The Run Around in the spotlight at Summerfest
The Run Around's journey to the world's largest music festival started with a contest none of the band's members took seriously.
Vocalist Jason Fein, 25, of Naperville had seen a Web site ad for the Briggs & Stratton Battle of the Bands and decided to apply. Not thinking much of his band's odds, he didn't bother to fill out their bios or even look for a particularly good picture. The Normal-based group was competing against 776 other bands from around the world for the chance to play at Milwaukee's Summerfest. But they made it to the top 10, then the top four and on June 7 were named the winners.
"It kind of snowballed," Fein said. "We had friends, family, fans, everybody getting involved voting every day. We wound up with 100,000 votes for us over two months."
Instead of working to book new shows, everyone just focused on the contest. And it paid off when The Run Around took the stage Sunday to open for Blues Traveler. They also performed during the 7th inning stretch at a Milwaukee Brewers game and on Milwaukee's Fox News.
"I'm always going to remember this," said bassist Jason Enders, 22, of Hoffman Estates. "It was one of the best experiences of our lives for sure."
The five band members - Fein, Enders, drummer Brent Steinberg and guitarists Jared LeCount and Adam Sharp - had been together less than a year before taking the national stage. But the time has been spent working hard. Since forming at Illinois State University, The Run Around has been constantly performing at Midwest college campuses, often doing four to five shows a month during the school year. The band is heavily influenced by Alkaline Trio and Lucky Boys Confusion, not just in musical style but in a focus on coming-of-age stories that they share with other students and recent graduates.
"I write songs that are pretty dark and pretty angry," Fein said. "I write fun-loving songs and party songs. I write from personal experience based on where I'm at in my life at the time."
Disparate influences are obvious as you pass from one track to another on their debut album, "Fight the Day." "Runaway Mexico" shows off the love of reggae-influenced vocal heavy ballads they took from Dispatch while "Anything" more strongly resembles Lucky Boys Confusion-style pop punk.
The Run Around's members are especially focused on the issues of coming of age now, with all of them having recently graduated or planning to graduate from college in the next six months. Enders and Fein said they're facing the balancing act of trying to make a living while focusing on music, which they hope will someday become a real career.
"We go from all you had to worry about being going to class a few times a day to real world stuff," Fein said. "It's not easy. We are not looking to get rich and famous off this. We'd just rather do this than anything else."
Right now the band is mostly recovering from and basking in the glow of Summerfest. But after some rest they'll likely be right back to spending days together practicing.
"We have band lock-in weekends where we don't do anything but work on our music," Fein said. "There's a bonding aspect of it and it gives us time to write and perfect things. Twenty hours of playing will get you pretty far."
Enders said he often leaves lock-ins with his fingers covered in blisters.
"It's exhausting but none of us would have it any other way." he said
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Related links</h2> <ul class="moreWeb"> <li><a href="http://www.myspace.com/therunaroundband">The Run Around's MySpace page</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>