The venue trembles as velvet melodies erupt from the amplifiers.

The band uses its instruments to weave a web of expression laced with the empathy of thousands of screaming fans.

From the basement to the stadium the band has risen, and it is the basement that should never be forgotten.

The fame that a band might experience is merely a side-effect of its original direction – to have fun while saying something.

Of course, fame and exposure are always something to strive for. But at the first practice of a newly formed band, you rarely hear, “Okay guys, let’s pick a name and start writing songs so we can be famous.”

The allure of a band in most cases is the chance to “chill and make music with friends,” says Nick Douglass, an aspiring band member.

Steve Kincer, guitarist of the band The Deaf Crave, believes, “Having fun is a must, and being famous would be cool, but what is most important is self-expression.”

It is this self-expression that gives a band a purpose and allows it to make a difference. It gives someone the power to create something that musician Mike Noble, a sophomore at Poland Regional High School, says, “isn’t Sparks the Rescue or Dead Season,” and to scream its message through the stacks while still having fun.

Often, a band will form in the shadow of a sibling. Noble’s older brother Nick founded the band Barium. Noble used to “go up into the practice room and see the inner workings; the nuts and bolts of a successful band.” And there he he was inspired to form a band of his own.

These “nuts and bolts” as Noble calls them, are the sense of fellowship and belonging one feels when they are in a band, for every member of the band plays a crucial role in the making of music. Without one person a band is not whole.

If a band can support its message with catchy riffs and a tasteful chorus, then exposure will come its way, and that exposure could lead to fame. This fame will always have derived from the basement where five guys and thirty soda cans bounce around making the “infernal racket” the neighbors can’t stand.