Spokane Band Will Share Stage

Just one Spokane band will share the Vans Warped Tour bill at The Gorge with all those national acts.

10 Minutes Down, a nine-piece ska band made up mostly of Gonzaga University students, was selected to play this year after performing at last year’s Warped Tour date in Boise. Before playing the Volcom Stage at The Gorge on Tuesday, the band will return to Boise for a Warped Tour show Monday.

In Boise, they’ll be competing in a battle of the bands contest with a recording contract as the grand prize.

10 Minutes Down formed in 1997 with dreams of playing the campus coffeehouse. The next year, the band was opening for Save Ferris and The Urge during their Spokane stop.

And by 1999, the group had recorded an EP, “The Wrath of the Nauga Monkeys.” Through a friend of a friend of a friend, Warped Tour promoters eventually heard the CD and decided to book them at the festival.

The band is wrapping up production of its first full-length CD. The as-yet-untitled album is scheduled to come out in August.

One of the perks of performing in the Warped Tour is getting to meet other musicians. 10 Minutes Down trombonist Ted Teske says he’s especially looking forward to seeing members of The Suicide Machines and Millencolin.

Maybe one day some local, unsigned band will be saying the same thing about 10 Minutes Down.

“We hope,” Teske says.