The was rocking Friday night as students from School of Rock – based locally in Vienna, Ashburn and Silver Spring – took the stage for their “Best of Season” performance and competition.
School of Rock held several weeks of theme shows before this final performance.
Different bands participated in Ivory Idols (piano-centric tunes), Acoustic Rock (some old, some new), Screamology (just what it sounds like!), Punk Rock, Sabbathica (in the style of Black Sabbath and/or Metallica), Women Who Rock (and rock hard – lots of girl drummers) , Red Hot Chili Peppers and Southern Rock .
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The top three bands for each of those theme shows were competing this weekend for Best of the Season honors. Guest judges, local rock musicans, were judging technical performance and stage presence.
Thirty one bands performed non-stop, with selections such as Great Balls of Fire to Paranoid, Piano Man to Helter Skelter.
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Trudy Perkins, 15, rocked the house with Heart’s Crazy on You, which was ultimately chosen as best performance by the Vienna School of Rock. (All Best of Season videos will be on the School of Rock website.)
After her performance, fellow student rockers gathered around to congratulate her.
Perkins, who says she’s been singing as long as she can remember, started with School of Rock four years ago.
“School of Rock really pushes you, challenges you” said Perkins, a sophomore.
Perkins performs with the School of Rock House band and performs all over the area.
“The magic at School of Rock is lessons plus performance,” said Laura Bollettino, who runs the local School of Rock locations with her husband, Jeff. “The point of the shows is to teach music and have fun. It’s all positive – we want the musicians to have a good experience on stage.”
One of the School of Rock alumni is Brad Bowers, now part of Rad Bromance, the all-male Lady Gaga cover band.
The School of Rock House Band will be playing at Taste of Reston on June 17 at 6 p.m. on the “Local and Live” stage at Explorer and Market Street.
In addition to lessons for nearly 500 area students, School of Rock also offers three summer camps: Pop Idol, Rock School Boot Camp, and Young Rockers. Campers get the band experience as well as bumping their skills set up a notch, said Bollettino.
And, yes, they get to rock the stage too.
