All bow before the mighty TOTAL ANNIHILATION!! EDDY DEMON FOREVER!
‘Kids Rock’
Grown-ups are in the band, too, but they’re punks, so cut ’em some slack
Thursday, March 15, 2007
While the idea of holding a punk rock concert by and for little kids may seem like a stretch, 11-year-old Brendan Thorn, a.k.a. Eddy Demon, doesn’t think so. The lead singer and guitarist of Total Annihilation and his band mates intend to “annihilate everyone” with their music as they play a “Kids Rock” gig this weekend that features bands with kids and adults in their lineups.
Look for Eddy and crew to wail through tunes such as “Rock and Roll on a Friday,” a song about a guy who prays every Thursday night that the sun won’t come up in the morning. “I wake up and I hit my head,” Eddy sings when the protagonist awakes to yet another Friday.
Although Eddy says he likes Fridays now, cut him some slack. “I was 9 when I wrote that,” he says.
Eddy came up with another one, “The Devil’s After Me and I Don’t Know Why,” when he was ill and having a little trouble breathing and was thinking about relatives who has passed on and how he had to say goodbye to them. The songs appear on Total Annihilation’s self-produced CD “Noggin,” a reference to “really good eggnog.”
Homeschooled since he walked away from kindergarten at 5, Eddy listened to Muddy Waters and jazz in his car seat, then graduated to the sounds of Jack Black’s tongue-in-cheek rock band Tenacious D. He compares his singing style to that of the group Half Japanese, whose lead singer is “very squeaky. It’s like a high voice, but it’s not yelling. I don’t have a strong enough voice to yell anyway,” says Eddy.
His group includes drummer Pete “Pietro” D’Amato, 14, and two adults, James “Camo Spice” Comte on backup guitar and Damon “Dorkmeister Harmoniak” Squire on bass. Both are 36.
Total Annihilation grew out of an appearance by Eddy and Pietro at a talent show at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco a year ago. In the audience that night was Comte, a veteran of the early ’90s rock ‘n’ roll wars as a member of the San Diego group Swivel Neck.
Seeing the kids put their heart into their music inspired Comte and he asked if he could join the fledgling group. “Eddy was like, ‘Wow, it would be really cool,’ ” Comte says. Since then Comte has become something of a mentor to Eddy and Pietro.
“A lot of times children hear the message that nobody ever makes it in a band,” says Comte, who has a 4-year-old daughter. “That can be discouraging. But how does one become successful at music? Usually they start at a young age. It provides the opportunity for children to see someone pursuing their dreams and developing their talents.”
As for punk rock’s negative associations, Comte stresses that the kids aren’t emulating Sid Vicious. “It’s all positive. It’s not a seedy bar scene. They haven’t been exposed to drugs and alcohol. It’s sort of healthy YMCA experience. We play way more notes than punk rock. We’re sometimes soft and sometimes loud. We’re not like we can turn our amps up loud and kill you.”
Still, Eddy may have a surprise or two come showtime. “We’re planning on lighting a smoke bomb. If it’s legal. Hmmm. Let me think about that.”
F-ocracy and Hellakraptor also play. 3-6 p.m. Sat. $7-$15 sliding scale. The Lab, 2948 16th St., San Francisco. (415) 864-8855. www.thelab.org.
Paul Kilduff, 96Hours@sfchronicle.com