hmmm, I think that was around Thanksgiving or Christmas. They write and play a lot of their own music, and throw in a few Green Day songs and a couple Blink 182 songs. When they are practicing in our basement you can hear them play all kinds of crazy little ditties! I do believe I heard a bit of Ironman the other night...so someone likes *my* kind of music! :) AND, they go through a lot of Mountain Dew and pizza!

Anyway...they played at the Elks Club on Saturday night. This was Billy's first "professional" gig and he had a blast! Their myspace has lots of great comments on it...so I'm going to venture out on a limb and tell you that they DID GREAT! These pics were taken at that performance by Gretchen and Randy; newspaper reporters and a fellow "band parents" (marching band). Gretchen emailed them to Billy...so I just had to steal them for my blog! THANKS GRETCHEN & RANDY...for the great pics!