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Learning curves
The Starting Line get a quick jump



Take a quick glance at the thank-you list in the liner notes of the Starting Line’s new Say It like You Mean It (Drive-Thru/MCA) and you’ll notice one name that stands out above the rest: "Mrs. Drexler (best guidance counselor ever)." It’s not the most rock-and-roll shout-out in the book. But the suburban Philadelphia teen-punk upstarts — who are on a headlining tour with Long Island punks Taking Back Sunday that hits the Palladium in Worcester next Friday — wouldn’t be where they are today without Mrs. Drexler, who helped 18-year-old frontman Kenny Vasoli finish high school early so the band could hit the road.

"That was such an important part of us getting signed," emphasizes Starting Line guitarist Matt Watts, who at 23 is the old man of the band. "When we got signed, Kenny was a junior in high school. His mom actually came up with the idea of him taking two years at the same time so we could tour, instead of dropping out and getting his GED or making us wait another year and a half. He would go to his normal classes every day, come home for an hour, and go straight to college. He completed another year of high school and a semester of college. It totally sucked, but it rules that he was that motivated to do it."

The Starting Line have been on an accelerated learning curve since day one. Watts started the band by recruiting Vasoli with an anonymous e-mail, and he first got the attention of the SoCal punk label We the People the same way. The group’s big break came when We the People passed their music along to Drive-Thru, the MCA-affiliated home of New Found Glory. "Everything good that has ever happened to this band has happened via the Internet," Watts laughs. "We recorded a 12-song demo for We the People, who were friends with Drive-Thru. When Drive-Thru heard it, they called Mike [Golla, guitarist] up at work and totally wanted to sign us. That was the happiest day of our lives."

Produced by Mark Trombino (Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182), Say It like You Mean It is a precocious debut. On the first single, "The Best of Me," Vasoli sings himself through the difficulties of a long-distance relationship in dulcet tones that will appeal to fans of New Found Glory and Saves the Day. He turns girl trouble into big hooks on bittersweet rockers like "Up & Go" and "Leaving," and Trombino polishes the band’s melodic gallop enough for radio without softening its bite.

All of which sounds exactly like the work of a band fresh-faced enough to thank their frontman’s high-school guidance counselor in the liner notes of their first album. But read a little further down the thank-you list and the shout-outs become less innocent — specifically, the one addressed to "the members of the Boston University basketball team that tried to punch us in our heads."

"We were on tour with [Jacksonville pop-punkers] Yellowcard, and we had an amazing show in Boston," Watts explains. "We decided to go to a bar afterward, and a couple of girls there were eyeing us up. They were there with the BU basketball team. A couple of the team members weren’t too nice to Yellowcard and chased them down the street. It turned out to be a rough night. No one got hurt, but we almost got our asses kicked big-time."

The Starting Line and Taking Back Sunday perform next Friday, December 13, at the Palladium, 261 Main Street in Worcester. Call (800) 477-6849.

Issue Date: December 5 - December 12, 2002
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