Bainbridge Island is a small but undeniably important chapter in the larger story of Northwest music.
Even a cursory glance at the island’s Wikipedia entry will reveal the names of several residents, noteworthy sonic scholars all: Chad Channing, Brendan Hill, Damien Lawson, Ben Shepherd, brothers Andrew and Kevin Wood, among others.
Maybe there’s something about life in the suburbs that inspires a certain kind of kid to reach for rock. Maybe it’s the island’s proximity to the creative mecca of Seattle. Maybe it’s something in the water.
Whatever the reason, the long-running Teen Center concerts were historically a big part of the island’s once-renowned youth music scene. And, though that particular tradition has lapsed somewhat in recent years, the renamed Teen Program, a division of the Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park & Recreation District, is set to return the beloved venture in all its wailing, shredding, stage-ruling glory at the first of two concert events at Strawberry Hill Park from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, April 27 (the second is slated for June 1).
“The Teen Program is excited to bring these concerts back and hopes that more teen bands will be inspired to venture out of their garages and onto our stage,” said Teen Program coordinator Marissa Simcoe. “We are hoping this concert will inspire more teen bands to sign up for the one on June 1. It has been a past tradition for the Teen Program to hold concerts like these, as well as Battle of the Bands and End of School concerts. We are excited to bring those traditions back.”
The inaugural lineup is led by the teen group Cherry Picker (5-5:30 p.m.), who are followed by the veteran rockers Howling Gods (5:45- 6:15 p.m.) and Supercult (6:30-7 p.m.).
Strawberry Hill Park is located at 7666 NE High School Road. The concerts will be staged in the skateboarding area.
Admission is free; no tickets are required.
Bradley Tatum fondly recalls the Teen Center concerts of yesteryear. The Howling Gods guitarist and Bainbridge-based music instructor said that although many more types of music are readily available to his students than ever were to younger him, there’s still something about a live local show that all the internet videos in the world cannot recreate.
“When I was young that was at the center of everything and that was a social and cultural centerpiece, where people would hang out. People would go see the shows, people would congregate whether they were involved with music or not, because that was what was happening,” he said. “And I don’t think that’s how it is now.”
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, Tatum, 33, who moved to Bainbridge in 1990, said, indie rock and punk shows on Bainbridge — when they were allowed to happen — were the place to be.
“The Teen Center on Bainbridge Island was always ultra supportive of independent music and gave us a venue to play it,” he said. “There was a period of time on Bainbridge Island where certain venues didn’t want rock and punk concerts to happen and they set roadblocks in our way by making us pay for big insurance policies as well as hiring police officers and stuff like that. They made it financially extremely difficult, if not impossible, for young people to be able to do it.
“I think they did that on purpose to keep our music out and everybody kind of accepted it and the independent rock and punk music scene was suppressed majorly because of that, because we didn’t have an outlet to play,” Tatum said. “But the Teen Center has consistently been awesome to independent music and to punk and rock music, and we all know it and we love it, and we really appreciate everything they’ve done for us. We’re excited that the parks department and the teen center are proactively helping us out in doing this event for us and we’re really excited to work with them.”
Tatum is the guitar teacher of Cherry Picker lead guitarist/vocalist Isac Morisoff, has been working with the young rocker for four years and said he’s looking forward to watching his protege’s act as much as he is to taking the stage himself.
“I put on a concert [in Bremerton] and I had him open up, but he was doing it solo, where it was just him on guitar and singing, and he brought a lot of people to the concert and it was pretty much a packed house and he rocked,” Tatum said. “He’s a killer musician and an awesome person. I’m excited to see what he’s going to do with a full band.”
Howling Gods specialize in “punk-meets-thrash metal,” Tatum said, and Supercult is similarly heavy, while Cherry Picker is more generally “alternative” in style.
Though the spirit remains the same, Tatum said the styles that draw his students to study music are very different from the music that drove he and his friends when they were that age.
“There are generational differences, but some things are universal with age and with coming-of-age,” he said. “I think one of the main differences that I’m noticing is that at the center of everything when I was growing up, with people that were interested in music, the main kind of heartbeat of it was punk music. I think that is not the case right now.
“I think generally that’s not been a cultural center of rebellious youth recently,” he said. “I have students that are all over the place with what they’re into.”
Of the island’s storied history of rock legend alums, Tatum said the big names are just the tip of the talented iceberg.
“You have a long legacy of rock icons coming from here and a lot of really excellent rock music that didn’t go into superstardom-level but would have if that weird happenstance-chance would have been given to them,” he said. “There are lots of people that didn’t get totally discovered on a mainstream level that would have been right there with all the big ones if they just were at the right time or whatever, if the stars aligned.”
