Audiostrobelight

Members of Virginia Beach’s audiostrobelight got started early in the music business. They were in high school when they formed a production company to stage acts that would appeal to kids.

When Kris Lynch, Scott Denham, Steven Flick, Gabe Dyson, and Adam Cohen left for college, they booked a final show at The NorVa. For the fun of it, the guys took the stage themselves and performed a 15-minute set. “We went over pretty well and had a good time with it,” said Cohen, who plays electric violin and electric mandolin.

The audience reception was so enthusiastic, the guys decided to form their own band. Lynch sings and plays bass, Denham is the drummer and Dyson sings and plays guitar. Flick left; keyboardist Jimmy Quevedo came on board last summer.

Now they’re working in the studio with Double O Records in Hampton. Their second release, planned for the end of the year, will be a follow-up to “The Underdogs of Awesomecore.”

Meanwhile, their sound continues to change as they grow as musicians.

“The new stuff is much more technical,” Cohen said. “We’ve put a lot of thought into the phrasing.”

In May, the power pop/punk/rock band opened for Fall Out Boy in Virginia Beach after winning an online voting competition sponsored by FOB and MySpace.

“We had people jumping and going crazy,” Cohen said. The band also was featured on FOB’s Web site, which generated all kinds of exposure.Cohen and the band answered the questions:

Does the band have a pregig ritual?
Meeting people at the venues, trying to get people interested before we even hit the stage by being personable. Right before we go on, most of us stretch, and then we do a huddle over the drums before we start playing.

What’s the band’s worst performance memory?
We played at the now-defunct Jamestown Campground shortly after losing our keyboard player. The guy running the PA was having issues all day, and ended up spending most of our set on stage trying to fix things. … A friend of ours filled in on keyboard, and he had never played any of the songs.

If the band could write its own headline, what would it be?
audiostrobelight: Your New Favorite Band - The Virginian Pilot

THE VIRGINIA BEACH band Audiostrobelight beat dozens of other local bands to open for Fall Out Boy at the Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater on Wednesday.

The band members, all in their early 20s, are Adam Cohen , Kris Lynch , Gabe Dyson , Scott Denham and Jimmy Quevedo.

Fall Out Boy, with MySpace, is picking 19 unsigned local bands as opening acts in different cities on its tour. Bands register on a special Web site, and then the voting begins.

"I believe Gabe was looking around on the Internet and keeping tabs on some of our favorite bands, one of which being Fall Out Boy," Cohen said.
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Thanks to family, friends and fans, Audiostrobelight received the winning spot. Cohen isn't sure of the exact number of votes cast but thinks it was 400 to 500. According to the list on the Web site, more than 100 bands competed for the Beach spot.

"Honestly, all of us we're just blown away. This is such a huge opportunity for a small local band. We've been playing around the area for a while now, but to get the opportunity to open for literally the No. 1 band in our genre - this is the kind of thing that myself and all the guys would have wanted to shoot for in a dream situation down the road," Cohen said.

Audiostrobelight takes the stage shortly after the gates open at 5 p.m.

- Patty Jenkins
Copyright 2007 - The Virginian-Pilot