Tom Lynch

"I don't want you to leave," the singer from high-school emo band Reckless croons along with an assault of Les Pauls. "You will break my heart..."

Glenbard South High School's battle of the bands, held in their swanky new auditorium with deluxe sound equipment and blood-red stage curtains, is an obvious success. Full to the brim with suburban-hipster youths with greased black hair and uber-tight thrift-store T-shirts, bundles of teenage girls rush the stage to gaze at the Reckless singer. His parents applaud as well.

The judges' booth rests in the back, away from the mess of bodies. Matt Mordis, musician and Glen Ellyn resident (and scribe of the "Zoom-Zoom" Nissan commercial jingle) fills out his evaluation of Reckless' performance. "This is fun," he says, not looking up from his sheet. "I know one of the kids in a band tonight, but I'm not sure if that means I have to vote for him. I hope not." Three leather-jacketed rock greasers, also chosen to be judges at the event, bow out after only four bands. "We gotta go," their leader says. "We can't take this anymore." They sneak away in silence, unnoticed by the school principal.

By the finale of Reckless' set, only four of the original nine judges remain in attendance. "What the hell happened?" Mordis asks the surviving members of the panel. They shrug. Crown the Rookie, Glenbard's next emo-core offering, tunes up on stage. "Hey Raiders, let's mosh!" someone screams from the crowd. But they can't, or detentions will fly.

(2004-01-28)

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