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For three 11-year-olds, thrills come with playing gigs By JAMIE McCUNE, Evening Sun Reporter Posted: 12/01/2008 09:40:37 AM EST Jesse Colgan, left, Nick Lawrence and Riley Rager, all 11, have been playing in a band, Soul 'R' System, which they formed two years ago. (Evening Sun Photo by Brett Berwager) Purchase reprints of Evening Sun Photos at EveningSunPhotos.Com. Three bandmates recently recounted a crazy night they spent after a local gig - high on the adrenaline rush, they were wide awake until the wee hours of the morning. "Eventually Mr. Rager came in and said, 'Boys, it's 3 a.m., you have to get some sleep," said Jesse Colgan, of McSherrystown. Colgan and fellow 11-year-olds Riley Rager and Nick Lawrence together form the band Soul 'R' System. All students at Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary school in McSherrystown, the three boys have been playing together for about two years. As they recounted the night following one of their largest performances in front of a crowd of 500 at a benefit concert, the three leaned forward on the sofa they shared, bouncing up and down to the point of standing up. Riley said with the rush they could not sleep and played 20 questions instead. Jesse, whose father Brian Colgan is a member of the local band 6¢, said he never understood how his father could drive home at 3 or 4 a.m. after playing a gig without falling asleep. "I now understand. Once you get that adrenaline going, you just can't go to sleep. It feels good to play," Jesse said. The boys started playing together when Riley asked Jesse, now both in sixth grade, if they could play together. Nick, now in seventh grade, was taking piano lessons with Jesse's dad and soon joined the group. The band mostly covers classic rock, a genre they all listen to, one of their first covers being "Hey Jude" by the Beatles. They also cover songs from Lynyrd Skynard and Led Zeppelin, who they count as influences . Only having three people in their band, they have to be careful which songs they pick, Jesse said. It can be a challenge. Nick sometimes plays left-handed bass on the keyboard while also playing the keyboard part. Even with the challenge of having only three members, they do not plan on adding a fourth member. And considering all three play multiple instruments, it would seem unnecessary. All three play drums, guitar and bass as well as sing. Both Nick and Jesse play keyboard and Jesse has started learning the saxophone. The boys choose what parts they want to play, usually based on who has the most experience on an instrument, Jesse said. But they have a lot of flexibility. Nick decided to play drums on the Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane" without ever having played drums before. "I'm not trying to offend, but he was really bad at first. He would sit down at the drums and just kill them. But now he's good, now he can really play," Jesse said. And Riley just recently started singing lead after previously only singing harmony with Jesse and Nick. "I just wanted to step up and see what I could do," Riley said. The bandmates are not only talented musicians, but have written a few songs as well. Aside from playing covers, the band has two original songs in their 20-plus song set. Jesse penned the song "Lazy Day" while he and Riley co-wrote the song "Patriots", with Riley writing the lyrics and Jesse writing the chords. "Patriots" is a song they wrote about the soldiers fighting in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Although the group's earliest gigs were playing for free, opening for 6¢ at carnivals and other venues, they have since started booking a few of their own by word-of-mouth. But the benefit concert, where they opened for 6¢, is where they had a breakthrough and felt people really noticed them. "They would come up to us and said, 'Keep it up. You're going places," Nick said. The three spoke in unison and finished each other's sentences as they described the people standing up and waving their hands in the air. "They didn't expect these kids. I don't think (the kids) expected it," Brian Colgan said. Colgan provides the equipment for their performances and oversees their rehearsals in a small studio behind his house. The boys practice about once every three weeks unless they have a performance, in which case they practice every week to prepare. "I'll tell them to keep practicing something while I go back inside because I want to give them a chance together to figure things out," Colgan said. "They're typical 11-year-olds and after forty minutes to an hour of practice, they go outside and run around." The band hopes to have their own Web site soon and have two new songs they are working on. One Colgan wrote lyrics for and wants them to put music to, and another Nick has been writing. "I'm proud of what we do. I don't care if we get too many gigs, I love playing," Riley said.

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