Faculty band brings down the house

The shrill of the screams in the Middle School chapel was enough to shatter glass, the pounding of feet enough to generate a mild tremor. From the sound of it all, you would have thought Justin Timberlake was onstage bringing \"SexyBack.\" But he wasn`t. The cries of the crowd were elicited by real rock stars, some who were probably jammin` when Mr. Cry Me a River was but a wee lad. They needed no formal introduction. Some simply strapped on their guitars, others perched themselves in front of their microphones, took a deep breath and amped up to rock out. Together...onstage...back after a year hiatus was John Krol, Chad Komocki, Tim Desmond, Liesl Langmack, Liz Crowe, Erin Thomas, Brian Hart, Ahren Stock, Peter Thomas and Bob Kachurek: The Faculty Band. \"Middle School teachers traditionally did some type of performance for their students...\" said Krol, band organizer. \"When I arrived [as a teacher at Hawken], I found several faculty members who played instruments, and...thought it would be nice to play together at a chapel for our students. It gives them an opportunity to see us in a different way.\" Take a seat, Erin Thomas crooned in \"Skin,\" the opening number of the recent concert. Why don`t you sit down with me. It wasn`t long before percussion kicked in, the background vocals dropped-I wiiilll looove you-and concertgoers roared. A handful of the faculty members are in bands on the side; the others remarkably are novices, simply fulfilling their desires to jam under glaring lights in front of throngs of screaming fans. After the crowd had filed out of the chapel, the band gathered their instruments, cleared the stage and inconspicuously morphed back into their alter egos: Spanish, music, history, Latin, science, art teachers-educators logging in their time as rock stars.