The 28,000 power-walkers at San Antonio’s Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure last week received an unexpectedly muscular end of the trail send off from RockStar Riot, a fledgling band of civic-minded fifteen to seventeen year-olds metalheads who serenaded the crowd with impressively spot-on renditions of classic Judas Priest, Metallica, Saxon and Moxy songs as well as a few originals. At 8:30 in the morning. Think Breakfast Club meets Heavy Metal Parking Lot.
Decibel caught up with vocalist/bassist Arturo Alvarado for a quick conversation on fighting the good fight, dragging the Mom demographic over to the dark side, and how it feels to be the little drummer boys of the metal militia.
“In a concert venue we of course have spotlights and a whole light show but at the Susan G. Komen race we had the hot San Antonio sun. There was an older woman at the race ill with cancer. She came in front of the stage and got out of her wheelchair and put up her rock horns to us. It was great to see! Middle-aged women are some of our biggest fans! We saw many rock horns flying into the air…
…We try to play as many charity events as we can. We also performed at the Junior Diabetes Race and the San Antonio Youth Summit. On July 2 we will be performing in Seguin, Texas for the Wounded Warriors Project…”
“The whole band shares a love for classic metal and rock n’ roll. Me and my brother Juan (rhythm guitars, 15 years-old) have been fans since we were young. San Antonio is the home of classic metal and we have been trying to keep the spark alive. Many times before we perform people are skeptical. They see a group of teenagers walking onstage and immediately start making judgments. Once we begin to play you can see jaws drop … Most shows we perform are 21-plus shows because they are either in clubs or rock venues, but we try our best to have shows our younger audience can attend as well. Many younger fans ask about our music how they can get a band started. We give them as much advice as possible and have also converted many [young people] in our audience into rock lovers!”
These young lightning riders have only been playing together for one year, they possess impeccable taste in music, their teenage years have really only barely begun — which is to say there is plenty of time to address the sorta-questionable band name — and I can’t think of a single reason why they couldn’t take over the world so long as they view Some Kind of Monster and Anvil! The Story of Anvil as the cautionary tales those films are. Onward, young metal soldiers! Decibel salutes you!
Thanks to Jay Nada of the San Antonio Metal Music Examiner for the head’s up. After the jump another RockStar Riot video, the best heavy song I can think of on cancer off the top of my head (Life of Agony, “Unstable”), and two other marginally appropriate tracks…
