 Spare Change, from left, Will Seligson, Simon Ginet and Jackson Kusiak. Not shown is drummer Charlie Eckhaus. / Photo by Alex Takats Spare Change Wins TEST IN CLUB FUNDRAISERSpare Change, a band of Arlington High School sophomores, won first
place in the recent Battle of the Bands, an event organized by the club
STAND to raise money for relief work in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Coming in first out of six bands performing in the high school’s Lowe
Auditorium on Jan. 26, Spare Change won a $100 gift certificate to the
Wood & Strings music store in Arlington Center. The event raised
over $3,200, which will be contributed to the International Rescue
Committee for relief work in Darfur.
STAND is a club of roughly 50 AHS students who work to raise
awareness of the genocide in Darfur. In addition to fund raising, they
write letters to members of Congress and the president urging them to
act to end the crisis. This was the second Battle of the Bands
sponsored by STAND.
 Drummer Sam Scribner raps beat for Sister Lithium. / Photo by Alex Takats
The band Rage and Satisfaction won second place and a $50 gift
certificate to Wood & Strings with a set that included a song about
a platypus and a rock riff on Pachelbel’s Canon in D.
Sister Lithium won the
“People’s Choice” award with an energetic set that ended with two
guitars being smashed on stage.
The other participating bands were Second Alpha, Dubesor and Deadbeats.
The members of Spare Change, who have played together since sixth
grade, are Charlie Ekhaus, drums; Simon Ginet, vocals and guitar;
Jackson Kusiak, bass and vocals; and Will Seligson, lead guitar.
The
judges ranked them first based on their four-song set that included
three original tunes and one cover song. Audience members crowded
around the stage to dance during the third and fourth songs. At one
point, Ginet was carried aloft by the enthusiastic crowd.
STAND extended thanks to Principal Charles Skidmore, faculty
adviser, and English teacher Paul McKnight, the judges, the adult
chaperones, Wood & Strings for the prizes, My Brother’s Place for
pizza, and to students Livy Baldwin and Nick Jackson for emceeing the
event.
The club welcomes donations made directly to the IRC or to the
AHS General Fund — STAND.
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