Greenscene

by Regina Yoast

Don't ask the guys of Green Scene how they got their name. They'll only confuse you. One says it might have an environmental tinge, since green is the color of life. Another implies it may have something to do with mary jane. And yet another explanation is that green is the color of money, and they like money. But it might just be that green has another connotation- it's the color of the band's competition.

And who wouldn't be just a bit jealous? Green Scene has everything an up and coming band could want. They've got several competitive titles under their belt, they've played quite a few of the coolest venues the States have to offer, they've got a major label looking at them, and they've got some fiercely loyal fans from New York to Colorado to our own Cape Girardeau.

It all started in a little town named Milwaukee, Wisconsin, way back in 1995. Current members Ethan Keller and Ryan Brach started playing the local music scene with then-drummer and guitarist Joel Maske and Jeremy Wolfe. In 2000 Maske and Brach left the band (Brach later came back), but the essence of Green Scene continued, just with a sort of 'revolving door' line-up.

"We had several fill-in drummers," says Robert 'Giff' Gifford, the band's manager and Cape Girardeau resident, "some good, some not so good." But it was at a conference in Boston that they met the right guy for the job- current Green Scene drummer Jesse Warner.

The band had made the trip from Wisconsin to Boston with a fill-in drummer- and was told by the president of recording label RCA that they desperately needed a new one. They met Warner while jamming at a friend's house, and after only four hours of rehearsal he joined them onstage. The band brought down the house, and it wasn't long after that that Warner, a New Jersey native and full-time student at Berklee, packed up his drums and moved to the Midwest.

Now the guys have a line-up they're comfortable with, and the time and effort they've put into the music has paid off. In 2001 they beat over 1,500 other hopefuls to become Jim Beam's Best Unsigned Band In America. They have also appeared on Jenny Jones, where the topic was 'Secret Crushes Revealed.' " Jenny Jones is pretty hot," says Warner, grinning.

And speaking of hot, the band's music was also featured on MTV's sexy soap opera Undressed. "There was a lot of heavy petting (on screen) while we played," says Keller. They're also playing such famous venues as The Whiskey A-Go-Go in Hollywood, and The Acme Underground in New York City.

"But our favorite place to play is Cape Girardeau, of course," says Brach. "This is a great college town." And if you want to catch the guys next time they're in the area, they'll be at Tres Hombres in Carbondale on May 1, and at Port Cape on May 2. See you there.