Teen Dumps Boyfriend After Young Band Collapse
Friday October 10, 2008 Billings, Montana
The tumultuous seven week romance between teens Tim Kamer and Chelsea Bristly came to an abrupt and dramatic end Tuesday following the dissolving of Tim’s amateur and struggling band, Heckler Dawn. As news of the dramatic end of the self-described alt-emo-punk band quickly made the rounds of Lincoln High, sources close to the couple knew the break-up was coming. Reportedly, Bristly never saw herself with the kid of boy who couldn’t get his band to become huge rockstars before their junior year. “He was so shallow, always wanting to just play music with the other guys. It was so cool that one time they played almost two songs before the cops made them turn the stuff off. So cool!” explained Bristly who is apparently now involved in a between English and Drama classes, over-the-top flirtation with Simon Billings who used to play guitar in Heckler Dawn.
Billings has formed another group with ‘a college guy Damian’ and former lead bass player from Heckler Dawn, Thrice Swambli. The new project is called The L-Eye. Bristly expects her advances to pay dividends before Halloween when Billings plans on hosting the First Annual Halloween Rock Bash including the debut live performance by The L-Eye and an assortment of other mildly skilled fledgling musicians and dancers. “I’m going be right in front of the stage the whole time so everyone can see me,” explains Bristly. The teen refused to expand on whether ‘everyone’ meant band members or other audience members. Jill Williams has, at one point, dated every member of Heckler Dawnexcept the drummer. According to Williams, “Chelsea is a total band groupie and doesn’t care about the music like I do.” Reportedly, Williams often wore homemade Heckler Dawn t-shirts to taunt Bristly.
The now-former band met with a sudden end while preparing for their 10th rehearsal. The two 15-year olds, Kamer and Billings had a similar shirt on and began to argue following mild ridicule by Trinidad and Tobago native Swambli. Insults quickly turned to musical abilities with each teen hurling hurtful clichés with abandon. The exchanged ended with Billings throwing a can of Coke Zero through the oversized kick drum and storming out of his own basement. There have been rumors that the beverage was a Rockstar Energy drink and that it was thrown through the windshield of Billings’ father’s car, but band members deny the allegations. Virginia Kamer spoke out to quell the rumors. According to her, “it’s just not true that a car was damaged. I had to go over and get my sons guitar and amplifier with our minivan and I didn’t see any damage to any cars.” Heckler Dawn cited ‘creative differences’ for the break-up in an official statement to Kamer’s parents, but many familiar with the band point to a power struggle between Kamer and Billings over song-writing control. Kamer felt that his poorly syncopated and key-vague instrument rambling added an ‘edge’ to their sound. Meanwhile, Billings felt his thinly disguised and borrowed riffs from 90s grunge band sound was the correct path for the project. Drummer and part-time rhythm bassist Joe Hantrill was silent on the subject. The 16-year old hasn’t spoken more than a handful of words at a time since the summer between 8th grade and high school. Hantrill is expected to join The L-Eye project once the smashed kick-drum is repaired, but both his parents have just been too busy to deal with it.
The dejected Kamer is pondering his next move following a long talk with his father. The senior Kamer revealed that he also “went though a band phase in high school “ and gave up on his dreams after his parents purchased an Atari video game system. The pair has a weekend excursion to the mall for some new video games planned.
