Hear Here! Rock school is up and rollin’
St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 8 Oct 2003: F1, 4.

 

Dave Simon, the local version of the movies’ Dewey Finn (Jack Black), has signed up 25 students since he first advertised in June to teach rock to kids ages 10-18.

The amplifier kicks on with a buzz and a slight screech. There is that pause. That long, pregnant pause, like a needle placed on a vinyl record, that seemingly endless anticipation before… The sound of thunder.

The guitars roar like a Harley-Davidson engine just kicked over. The drums snap and boom. The girls up front sing – almost yell – into the mike.

The band onstage rips along, covering a Good Charlotte tune called “Girls and Boys.” For a few licks, the group sounds as good as any house band in the city.

But it starts to come apart.

Josh Hahn, on drums, slows down and loses the beat.

Tiffany Klingerman, a guitarist, loses her way on the song’s bridge.

It gets messy and, finally, Dave Simon calls it off.

“OK, everybody hold up,” Simon says. “We’re off track here.”

Simon, bald and dressed in a black short-sleeved T-shirt and khaki pants, looks like a club owner, but he is not too hard on the half-dozen musicians on the stage in the basement of McMurray Music Center in Overland.

After all, Josh is only 13, just like bandmate Ashlee Schkerke. The rest of the band – singer Chris San Filippo, keyboardist Alex Frankel, singer and guitarist Tiffany and guitarist Sam Stephens – are all 14.

Simon is the band’s teacher. Simon teaches rock music, just as Jack Black does in the No. 1 hit movie “The School of Rock,” which grossed an estimated $20 million opening last weekend.

Simon is a toned-down, leaner version of Dewey Finn, the pudgy and exuberant character played by Black. Simon draws his students in with a calm, encouraging and guiding voice rather than the cartoonish antics and hyperactivity of Black’s character.

But both Black and Simon share a passion for teaching rock. “Rock ‘n’ Roll is the only music genre where the elders don’t pass on their skills to a new generation,” Simon says. “You see blues and jazz bands where new members are invited in with the idea that eventually they would take over. You don’t see the Rolling Stones bringing in new guys in. There’s no instruction. It’s not in the schools.”

Simon, 36, has played in rock ‘n’ roll bands and written songs for the better part of 20 years. He’s lived in San Francisco and New York, playing bars and clubs. He moved back to St. Louis three years ago and got married.

His wife, a social worker, told him he needed to get back into music. Simon started writing songs and getting a band together, but then a revelation came.

“I was over 30, and the thrill of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle was gone,” he says. “I didn’t want to be in smoky, loud bars anymore. I wanted to do something more.”

Originally, Simon considered creating a rock ‘n’ roll summer camp. He wanted to take aspiring rockers out of the city for a few months and have them intensely focus on playing. He researched other rock music schools online, finding Paul Green in Philadelphia. Simon spent a week observing Green’s program.

“This guy is Jack Black,” Simon says. “He’s funny, hyper-energy, over-the-top; and you can’t get a word in edgewise. I decided I wanted to do that.”

Simon lucked into a place for his school in the basement of McMurray Music Center on Page Avenue. The music instrument store had built a fully functional performing center in the basement, complete with stage, drum kit, amps, sound system and theater-style seating.

In June, he started putting up posters, seeking kids ages 10-18 interested in learning to play rock music. Eight kids signed up for lessons right away. The class quickly ballooned to 25. He teaches private lessons during the week and has group rehearsals on Saturday afternoons.

“It’s all been word of mouth,” Simon says. “There’s a real hunger out there for this kind of school.”

On this particular Saturday, Simon works with a half-dozen of his students. He has divided his class of 25 into groups of five or six students, each playing in a band. Each band will learn three or four songs and prepare for a Modern Rock Explosion on Nov. 8, a concert in front of an audience that will hopefully include more that just the band members’ parents.

The kids on the stage right now look like rockers. Singer Ashlee wears a black T-shirt that says “Boys Lie.” The other vocalist, Tiffany, wears a Slipnot top with shear sleeves.

But right now they don’t sound much like rockers.

“Let’s listen to the tape,” Simon instructs. He plays a section of the Vine’s “Get Free.” The kids nod their heads. They’re not headbanging. They’re taking information in like sponges, picking up tempo and chords. They’re learning to play by ear.

“They’re playing really fast, probably faster than you’ve ever played in your whole lives,” Simon says. “But I think we can do this thing.”

Simon walks between band members.

“Josh,” he says to the drummer, “you’ve got the beat, but you’re slowing down. You’ve got to pick it up and keep it up there. You’re setting the tone for the band.”

Over to Tiffany, Simon asks where she’s getting tripped up.

“I don’t know the bridge,” she says.

“OK, have Sam show you,” the teacher says. “He’s got it good.”

As Simon continues to work with the members, Sam’s dad, John Stephens, an advertising executive, taps his foot on the floor with the beat of Sam’s guitar.

“He’s got a feel for it,” John Stephens says. “You know, he’s in the band at school, so he gets the classical training. But there’s no place for him to learn this. He gets to be creative here.”

How about that? A parent endorsing rock ‘n’ roll music. Seems strange, but it’s actually fairly commonplace in Simon’s school. Ashlee’s parents, Jeff and Tina Costello, love to see their daughter rocking out.

“She takes it so seriously,” Tina Costello says.

“Ashlee wanted to start a band with some of her girlfriends,” Jeff Costello says. “We decided if we were going to spend the money on equipment, we should get some instruction. Now she’s got me inspired. I take private lessons from Dave, too. I always wanted to play guitar.”

Back at the rehearsal, Simon has the kids just about ready to go on another song, “Get Free.” Another vocalist, SanFilippo, joins them on stage. He’s a little nervous about taking his voice up an octave.

Chris is clearly one of those kids who screams lyrics when the tunes are playing on his boom box or in the car or in the shower. Performing, Chris is discovering, is something entirely different. He’s putting himself out there for people to see, a kind of risk a 14-year-old just isn’t used to taking.

“I can’t do that,” he tells Dave. “I can’t sing like that guy.”

“Don’t sing like he sings,” Simon says. “Sing like you sing.”

Cue the amp.

Again, the pregnant pause.

Let loose the thunder.

Chris nails the vocals. Ashlee and Tiffany keep pace. And Sam…, oh, you should see him, he’s lost in the rock ‘n’ roll, eyes closed living for the next lick on his ax, totally ripping it up.

Rock ‘n’ roll is the music of youth and rebellion, though you wouldn’t know it with geezers like the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and even the late, great Elvis still topping the charts.

But the youth are reclaiming their music one guitar lick, one drum smash, one screamed lyric at a time in Dave Simon’s school.

The band finished up.

The crowd, admittedly mostly only parents of the band, bursts into applause.

“Guys,” an excited Simon says, sounding a touch like Jack Black, “that totally rocked!”

 

Daniel P. Finney
St. Louis Post-Dispatch