By Karenlyn Barone
Gregg Torborg, 17, plays varsity football at East Rockaway High School and helps at his father's garage when he can. Dan Rivenburgh, 17, or "Riv" as he is known, is a member of East Rockaway's cross-country track team and the head sacristan at the local church. Dave Hroncich, a senior at Chaminade High School, works as a stockboy in a grocery store and just spanked his SATs with a score of 1350.
Typical teens? Hardly!
Torborg, Riv and Hroncich are the founding members of the punk rock/emo group, Awkward Silence, and they are rapidly cultivating a growing fan base. Except for Riv's tempestuous hair, which changes from spikes to long, irreverent bangs on any given day, the kids are unassuming, academically successful and very mainstream. That is, until they pick up their instruments and start to play their original music with its screaming auto-biographical lyrics.
"We've just got normal teenage angst," laughed Hroncich. "We're a crazy kind of emo."
The band's chosen genre of music is packed with the hard drive of punk rock, but softened by the emotion of their lyrics, thus the term "emo," short for emotional. Their songs are musical laments that examine their life experiences, touch on the desolation of adolescence and the forthright anger born of confusion. The core emphasis is on emotion, with punk energy as its fuel.
"Our music is hard, loud and strong and I love it," said drummer Torborg, who got his dad to let the band use his auto repair garage for practice sessions. Of his fellow band members, he said, "The three of us just bonded musically,"
Torborg's drums are the driving frenzy that provide the backdrop for the band's surprisingly mature lyrics. Riv is the primary songwriter/singer in residence.
"As a band, our changes have been subtle," he said at a recent practice session. "We went from songs of sadness and love to anger and revenge and the occasional mention of death."
All three agree that they use their music as a type of therapy to release their inner frustrations to the world.
The band has taken to playing local clubs like, The Backstage in Woodmere, The Image Bar in Uniondale and the very famous Glen Cove Bowling Alley.
"Don't laugh," smiled Torborg. "People are starting to come out to hear us."
The venues are teen clubs, where age is not an issue and alcohol is never served. That suits the band just fine. "We're straight-edge," explained Riv. "No alcohol, no drugs, no tobacco."
They are also all business. The band is planning a tour this summer. "We're buying a blue school bus and driving down as far as Georgia," said Riv. "We want to play one show in every state on the way down and one in every state on the way up."
As for their parent's support, Riv laughs, "They may be a big bump in our plans for the tour."
Awkward Silence's CD, "Truth In Scars," is available on their web site, awkwardsilencemusic.TK and their next appearance will be at The Backstage on Jan. 17.
