“Experience it. Enjoy it. Just don’t fall for it.” So goes the tagline for “Almost Famous,” a movie in which the protagonist must negotiate the conflicting philosophies of a decadent world of rockstar debauchery and the intellectual gravity espoused by his mother. While characters find themselves increasingly caught up in the entrancing world of rock and roll, its risk and danger become clear by the film’s end.

Members of Harvard student bands face a similar dilemma. Though these students would like to engage with their passion for playing music at a serious level, they face pressing obstacles. The lack of institutional support, students’ academic and professional ambitions, and their other extracurricular activities stand in the way of full commitment to a band. A resultant wariness permeates Harvard’s student band scene.

“FOR THE CHICKS”

One stop away from the Harvard Square T-stop, near local concert hubs the Middle East and T.T. the Bears, the Harvard undergraduate band Third Rail is conducting their Wednesday night practice. Third Rail is a cover band that plays a wide variety of famous pop tunes—everything from Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” to Katy Perry’s “California Gurls”—though they are hoping to transition to playing their own music sometime next fall. As I sit and watch them play in a building of band practice spaces, smoke and heavy metal hang in the air. Third Rail complains about the perils of being in a student band at Harvard.

“There are plenty of musically talented people at this school, but it takes a lot of energy to make a band,” says Warren S. Loegering ’12, guitarist for Third Rail. “You can’t be a band by yourself.”

“There are six or seven of us, and scheduling is a massive challenge,” adds Samuel R. Berman-Cooper ’12, the band’s bassist who is currently taking a year off from school in order to properly devote himself to Third Rail.

“Speaking of, I can’t do any of those times,” interjects another musician. The whole band erupts into a discussion on their respective schedules.

Indeed, for its musicians, being in Third Rail is the most important in an array of other commitments. From coping with the conflicts of the afterschool tutoring program Keylatch, the a cappella group the Harvard Krokodiloes, lab assistant positions, and other extracurriculars, Third Rail members must perform logistical gymnastics in order to find enough time for practice.

The money they have earned from playing monthly performances at Tommy Doyle’s and other private gigs in Boston-area fraternities, sororities, and Harvard final clubs has enabled them to afford their own space. “We have a lot of equipment and we need to have a place where we can store it. We need to have somewhere to put the gear. This place provides that as well as a place to practice and record,” says Alexander E. Trevino ’12, their drummer. “There are places you can play on campus … I don’t want to sound like I’m whining but they aren’t organized, accessible, or well-maintained. If you leave your stuff in there it might get stolen or broken. It’s a slew of problems. I don’t know exactly how to solve them but they’re there.”

Rising to meet the challenges of orchestrating a student band, however, Third Rail members do demonstrate dedication to playing music. “I can’t imagine myself doing anything else—anything else would be boring,” says Berman-Cooper. “I know music is what I want to do. Regardless of degree, I’ll do music for a few years and try to make it in the music industry.”

Most other members of Third Rail echo Berman-Cooper’s sentiment. Barthalomew A. Sillah ’12, however, a Human Development and Regenerative Biology concentrator, has a different take on the matter. “See, I don’t do the whole starving artist thing like them,” he says. “I like just doing what I do and having a place to perform.” Sillah has doubts about pursuing a career in music.

Nonetheless, Third Rail agrees on certain benefits presented by being in a college band. “Why be in a band?” Loegering asks rhetorically. “Because I love playing music. And obviously for the chicks.”

PICKING UP THE PIECES

Conflicting commitments and schedules, however, deter many Harvard musicians from making bands as cohesive and committed as Third Rail. Even when enough musical ambition abounds to support multiple bands at Harvard, it ebbs and flows with the passing years.

“The problem with all the organizations centered around rock music on campus is that—unlike those tied to classical music groups—they usually live and die on one or two people, one band, etc.,” says Daniel J. Thorn ’11. Thorn is a guitarist for The Sinister Turns, a band composed of one Harvard undergraduate, two graduates, and one other Bostonian that plays gigs around Boston. “The Harvard College Alliance for Rock and Roll (HCARAR) was really good when [its members] were around, and after they graduated, it died.” HCARAR formerly worked to help musicians form bands, find them sound equipment and practice spaces, and organize concerts, though it is no longer active. “There’s kind of a cyclical interest in being in a band on campus,” says Thorn.