Armonk, North Salem HS rockers win Ridgefield Playhouse BandJam!

Armonk, North Salem HS rockers win Ridgefield Playhouse BandJam! Three Byram Hills High School and two North Salem High students and their band Mr. E won the grand prize at The Ridgefield Playhouse’s Band Jam last week with their spot-on renditions of the Allman Brothers’ “Whipping Post” (see their performance here) and Led Zeppelin’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You”. The Ridgefield Playhouse’s annual competition started with hundreds of submissions from high school and middle school bands throughout the region. Playhouse Board of Directors selected eight semi-finalists to perform in a closed session audition before a panel of judges in March. Five of those bands were invited to play live at a public showcase on The Ridgefield Playhouse stage on Saturday May 15.

Did we call it or what? In our original post, (see below) we predicted that Mr. E was a lock to win this thing. Full disclosure, we had already seen brothers Justin (guitar) and Kevin Giacchetto (bass) from North Salem perform and we knew no one could touch them. But how ’bout BHHS-ers Ara Perakis (move over Gregg Allman) on vocals, Vic D’Angelo on keys and how good is Tess Condron on those skins?

Will Mr. E. win the Ridgefield Playhouse Bandjam 2016? They can’t miss! Three Byram Hills High School seniors will be competing with two rockers from North Salem in the championship round of this year’s Ridgefield Band Jam Competition at the Ridgefield Playhouse Sunday, May 15 at 4-7pm.

This rock band, Mr. E, is one of 5 high school bands chosen to compete. The band survived two prior elimination rounds to make it to the finals. They will be playing two songs before a panel of judges and will get scored on their overall sound, stage presence, and technical ability. A winner will be announced at the end of the evening, and the prizes include gift cards to Guitar Center and studio time for the winning band.

Mr. E. features Byram Hillers Ari Perakis on vocals, Tess Condron on drums, and Vic D’Angelo on keyboards and Justin (guitar) and Kevin Giacchetto (bass) from North Salem High School. If you think this is just a gratuitous vanity post – you are mistaken.

Move over Jerry Garcia: Not to disparage the other rockers in the band, who we have not seen, but What To Do had the distinct pleasure of seeing Justin Giacchetto play the guitar in another band at North Salem High School recently. Justin is not just a 10th grader who is really good at the guitar. He is amazing! He could be touring with almost any professional band right now!

Not to get carried away but if he isn’t ID-ed in his high school yearbook (two years from now) as Most Likely To Be The Next Rolling Stone Top 100 Guitarists of All Time than the yearbook editors at North Salem High School are not doing their job.

See him, and the rest of Mr. E, at the Ridgefield Playhouse on May 15 so you can say, “I saw him when …” All proceeds from this event benefit The Ridgefield Playhouse. Comedian Christine O’Leary will emcee the event. You can buy tickets here.