Limo to the bowling alley.

So I have a confession, and many of you probably already know this.

I think that Laguna Beach is a fantastic show. The first season was okay. It introduced people to the idea of a show where nothing happened past parties, bon fires, and trivial arguments about the parties and bon fires that happened the night before. The show peaked during second season, which was out of this world unintentionally funny, and the third season was pretty boring because all of the girls wanted to date a guy who looked like a fat Tom Brady (Feel free to google Cameron Brinkman).


But clearly, there was a lesson to be taken away from this show. And that is that even having your own TV show on which you can perform, doesn't mean you are going to make it as a band. And yes, I'm talking about Open Air Stereo, whose MySpace page is still active and available here.

For those of you who gave up on Laguna Beach after the second season, you missed the chance to experience Laguna's own budding rock superstars in Open Air Stereo. Fronted by recurring Laguna character Chase, and featuring Kelan on guitar, Open Air Stereo had everything going for it. Ocean front property to play at. A lead singer who took his shirt off all the time. Excessive use of the word rage. And perhaps most important, a cable television show watched by millions of teens, on which they were featured.



And yet despite, or perhaps in spite of all of this, Open Air Stereo remained unsigned. According to their website, they are on a definite hiatus. I would assume this hiatus is giving the band the chance to think, "Hey, maybe we should have gone to college after all."

Perhaps a low blow. I'm all in favor of people following their dreams. What if's can drive a person crazy. And it's also inspiring in many ways when you talk to people who are doing exactly what they want to be doing. So in many ways, Open Air Stereo should be heroes to people making bad hard rock music everywhere.

In fairness, Open Air Stereo is not alone in having a show and failing to make it big though, so it'd be wrong to single out just them. Who could forget O-Town. Most of the American Idol's not named Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood. Cisco Adler failed with Whitestarr on VH1 first, and is in the process of failing currently with Shwayze.

Timing has a lot do with success. The Strokes came out right around when garage rock was having a revival, led by themselves, The Hives and The Vines. They looked and performed like rock stars, but few knew they had significant help along the way. Lead Singer Julian Casablancas' dad is successful modeling school owner John Casablancas. He basically paid the way for the band's first record to be put out and distributed. Not exactly starting out at the Cavern Club.

In the end though, talent and ability typically prevail, if given the opportunity to go noticed. If you take the time to listen to Open Air Stereo, you notice that they're basically an Incubus ripoff. The Strokes had a different sound when they came out, and were able to find an audience who latched onto it(although undoubtedly some of their audience were perturbed by a 35 minute sophomore effort). You could argue forever over which band is more talented, although ultimately record sales do a pretty good job of settling this debate.

The one thing that both bands had in common though, was that they were put in privileged situations, and were smart enough to recognize that and use their connections to their advantage. I'm finding out more and more as time goes on that life is about taking advantage of the opportunities put in front of you. With the exception of Pau Gasol to the Lakers, nothing in life is ever handed to you. You have to dig in the trenches for a while, paying your dues in any position. But if you work hard and keep your mouth shut, in most situations the opportunities put in front of you start to look more desirable. With all of the news recently about institutions and "clout" graduates being accepted, all it made me think about was how people in life just generally play the cards they're dealt. If you're parents are big donors to an institution, you're probably going to mention that fact in an application. I don't see how this is any different from a job applicant parlaying a connection with an employee into getting their foot in the door for an interview.

There is something to be said for working your way up the ladder based solely on hard work, but everybody is a product of their circumstances, and it's important to take advantage of them. Whether Open Air Stereo never sells another record or sells 10 million, they lived like rockstars for a part of their lives, which is more than most people can say.

I'm reading: Limo to the bowling alley.Tweet this!