Go swing with The Nightmare Fighters
By Ryan Bachman
The Metropolitan
Swing and ska are paving the way for fun and possible success for a local nine-piece band, The Nightmare Fighters, with a new CD and future west coast tour.
Ron Green, a Metro senior and guitar player for The Nightmare Fighters, and drummer Reed Sikora will spend all of next week combing the Northwest talking to venues in search of summer dates and exposure to a fresh audience. Their hope is to take another step toward taking the 3-and-a-half-year-old group ãall the way.ä
The band started around the time they were all attending high school in Littleton and first gaining exposure to ska bands. They were inspired to start a ska group after seeing a Blue Meanies show and similar bands at the Mercury Cafe.
They hung around the area playing gigs for the next couple of years and have since been put on hold because singer Jason Adams and guitarist Joey Coloroso attend school on the East coast.
Since the two membersâ departure, the band can only get together to play on breaks and during the summer. For their last show on New Yearâs Day, they opened up for the Cherry Poppinâ Daddies at the Bluebird Theater.
Green said it was a particularly big show for the band to play, given the following for the Daddies, and it was a pivotal moment for them to decide whether they should pursue their music further and really commit to it.
Green said the show went well and seemed well received by the audience, so after this spring semester the members of The Nightmare Fighters will reunite with full-blown commitment in mind, hoping to play shows in Oregon and Washington.
Green describes the overall sound of The Nightmare Fighters as a ãswing Ska variety show.ä He said they like being able to jump from one style to the other depending on the audience.
Green said their primary focus when starting the band was having fun, and until now, the notion of furthering the band was undecided.
This summer the band will face two more hurdles when they will lose Kris Hendrik, the trombone player, to a two-year Mormon mission and saxophone player J.R. Byrd who won a scholarship to Indiana State.
The band will audition musicians to fill the void. The members currently completing The Nightmare Fighters are Ashley Copen (bass), Ryan Davis (trombone/vocals) and Adam Ubowski (trumpet/mouth harp).
The band has a CD available over the Internet at http://www.joesgrille.com or at greenro@mscd.edu.
