Arts & Entertainment
From Merrick to the Meadowlands: Eric and the Sliders Catches its 'Break'
Merrick band, composed of Calhoun and Kennedy grads, set to perform at the Bamboozle Music Festival next week.
A casual late-night Internet search session yielded more than they could have imagined.
When Bryan Altman signed up his band, Eric and the Sliders, for a contest called "The Break" -- which promised to send its top finishers to play at the Bamboozle music festival -- his bandmates initially thought it was a joke.
"It was two o'clock in the morning," said lead guitarist Altman, 21. "I was looking for anything we could play, festivals, contests. I found 'The Break' contest and it seemed like a perfect fit."
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Eric and the Sliders, a Merrick rock/pop group, emerged a finalist from the April 11 contest finals at The Crazy Donkey in Farmingdale. The band will perform May 1, day one of Bamboozle, on The Break stage at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey. Main stage headliners of the two-day event include Paramore, Weezer, Ke$ha, Something Corporate, and MGMT.
It's a dream come true for the group, which started in 2007 as a jam band and classic rock cover band but headed in a new direction last May. The band independently released a self-titled nine-track album last summer.
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"We look at this as the culmination of our hard work in the past year," said singer and keyboardist Eric Goldberg, 20. "This is our biggest break."
Playing alongside Goldberg and Altman are bassist Mike Klein, 20, and drummer J.D. Yarosh, 20. Goldberg is a 2007 graduate of Calhoun High School, while Altman, Klein and Yarosh are 2007 graduates of Kennedy High School.
The band, which drew its name from its traditional post-practice pilgrimmages to White Castle, says its music has been compared to The Fray, Matchbox 20, Maroon 5 and the John Mayer Trio. "The Break" attracted acts from a diverse range of genres, so finishing ahead of the competition wasn't easy.
"It wasn't really our scene, exactly," Yarosh said. "It was a lot more punk rock bands and that's why we stuck out...we were different."
To find out more about Bamboozle or purchase tickets to see Eric and the Sliders, visit http://www.thebamboozle.com. Watch a video of the band on YouTube here.
