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Gnomes have it covered

Teenage band rocking the island

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It's about an hour before showtime and the members of The Gnomes are sitting at a table in The Big Bamboo Cafe, some of them restlessly rolling empty cans of Red Bull in their hands.

"They're just expensive, and I'm glad we get them here for free," guitarist Ryan Collins said at the restaurant and bar Thursday night.

Chugging the energy drink has become sort of a pre-show ritual for the band, and they went through about two rounds while waiting for the dinner crowd to clear off the stage before they could begin setting up equipment for the show.

"We're all amped up on the Bull," drummer Justin Long joked while digging into a plate of fried foods.

The energy certainly will come in handy. With an expanding tour schedule, a growing fan base and talk of their first CD to be recorded soon, The Gnomes quickly are becoming contenders to be the hottest thing on the local music scene.

And not one of them is old enough to buy a beer. In fact, the lead singer is barely old enough to drive.

In a town where cover bands are about as common as drink specials and the strains of "Freebird" blend into the background noise like cicadas, it can be hard for a seemingly innocuous set of teenagers to gain a foothold, much less a following.

But with a set list stacked with nothing but classic rock, a particular reverence for the style of the '60s and '70s, and a van full of parents working as roadies, The Gnomes have been staking a claim in the local music scene -- and becoming regulars at several venues.

Too bad their friends can't come to the shows. After all, a lot of places they play are 21 and over.

"We're trying to get out to the crowd around our age," said the 17-year-old Collins.

Lead singer Joey Di Silvestre, a 15-year-old with shoulder-length brown hair and the youngest of the group, is a little too reminiscent of Mitch Kramer, the main character of the '70s-themed flick "Dazed and Confused," not to mention it here.

The four-member band often finds themselves playing in front of older crowds at places like Wild Wing Cafe and the Hilton Head Brewing Company -- crowds that, even if they're a generation older than the band members, at least appreciate the music more than other high schoolers would. It's the perfect act for a resort area, where patrons generally just want to drink and sing along.

"When they see a bunch of teenagers playing, they say, 'We can't believe that you guys are just a bunch of kids playing the stuff we grew up with,' " said Long, who sports a pierced lip and, at 18, is the oldest member of the band.

Their influences and set list are nearly identical -- Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, The Who. ("Ah, Skynyrd! Write down Skynyrd!" Di Silvestre exclaimed.)

Their style is distinctly neo-'70s: long hair; patterned, button-down shirts; tight guitar playing and a lack of fear to show off a bare chest here and there. Bassist Kevin Early, who turned 16 on Friday, wears his long hair in a noticeably somewhat-retro pouf.

When they speak about the attention they've been getting, it's with confidence but not cockiness.

"They seem to building a pretty big following here locally," said Dave Rice, manager of the Brewing Company, where The Gnomes have played several shows throughout the summer. The band always draws a crowd, he said.

"The fact that they're kids makes them unique. If they weren't (talented), I don't think anybody would come to see them regardless if they were old or young."

'CARRY ME BACK WHERE I COME FROM'

The band's beginnings sound more like an ordinary tale of suburban youth than dramatic fodder for VH1's "Behind the Music."

"They were playing in a little room, just fooling around," said Patti Di Silvestre, who does the booking for the band, "and it just took off."

Their first show ever was slightly removed from the Hilton Head bar scene. They debuted at a seventh-grade dance, said Debbie Early, mother of bassist Kevin.

Then, through a friend of one of the dads, they got a gig playing Casey's Sports Bar and Grille about a year ago.

The demand started to grow from there. They got invited to play various events around town: a bocce ball tournament, a Lion's Club benefit event, a few bars. Bigger events came along: the David M. Carmines Water Festival, a show along the route of the St. Patrick's Day parade, Wingfest at Shelter Cove Community Park.

Kevin's dad, Ken Early, got a van to carry equipment and learned how to work a sound board. They printed T-shirts with the band's logo, a red and white mushroom. They even have "Got Gnomes?" stickers.

"We could probably have a chance of getting a manager, but we'd rather have our parents do it," Di Silvestre said. "They're pretty much our manager, but they don't get paid.

But, Collins added, "It's not a Partridge Family kind of thing."

The band now plays about one or two shows a week. And with the fame, came the groupies.

"The best thing is you get to score points with teachers," Di Silvestre said of some of the younger school faculty members they've spotted at shows.

While playing a show at Wild Wing Cafe, a would-be superfan bought the band some beers and put them on stage. Long's mother had some brisk words with the man, band members said.

Long said he still gets frequent phone calls from a girl who saw the band while visiting from Missouri. But as for the rest of the groupies, "They went back to Ohio," Di Silvestre said.

'INTO THE GREAT WIDE OPEN'

The band has spread past the Hilton Head and Bluffton area, playing Port Royal's Fourth of July celebration and stopping by bars as far away as Ridgeland. They've had offers to play in Savannah and even one invite to a gig in Atlanta.

But there still are other commitments that get in the way, things like school and family vacations.

"When we first started the band," Ken Early said, "the kids understood that the school work comes first."

They'll be working on a CD soon, a mix of covers and a few original songs they've been working on. While the immediate future for the band may hold only questions, such as what design to put on the next batch of T-shirts, some big questions could lie ahead.

Long graduated high school this year and has ambitions of going to Berklee College of Music in Boston, maybe in the next year or two. Collins said he'd like to go to college somewhere nearby to keep playing with the band.

Some of the parents said they want their kids to follow the path that makes them happy, even if it doesn't involve going to college.

"He's musical and creative," Patti Di Silvestre said of her son. "That's where his brain is."

And as for now, the members said they're in it for the long run, even if it involves taking a break while some attend college.

"We don't really want to see it end at all," Joey Di Silvestre said. "If we were able to get gigs when we were 15, 16 years old, I don't think we'll have a problem coming back in a few months."

For fans, the appeal seems to be a mix of shock that such young musicians could be playing tunes from 20 years before they were born and the fact that, well, they're not bad.

"The style of music that they're singing is a lot of the things they wouldn't even understand," Stephanie Strode, a visitor to the island, said after watching the band perform Aerosmith's "Dream On" Thursday night. She exclaimed a brief "no way" after hearing the lead singer is only 15 years old.

"They sound really good," she said. "We're going to stick around."

Contact Tim Donnelly at 706-8145 or . To comment on this story, please go to islandpacket.com.

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