The Cougar Fall Fest, Communiversity’s first fall event, welcomed APU students with free ice cream sandwiches and live musical performances by Marques Nelson, Jordan Lake, The Dares and Branches at Trinity Lawn on Friday, Sept. 7. The outdoor concert consisted of four very different types of bands. One band in particular stood out from the rest: The Dares, an alternative rock band—a genre APU does not usually get on campus.
Performing Arts Interns Becca Butler, junior communication studies major and marketing minor, and Jackie Blanca, sophomore biochemistry pre-med major, are in charge of bringing bands and music on campus for events such as Fall Fest, Battle of the Bands, coffeehouses, and the newly added Lunch Concert Series.
“We get a lot of singer-songwriters; the little hipster kid on his guitar,” Blanca said. “But that’s just the nature of APU.”
“The Dares, I don’t feel like we had bands like them in a while,” Butler said. “I love alternative rock and we don’t really have an outlet for those types of bands, which is why we have things like Battle of the Bands so bands like them, louder bands, can get their music out.”
Butler knows The Dares personally.
“The Dares are from my hometown, Whittier. I’ve been exposed to their music for a while,” Butler said. “Two summers ago, the band that I manage called Grenade Jumper went on tour with The Dares. The Dares’ manager and myself set up an eight-day, multiple-state tour for The Dares and Grenade Jumper. I got to know the band, awesome guys. I really think their music is super awesome and it would appeal to college students—that’s why I booked them for Fall Fest.”
The Dares’ lead vocalist and guitarist Ben Peterson said they love playing at colleges. “They treat you really well as a band, it’s our age group and it’s always a good time.”
“Everybody was really nice at APU,” The Dares’ guitarist and background vocalist Anthony Aguirre said. “Everybody was really friendly, everybody had smiles. It kept us in a positive mood all day.”
Twins Ben and Matt (drummer and background vocalist) Peterson started the band as kids in 1998. After moving from Vermont to Whittier, Calif. they found a bass player and restarted the band. By the time they were 16 years old, they signed with a record label, went on tour and made an album. But because of complications, they asked to leave the label. They reset the band, adding current band members Brandon Shapiro (bassist and background vocalist) and Aguirre, and recorded their full-length album Duped.
Ben Peterson described the band’s journey as being a “bunch of stress and a bunch of awesome times; really high highs, really low lows.”
Despite the numerous transitions, The Dares have kept their original band name through it all.
“We were really young when we started and we were telling people we had a band,” Matt Peterson said. “They didn’t believe us so we were kind of like, ‘Dare us,’ and from that, more or less, we became The Dares.”
The Dares have a huge range of musical influences, a majority being Oldies and 90s music.
“We [Matt and I] grew up with a lot of Oldies. Buddy Holly, Beach Boys, Beatles,” Ben Peterson said. “And then we found Green Day and it pushed us into the 90s. Blew me away, changed everything about how I saw music. But I kept all the influences from the Oldies and those classic Pop songs—they’re classics for a reason. But Green Day showed me a love for rocking out.
Aside from these major influences, the band enjoys music from all genres including Hip Hop, R&B, Rock, Classical, and even choir music. “We like anything as long as it sounds good,” Aguirre said.
In addition to appearing in the Sony online video game Free Realms and the horror movie Junkyard Dog (2010), The Dares have toured with bands including The Almost, Cartel and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. According to The Dares, touring is “smelly, fun, tiring, and a lot of driving, but it’s worth it.”
“What I really like is meeting people from all over the country and ultimately the whole world,” Ben Peterson said. “[Also,] the experiences you have with people who love music as much as you do and meeting people like that.”
“You find that you have a lot in common with a lot of people,” Matt Peterson added. “Kids are the same everywhere.”
According to Aguirre, there is nothing better than performing. “We practice and practice and practice. And then we see your guys’ reaction, your smile. It’s the best. Practicing so much and you guys loving it, it’s awesome. It’s a really good feeling. It gets challenging, but it’s rewarding.”
As for future plans, The Dares plan on making a new EP and touring. “Just spread the name out there,” Matt Peterson said. “Hit the road harder.”
The Dares hope to return to APU sometime in the near future. In the meantime, according to Ben Peterson, they are booking a bunch of local shows, trying to fill their schedule.
Check The Dares out on Facebook [http://www.facebook.com/thedares] and their website
[http://thedares.com/], pick up their album Duped on iTunes and catch one of their
shows—this driven, down-to-earth band will not disappoint!
The Clause
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013
