Hailing from Boston, Massachusetts and soon to be grazing Buffalo's Showplace Theatre, Bang Camaro is not your cookie-cutter glam/metal band.
On any given night, there could be 18-25 members of Bang Camaro onstage during a show, anywhere from five to 15 "lead singers" sharing the stage, belting out the band's catchy lyrics, along with a backing band led by two lead guitarists, co-founders Bryn Bennett and Alex Necochea.
"We float around in the genre, which was impossible for bands in the 80's," Bennett said. "We have hardcore guitar rifts like Metallica but also have the glam and memorable choruses like bands Skid Row and Def Leppard."
The band has been spreading their music across the country, touring from city to city and doing their best to get their name out in the open.
"We played Chicago last night and the whole tour has been a blast. We're traveling in a 15-person van with 12 people and everyone has been great with everything. Currently we are traveling with six lead singers," Bennett said.
Say goodbye to song elements including bridges and conceptual verses. Bang Camaro has two core values: catchy guitar riffs and fun, memorable choruses.
Bennett, a former UB student and one of the band's two founding members, talked about how it all got started with him and other lead guitarist Necochea.
"We were messing around in Boston playing with local indie bands and together we wrote the track 'Bang Camaro'."
What's so unusual about the band is that their rise in popularity cannot be traced back to a hit radio single, or being the most downloaded song on the net; the band found nationwide success after their songs had been featured in the hugely popular video games Guitar Hero II and Rock Band.
"From what I could tell, we played for a lot of Guitar Hero fans and people who heard about us through friends of friends, or came across us on MySpace. That sort of thing," Bennett said.
According to Bennett, one of the best things about their increasing popularity is having the chance to inspire a younger generation, and to show musicians in the making that success is within their reach.
"It's a really big thrill in that we are meeting kids who are just like us: young video game fans, aspiring musicians, usually males who picked up guitars," Bennett said. "It's just a big thrill for us to meet young kids like that who remind us of ourselves when we were kids."
Bang Camaro attributes most of their success to Guitar Hero, in conjunction with their hard work and original style.
"Without the success of songs on Guitar Hero there would be no way that we would be doing a national tour right now. Guitar Hero is the whole reason we can make our way out to L.A. and nearly sell out the Troubadour," Bennett said.
While touring this time, the band is auditioning and selecting choir members from all over the country to join the band onstage. Singers from across the country have been submitting tapes to be heard by the band and at almost every show local singers will join the Bang Camaro Choir.
"We have a DVD out of what we expect from our choir members, it's a very good chance that the Buffalo show will feature some local singers that we have chosen to sing with our choir," Bennett said.
For all those guitar heroes and fans of ambitious hair metal, Bang Camaro will be bringing their dynamic style of rock to the Showplace Theatre in Buffalo, Friday March 7, at 8 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
