Southbound Gets Its Kicks

“Thanks to all you guys for coming out and supporting us,” says Tom Brajcich before his local garage band, Southbound, begins to play during a recent free performance.

Like most new and struggling bands, Southbound plays whenever it can, even in the back yard of one of its members.

For almost an hour on an otherwise quiet Saturday afternoon, the young band fills the South Hill back yard with turbulent, blaring guitar chords.

“We like to mix our program up, with fast and slow songs,” says Robert Dennie, the bass player. “It’s more interesting that way. We like playing loud acoustics; the ladies like it too.”

The atmosphere is fun, with the band’s group of small but loyal fans having a good time listening to the raunchy punk rock tunes.

This mainstream punk band consists of four optimistic teenage guys hoping to someday make it big and record an album. Lewis and Clark student Brajcich, 17, plays guitar and vocals; his brother Jeff Brajcich, 15, plays guitar; and Dennie, 18, plays bass and vocals. Gonzaga Prep student Chase Ogden, 16, plays drums.

Some of the members were neighbors and the others met through school, forming the band in October 1997.

They developed their technique through trial and error while writing most of their own material.

All of the members are passionate about music and idolize bands such as Blink 182.

Although living busy lives, they say they always have time for practices because they live close to one another. They practice every weekend in Ogden’s basement. Their goal for now is to land gigs in coffee shops or parties where they can attract big crowds with lots of money, said Tom Brajcich.

But they also realize that Spokane may never be the best location for their ambitions. Like dozens of other young musicians, they seem resigned to leaving Spokane in order to test their luck in music somewhere else.

For now, however, the small coffeehouse circuit suits their plans. When Tom Brajcich and Dennie go to college in the fall of 2000, they still want to play and record original music.

The band doesn’t have a CD out but hopes to finish one by the end of next year.

Although happy with how they play, the band members acknowledge they can be better. Dennie says, “There’s definitely room for improvement. Every year we improve dramatically. So we need to just keep playing, because the more we play, the more we improve.”

So until the record deal walks up to them, Southbound will continue to do what the members love most, which is play music.

At the recent backyard performance, Dennie said to his fans, “OK, now I am going to try to play slap-bass, so don’t boo me off the stage.”

And nobody booed.