This Romantic Tragedy to perform at Jillian's this week
By BROCK RADKE
VIEW STAFF WRITER
PHOTOS BY MARLENE KARAS/VIEWThis Romantic Tragedy guitarist Carlin Leavitt, left, lead singer Jay Camillerri and guitarist David Diaz, as well as drummer Mark Neuhardt, below, perform June 7 at Jillian?s Las Vegas, 450 Fremont St. Most of the band members are current or former students at Centennial High School.
PHOTOS BY MARLENE KARAS/VIEWThis Romantic Tragedy guitarist Carlin Leavitt, left, lead singer Jay Camillerri and guitarist David Diaz, as well as drummer Mark Neuhardt, below, perform June 7 at Jillian?s Las Vegas, 450 Fremont St. Most of the band members are current or former students at Centennial High School.
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They might be young, but the members of local rock band This Romantic Tragedy are old enough to take music very, very seriously.
Recording a second album, continuing to book concerts and ultimately finding a record label to sign with are the only priorities for the six band members: Jay Camillerri, 22, David Diaz, 16, Kyle Huender, 18, Carlin Leavitt, 17, Mark Neuhardt, 17, and Gabe Centeno, 16. With the exception of Neuhardt, who attends Cimarron-Memorial High School, all of them currently attend or have graduated from Centennial High School. Huender just graduated this month.
"We've all known each other quite a while, but we've only all been together as a band for about a year," Huender said. "We've been through a ton of different members before that. Me and David started together about three years ago. We were just little kids, and we wanted to do something new, and it was hard to find really good people."
Although the band had a few early concerts under its belt, things started to get more serious when Camillerri joined as lead singer.
"On July 12, I will have been in this band for one year," he said. "I used to be in a band called Run About the Streets, but they kicked me out on my birthday. Two days later, I came here and sang one song, and they said, 'You're in.' "
Although he's the band's elder statesman, Camillerri said all six musicians are close friends and their shared love of playing is the real driving force.
"Kyle is the mechanic who puts it all together," he said. "I'm older, but he has a lot more brains at music than me, so he calls the shots. He and David really know each other's next move on guitar, Carlin does the bass and Mark does the drums. When I came in, we wanted to have a keyboard and synth player, and so Gabe just kind of picked it up, and now he's like the second frontman. He really gets the crowd going."
This Romantic Tragedy could be categorized in the alternative musical genre of screamo, which draws its influences from hardcore punk, metal and the more introspective, emotional tones of some indie rock. But the band adds even more twists to its sound with an experimental electronic touch.
"If you put a piece of cotton candy Bubblicious bubblegum in your mouth and just sucked on the flavor, that's us. We're in your face," Camillerri said. "We're electronica, screamo, hardcore and just plain old rock. We sound the way we want to. It just comes natural."
The band members are hoping their unique sound and passion will lead to bigger things.
"Pretty much, we want to just get signed and be one of the best bands out there," Huender said. "We just want to keep playing music."
"That's the hardest part, getting somebody to look at us," Camillerri said. "I know there's a lot of talent out there, but I know we're pretty good, too."
Maybe the biggest day for the band so far came on March 29, when This Romantic Tragedy took the stage at the annual Extreme Thing festival at Desert Breeze Park right after one of its favorite bands, Chiodos, and right before venerable punk act Pennywise.
"We were there from nine in the morning, just waiting and listening to good bands and soaking it all in," Camillerri said. "We were just so happy we were there, and when we got on stage, we went crazy."
This Romantic Tragedy will perform on Wednesday at Jillian's, 450 Fremont St. The show starts at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com.
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