The Lonely Friends to perform at Music Fest
Group won UT Local Band Challenge
7/17/2013The Lonely Friends, a band formed in 2011 for a fund-raiser for their high school, won the UT Local Band Challenge to perform at the University of Toledo’s Music Fest 2013.
The band, described as “old-school rock with influences of blues and some metal to keep it fresh,” was selected from performance videos uploaded to the Music Fest Facebook page July 1-7. Facebook users voted the next week for which local band they wanted to see perform at Music Fest on Sept. 13 and the majority of votes — more than 8,000 — tabbed The Lonely Friends the winner.
“I was surprised that we won,” said Travis Geiman, the band’s guitarist. “We kept posting the competition to Facebook throughout the week, and were in the top 10, but we didn’t think it would be us. Everyone is happy that we won.”
The band came up with its name from the game Rock Band. The Lonely Friends was processed one time by the name generator and band mates thought it was kind of funny. They have stuck with it ever since.
In addition to Geiman, The Lonely Friends features Michael Barlos on vocals, Anthony Kitts on bass, and Nick Duszynski on drums.
The group formed in 2011 when Maumee High School needed a band to play for a marching band fund-raiser. The band is currently in the process of mixing their first album, which will be released this summer, Geiman said.