Crowd Hysteria

No, not marching band. Not concert band. But an independent student band. The idea to form a band started with a shared place of learning music and a shared love of music among Hannah Scheidl, freshman, Ellie Huggins, freshman and Elaine Simmons, junior who make up three of the six-member band called Crowd Hysteria.The other members are Ken Kleinschmidt, Ben Lutz and Sage Glasscock. Kleinshmidt and Lutz both attend Webster Groves High School and Glasscock attends Truman Middle School.

The band members met at School of Rock, a music school located in downtown Kirkwood on Kirkwood Road. The School of Rock offers guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, drum and vocal lessons to students of all ages. The School of Rock also has locations all over the world such as Canada, Australia and Brazil.  After forming the band from School of Rock, the girls needed a name.

“We brainstormed names [and] put interesting words together,” Simmons said. “I just thought [Crowd Hysteria] sounded cool together.”

Simmons said School of Rock is a place full of unique people of different ages. It also helps train students to be a part of a band or do anything related to music. They also provide lessons for adults who are looking to learn a new instrument or experienced adults who want to practice. Huggins said she was able to open up to the people at School of Rock and it was easy to get to know them even though she doesn’t see some of her friends in School of Rock on a daily basis.

“School of Rock was just open arms,” Scheidl said. “Everybody wants to talk to you, everybody wants to be your friend and nobody’s going to be rude to you.”

The love of music started young for both Scheidl and Huggins when their parents played music in the car when they were little. They were surrounded by music, even at a young age.

“I could listen to everything and not be bored, [and] find something in there that is inspirational,” Scheidl said. “I love it all.”

Simmons’ love of music started differently. It blossomed out of her love of musical theater and from the many different bands she listened to. Simmons also writes her own original music.

“[Music] shows your creativity,” Simmons said. “[With] writing music, you can get your feelings out and your emotions [out] and I think that’s what’s nice about music.”

Simmons describes Crowd Hysteria as an alternative-rock band that covers artists such as Green Day and Pink Floyd. Simmons thinks that in the future, they will perform some of the original songs she has written.

So far, the band has played at Chesterfield Amphitheater, at the stage at School of Rock and a gig at Off Broadway, a bar on Lemp Avenue.

“For me on stage, it’s like nothing else,” Scheidl said. “You’re in the spotlight and everybody’s watching you and it is nerve wracking and scary, but it’s a lot of fun.”

Live performances also come with challenges. Simmons thinks it is difficult to perform on stage.

“Things go wrong, and we’ve had technical difficulties,” Simmons said. “It goes really awfully sometimes and you have to learn from your mistakes.”

Simmons said it is a good feeling to say they have gotten a gig. She also said for now they are doing it for fun and to get their name out, but they hope to be paid for performances in the future. Crowd Hysteria practices once a week for three to four hours and also at School of Rock once a week for three hours.

“[Practice] is long and you really have to hammer out on songs,” Simmons said. “It’s a lot of repetition and practicing.”

Scheidl said the band is a big part of her life and takes up lot of space during the week. Even though there are difficulties, there’s no doubt these girls love music.

“We’re not stuck in a box. We’re outside of the box,” Huggins said. “We are very unique people as individuals and then when we come together it becomes a whole different level of unique.”

Crowd Hysteria has an upcoming gig at Kirkwood Brewery but the date and time is undetermined. For more information, follow their Instagram profile crowdhysteriaband.