School of rock
Manville News Article

	Photo by Dreaming Realities MHS students Jeff Piorkowski, Chester Higgins, Chris Nordone and Scott Petzinger are Dreaming Realities, and following in the footsteps of former students.

   Dreaming Realities, a band made up of entirely current Manville High School students and one alumnus, gave its all in a performance on campus at Rutgers, last month.
   About 25 years ago, former MHS students Frank Riha and Mark Banovich were at the same stage — in high school bands with dreams of rock and roll glory.
   And while technology and tastes have changed over the years, in many respects, the road to musical stardom still starts in the high school gym.
   Both Mr. Banovich, owner of the Dressed to Kill shop on South Main Street, and Mr. Riha of Frech Avenue say high school bands were limited to where they could play when they were in high school.
   "Today, there are teenage clubs that support an under-21 crowd, back in the day there wasn't," Mr. Banovich said. "It helps to get the individual or group into a club setting. Kind of seasons them for what's ahead."
   Mr. Riha's high school band — Black Lace — would play at picnics or parties in backyards, where all they got in pay was "food and beer."
   Dreaming Realities — Jeff Piorkowski, Scott Petzinger, Chester Higgins and Chris Nordone — has played at two birthday parties so far, but they have also played larger venues including firehouses in Manville and Whitehouse Station and clubs such as Hamilton Street Café in Bound Brook.
   But Dreaming Realities, Mr. Riha's "Black Lace" and Mr. Banovich's high school band all got a boost in their early careers with appearances at Manville High School Battle of the Bands," events where multiple bands perform.
   Black Lace played in a battle in Mr. Riha's senior year at MHS, taking second place out of six competitors.
   "My only complaint would be it was so loud in there," Mr. Riha said. "Back then, people thought louder music was better but you didn't know it wasn't true until you got older and had some music experience with sound quality. It was so loud that a piece of plaster fell in the auditorium and hit some guy in the head and two people with pacemakers had to leave."
   Dreaming Realities played at MHS' talent show last year, where it was one of only two high school bands that played, in addition to other solo acts.
   "We weren't there to win, but just to play because the majority of the school has never heard us and it was a good way to express our music," Scott, the band's drummer, said. "We ended up winning the best band category and third overall."
   Mr. Banovich's band, which went by many different names through high school, played at dances and also at a MHS "battle of the bands."
   His band didn't win its show but it definitely put its mark on the competition and literally on the gym floor — two friends' of the band had some technical difficulties using homemade flashes — intended to be a part of the band's "light show" — during the band's turn to play. A few spots were burned onto the gym floor.
   But Mr. Banovich and his band played at other schools' battles as well — without leaving a mark.
   Mr. Riha said his favorite such battle was outside of the Englishtown Flea Market. Rock bands came from four high schools totaling 15 or 16 bands, and his band — known by that time as Bad Intentions — went home with third place from its biggest show.
   Once a band has been tested in a school battle of the bands, the next step is often recording. Thanks to improved technology, bands can access higher quality studio equipment than Mr. Banovich used in his early days — he would record using an old cassette player in his basement where his band would practice.
   For Dreaming Realities, the band members pitched in enough money to hire a Freehold-based producer who listened and coached them through the entire process. The results of the recording sounded like something from a professional studio recording — especially when compared to the first recording the band did in the high school's band room.
   Mr. Riha didn't go into a studio until two years after he graduated from MHS in 1981, when Bad Intentions recorded tracks intended for use by radio station WZZO for a contest. They won fourth place in the station's contest out of about 750 entrants, earning a chance to play at the Allentown Fair in Allentown, Pa., where the Beach Boys were playing. This show became Mr. Riha's favorite show ever — and he was 21 at the time.
   The biggest debate between the young rockers and the experienced musicians centers around the music.
   Mr. Riha, whose band played classic rock such as "Freebird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd and music by The Who, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest and Van Halen, says the music was harder to play and learn in the late '70s.
   He argues the quality of lead guitarists had declined since then. He added you only have to be playing for six months if you go to an instructor compared to the three to five years you would have to be playing to master the popular songs' guitar riffs of his generation.
   But Dreaming Realities' Chris said his generation has to deal with the challenge of creating something original in a 50 year old art form.
   "As a whole the band has to strive to write songs that do not sound like anything else that have been done before," Chris Nordone said. "All the music that is out today sounds like everything else. No bands are really that different from each other, there are a few but not many. Most bands today either copy other popular bands at the moment or play older styles of music. It is hard to break away from being one of these bands, and that is why it is hard to be in a band at the present."
   Jeff added that writing a hit song today is just as hard as writing a hit song back then.
   "There's a different level of talent today, in order to use technology and programmed amps and all that good stuff you first have to learn how to, then you need learn the instrument," he said. "In the '60s and '70s you just played. Totally different ball game, in my opinion."
   Undoubtedly, the progression of music and technology has made it less difficult for kids today to get the sounds that Mr. Riha practiced for hours a day. Guitar amplifiers are preprogrammed to sound like the equipment used by Jimi Hendrix or whomever a player wants to emulate.
   We did not have to borrow equipment. We had our own . Besides working to support our extensive buying habit, our parents pitched in. Maybe too many times! Also, being a sales manager @ Manville Music Center didn't hurt when we needed to rent lighting rigs, pa & monitor systems for larger venues.
   Mr. Banovich played mostly hard and early punk in high school. "Also, I had other forms of bands with various Manville High School musicians that had played variety shows and music related events during this period," he added.
   After high school he went on to play in a lot of different bands including the Ragtops, Amphetamine Dream, and widely known band in the local area The Razorbacks.
   And he still plays — his "high voltage country, swing and rock-a-billy band" called Tweed Schade and the Sugar Daddies is scheduled to play at Border's in Bridgewater 8-10 p.m., Friday.
   Meanwhile, Mr. Riha's band — Midas Knights — plays at such places at Marina's Cantina in New Brunswick, The Bull in Piscataway and Errico's in Frenchtown as well as numerous bars along the Shore.
   Both Mr. Riha and Mr. Banovich have certainly gone through musical realities in their lives since their high school days.
   Something that current MHS rockers Chester, Jeff, Chris and Scott are dreaming about.