Long Island Sound: Happy birthday, Bayside
Local group Bayside celebrated the 10th birthday of the band with a Jan. 21 show at The Crazy Donkey. Credit: Lisa Johnson Photo
Bayside's Anthony Raneri is trying not to get too emotional about celebrating the band's 10th anniversary Friday night.
"We just plan to keep doing what we do," says Raneri, referring to both The Crazy Donkey show and the band's upcoming major-label debut "Killing Time" on Wind-Up Records Feb. 22. "This show is going to be weird. We're going to see a lot of our old friends. We're going to see a lot of ex-band members. I think that's when it starts to get nostalgic. It doesn't feel like 10 years. I still feel pretty young."
Maybe that's why Bayside - Raneri, guitarist Jack O'Shea, bassist Nick Ghanbarian and drummer Chris Guglielmo - is a band rooted in the present and looking to the future. However, Raneri says the Long Island band's 10th anniversary has had them thinking about what they've accomplished.
"I have a very specific memory about the band 10 years ago," he says. "I remember buying the Foo Fighters' 'The Colour and the Shape' disc and thinking it was the best-sounding rock record I'd ever heard. And I remember being in the van listening to it and looking at the liner notes and telling the band, 'One day, Gil Norton's going to produce our record.' To have that happen now, that's pretty insane."
Raneri says he remembers how the band would dream of playing Irving Plaza. "I'd been going to shows there since I was 13," he says. "Now, we don't just play Irving Plaza, most of the places we play are bigger than Irving Plaza. That's so amazing."
Bayside plays The Crazy Donkey, 1058 Rte. 110, Farmingdale, 631-753-1975, at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 21. Tickets are $18 through thecrazydonkey.com.
Contact The Long Island Sound at glenn.gamboa@newsday.com or follow @ndmusic on Twitter.
