Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Rainy Day OK

Usually, word of a rainy day is not welcome up at the mountain. But in this case, we're talking about the band Rainy Day Activities, and these young dudes from Ashburnham and Westminster are well worth checking out.

Rainy Day Activities will pack itself into the Coppertop Thursday night at 8.The guitar-bass-keys-drums combo features Jordan Racine, Matt Pinault, Trevor Wolanske, and twins Henry and George Condon.

"Henry will only bring part of his drum set up, and we're not playing any of the heavier stuff," Racine says. "We'll keep it tame with some Allmans, Beatles, and Led Zeppelin."

Covering such bands, you'd think Racine was a child of the ''70s, which is hardly the case. He is a senior at Oakmont Regional High, and most of the others are also students there (Pinault graduated from Oakmont last year and now attends Fitchburg State University).

"My dad was always listening to music in the house. I must have been in 7th grade when I started discovering all of those bands," says Racine, who notes that he also likes contemporary bands ranging from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Zac Brown.

The roots of Rainy Day Activities go back to when Racine formed a duo with another student while in 8th grade. Growing into its current configuration, the band has found a foothold in several of the region's music rooms, and performs at various civic events and band showcases.

In addition to knowing a boatload of cover tunes, Rainy Day Activities puts to use theory it learned in music classes and writes its own songs.

"I'd say our own style is kind of crunchy," says Racine. "We're working on a new one now that has a Spanish feel, like a Santana song, and others have a sound like Dire Straits. We take the techniques of artists we admire and see what we can do on our own."

Not a bad activity at all.

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