<bt>It all started because of basketball practice three years ago. Every Saturday after practice, Vienna residents and Marshall High School students Sean McVey, Colton Turner and Cliff Usher would get together to jam on their instruments. Gradually, after practicing in Usher's basement every week and improving their musicianship skills for a solid year, the students became the rock band Quogue.
"It was pretty bad," Turner said, recalling their start.
However, over the past three years, the band, which now includes bassist and fellow Marshall 2003 graduate Sam Barnes and lead singer and Fairfax High School 2004 graduate Zach Jones, has progressed from a fledgling rock band to a Battle of the Bands winner. With three band members attending the University of Virginia this fall, the band is preparing to move to Charlottesville this week to play the music scene down there.
"The next two years, I hope we get a lot of shows and a lot of good experience," said McVey.
DESCRIBING THEIR MUSIC as "harder pop rock" or "Incubus-meets AC/DC-meets John Mayer," the members of Quogue have been busy practicing their songs every day and working on new material composed by Usher.
Whimsically named after a location in New York, Quogue started getting serious as a band two years ago, when members started looking for gigs and additional musicians as juniors at Marshall. Barnes had played violin in a previous group with some of the band members, and Turner discovered Jones at a music theory class.
"Colton came in and said, this guy looks like a singer," Usher said.
The band's first gig was a birthday party, followed by a gig at the Vienna Community Center. Quogue's first show as a band was at Club U-Turn in the District, and since then, the band has played at The Depot in Baltimore, Jammin' Java in Vienna and Jaxx in Springfield.
Two years ago, Quogue won the Battle of the Bands competition at Celebrate Fairfax, giving the group the opportunity to play for a crowd of hundreds. As winners, they were supposed to open for Steppenwolf and Sister Hazel, although they played right after Steppenwolf finished its set.
With their move to Charlottesville, band members hope to improve their skills and expand their fan base, by playing at area clubs and making enough money to make a good demo recording. After two years, they might re-evaluate and see whether they can go even further with their music. For now, they just enjoy playing together.
"I just want to see us get better," Jones said.
For more information on the band Quogue, go to www.quoguemusic.com or e-mail quoguemusic@hotmail.com.