It’s been a wild ride for student band Steve Labrecque’s Wild Ride. Last weekend, they opened for Yellowcard at Spring Fling.
Jason Tuori, Steven Labrecque, Stephen Cholewka and Matthew Gawors have come a long way in the last two years. The band started out as jam sessions between lead singer and guitarist Tuori, drummer Labrecque and a senior friend of theirs. Soon after, the student left and singer/guitarist Cholewka and bassist Gawors were added into the lineup and, six months later, the four of them were ready to hit the music scene.
The band’s first moment in the campus spotlight was this year’s Battle of the Bands competition. The winner of the competition would be the opening act for Spring Fling, playing before Yellowcard and Kap Slap. Last year, SLWR competed and placed third in the competition. Despite losing, they ended up with a fanbase and a drive to come back the next year and win.
“That was when a lot of people kind of found out about us,” said Tuori, a senior majoring in biology. “After that, we were just getting shows every other weekend throughout this whole year. It’s been really fun.”
SLWR defines themselves as a garage rock band with an emphasis on including high energy into their music. They aspire to incorporate the music they love into their own. Tuori also notes that the band’s excitement is mostly rooted in feeding off the audience’s energy.
A year and almost 30 songs worth of material later, their careful compositions landed them first place in the 2013 Battle of the Bands competition. Spring Fling is the biggest show they’ve played yet.
After performing at Spring Fling, Tuori noted that his experience playing for such a big crowd was a wonderful feeling he couldn’t describe.
The band is working on releasing an album or EP in the near future. They’ve been working on sound mixing, but nothing is official yet. With so many songs to work from, they also find it hard to work out a 40-minute setlist when playing shows at local venues such as the Undergrounds and Cafe Oasis. Over the summer, the band is trying to book as many weekend shows as much as possible even though the members are located in different areas of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
“We’re a band, please believe us,” Cholewka said.
The future may be unclear for Steve Labrecque’s Wild Ride, but it is certainly promising. First Spring Fling, next who knows? Maybe they’ll be headlining their own show one day.