Two Musicians from RB displayed their talents at Stickney’s Saint Pius X Catholic Church on Friday, the 20th. Sophomore Conor Fagan and Junior Erik Kramer played at what was, for both, their second live performance. They played side by side with two other small local bands in a fundraiser for the Step by Step youth group of Saint Pius.
“My friend is in the youth group, and when they asked me to play, I jumped on the opportunity,” said Fagan, “It was fun, I enjoyed interacting with the crowd.”
Kramer said, “It was nice and I think I did a decent job. I heard about it from Conor and I decided I wanted to play as well.”
The Youth group regularly takes part in service programs, retreats, and fundraisers, but Friday’s fundraiser was to raise funds for the youth group itself. The fundraiser was an unplugged guitarist event, where local bands were anticipated to play for anyone who paid the five dollars admission price.
Unfortunately, the church was unaware that Morton East High School held their own “Battle of the Bands” event on the same date, which affected the amount of bands that could be found, as well as the audience turnout.
Fagan and Kramer both performed solo pieces, as well as a duo. In one song, Fagan was also accompanied by his fellow band member, Clement Wink. A sample of the songs performed includes an acoustic cover of Neile Young’s Damage done, performed by Kramer, and an acoustic cover of Sweet Dreams, performed by Fagan.
Both Fagan and Kramer also played some of their own original material.
Fagan chose to play his original work; “Gerry Lee”, which he says is about his father’s friend in Ireland. “I chose to play this song because it has a balance of mellowness and energy”.
Out of the two songs Kramer has written, he chose to play “Not a Day Too Soon”.
“I chose to play it because it’s good to play live and it sounds good with my classical guitar. I wrote it last May, I like to write songs about what’s going on at that time”, said Kramer. Kramer provided his myspace page, www.myspace.com/erikkramermusic for anyone interested in hearing some of his music.
Fagan and Kramer played alongside local bands We Drive Yeah, and the Brian and Josh Band.
RB’s musicians and the other bands were found and asked to play by members of the youth group. Youth minister Patrick Koren said he decided an unplugged event was the way to go to “show the diversity between the bands.”
Koren also mentioned he plans on doing the event again, and is already planning another in spring. Koren welcomes all to the next event, regardless of what religion they follow, don’t follow, or anything else. This was the first time the Step by Step youth group had an unplugged event.
Both Kramer and Fagan said they would play again, but Fagan mentioned the program should “expand a little’.
