By Leah Wojatch
Excitement builds for Miss Demeanor as the members of the band wait behind stage for sound check at The House of Blues on Sept. 22. The band is pumped up as they head onto stage for sound check. The excitement ends when the guitar of Luis Dubón, Div. 479, stops working. What was supposed to be a great night for the band quickly turns into a disaster.
Miss Demeanor, an alternative band, has found recent success and is released their first album in October.
Dubón and the band have superstitious reasons for why their gig went terribly.
The band believes their guitarist and leading vocalist Luke Chlohisy, Div. 475, has a haunted guitar. His “haunted” guitar is named Betty after its ugly appearance.
“I can’t get rid of it, because it was my first guitar. It’s too sentimental,” Chlohisy said.
“Every time [Chlohisy] plays the guitar at a gig, something goes wrong,” Dubón said.
Actually, Dubón’s amp for his guitar broke, not his guitar. However, later on that night he smashed his guitar out of anger. The sound crew was unhelpful and their sound on stage was not as great as they would have liked.
“If you ask any musician, if you have an instrument that you’re playing and the sound stops coming through, it is enraging,” Dubón said.
However, with all the negative occurrences, the band still found some good aspects of the show.
“I felt like it was great show. We played at The House of Blues,” said the bassist, Gabriel Gonzales, Div. 456.
They sold over a hundred tickets for the show and generated the second biggest crowd turnout at the gig. The show featured six other bands and Miss Demeanor was the only band still in high school.
Miss Demeanor was invited back to The House of Blues for another gig next month. They have also recently performed shows in prominent arenas such as The Congress Theater and The Bottom Lounge.
With their share of big venue gigs, Miss Demeanor prefers playing free, all ages’ underground shows. That way more people can see them perform and their fans are usually under the age of eighteen.
Chlohisy started the band in the summer of 2010 with a friend who played drums. However, he is no longer apart of the band. The band has slowly pieced together with new members being added over the past three years. After forming an instant friendship and “jamming” together, Gonzales joined the band as their bassist. Holowka was later asked to join after Chlohisy and Gonzales saw him play. Dubón, originally the band’s manager, is now the guitarist and backing vocalist. Ruby Dunphy, who attends Chicago High School for the Arts, is Miss Demeanor’s newest drummer.
Miss Demeanor released their first album, Negative, on Oct. 19. It is a full length album including 15 songs. The band had a release show on Oct. 19. The album is available for anyone to buy.
With four out of the five members graduating this year, the band looks uncertainly into their future. Chlohisy, Dubón, and Gonzales plan to attend college but are unsure of where. They are considering going out of state, which leaves uncertainty of the band’s future.
“A four year hiatus,” Chlohisy said laughingly about college and the band.
Holowka is the only member a year younger than the rest.
“I got so used to hanging around them and I finally found the people I get along with. It’s going to be different,” Holowka said.
Miss Demeanor is unsure of what is to come in their future but is enjoying every moment of it.
