Anticipating the End Enters Music Scene

Mike Ripley, lead vocalist for B.A.N.G., had a fledgling rock band he never heard before open this year's rAMPant Festival at the amphitheater behind .

Ripley, a high school senior, wanted to see how the new band—Anticipating the End—would draw and work a crowd.

What Ripley saw and heard at the October show blew him away.

Their original songs were good, if not exactly in Ripley's preferred genre.

"But then they bust out with this incredible cover of 'Freebird,'" he said. "I was just standing there watching them pull it off to no extent."

During a solo section, Anticipating the End's two guitarists started playing in sync and the result was incredible, he said. And the lead singer, a 16-year-old Montville sophomore, stood out, too.

"Anthony Pizzi just has an awesome rock and roll voice," he said.

Founded by Pizzi in July, Anticipating the End plays modern rock music with elements of hip hop, inspired by Linkin Park, Pizzi said. It is comprised of Pizzi and high school students from Wharton, Rockaway, Randolph and Califon who met through friends and on Facebook.

Pizzi started pursuing music toward the end of eighth-grade when he "became crazed" with the band Linkin Park and some hard rock music in the months after his father died of a heart attack, he said.

Freshman year, his music hobby "turned into a more serious thing and blossomed into what I actually want to be doing with my life," he said.

He takes lessons for vocal technique, guitar and music theory. Pizzi said his mom is supportive of the band's loud—very loud—music and lets them practice at their home. Someday, they want to be on billboards and heard around the world, Pizzi said.

Pizzi played saxophone when he was younger and said his family takes jazz seriously. His great uncle plays saxophone in a band, and his grandfather's cousin founded "Modern Drummer" magazine, he said.

His first band, Modern Montville, was dissolved and Anticipating the End was founded in July. They played the Towaco Jazz Festival in September.

The seven members of Anticipating The End are Pizzi, lead guitarist Russell Krutisia, guitarist Tom Kleczynski, pianist Spencer Kaminsky, bassist Evan Embree, drummer Jeff Brittingham and rapper Luis Madrigal.

They're planning to release a new single soon. And at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the , Anticipating the End is scheduled to perform as part of a Key Club talent show, Pizzi said.

Their songs deal with "relationships, breakups, love and hate and, you know, everything combined," he said.

One song, "Controversy of Romance," includes the lines,

I don't know what to do now
Because I have lost hope
This time I will rise
The light will shine bright

"You just got your heart broken and you don't know what to do at that point," Pizzi said. "You've got to get up. You can't be sad. You've got to get up and move on."

Pizzi said his band is friendly with other bands based in Montville, including B.A.N.G., 287 and Valhalla.

"It's a very good thing in Montville," he said. "We are all very friendly together."

Pizzi said he hopes the band gets more "likes" on Facebook and that, in general, more people start supporting favorite local bands at shows.

"It's hard to do at this age," he said. "It doesn't matter how great or old we are, it's a matter of we got on that stage and rocked it and people liked us."

Ripley said it's not easy starting a band. People made fun of B.A.N.G. early on, but they've made progress. Currently they're trying to book a show with The Birthday Massacre and gearing up for this year's The Break competition, essentially the biggest battle of the bands in New Jersey with the winners getting to play at The Bamboozle music festival, he said. B.A.N.G. was a finalist last year.

"It's always nice to see younger bands come through and actually make a name for themselves," he said.

Some might see the music scene as a competition, but they would be wrong, he said.

"It's not," Ripley said. "The local music scene is a family and we're all in this together."