The story begins with a teenager who didn’t know what tool his father needed to install a ceiling fan.
Or maybe it begins with a baseball player who collided with another player at home plate, breaking a vertebra and becoming confined to his couch.
However the story begins, it has, so far, a happy ending, for four teenage boys who will soon be traveling to Iowa to perform in a rock ‘n’ roll festival.
The teenager helping his father with the drill is the same teenager who injured his back playing baseball, and his name is Dominic Brino.
Brino, 17, will be a senior this fall at Scotia-Glenville Senior High School and, according to his father, Al, is an honor roll student.
According to Al Brino, the fathers of the teens who make up the band Stuck on Stupid have asked sons Brino, Garrett Damore, 15, Cory Jackson, 17, and Adam Albright, 16, to maintain honor roll status at their high schools. All of the teens attend Scotia-Glenville Senior High School, except for Damore, who will be a student at Colonie Central High School this fall.
Al Brino said Stuck on Stupid began after his son was injured playing baseball. Dominic was confined to the couch, and his father felt sorry for his son who could barely move from the sofa.
Digging through his closet, Al Brino found an old acoustic guitar and decided to challenge his son.
I said, ‘When I come home, play me a song,’ Al said. `When I got home the next evening, he played a song for me, and it was very good. The next day I said, ‘Play another one.’`
When he got home, Dom played and sang along with a Green Day song, which his father said blew him away.
Al Brino, a mailman, knew his son had talent, so he encouraged him to get together with the son of a man on his postal route, Cory.
The two formed a band with other students they knew from school, but the first band ended up breaking up because the drummer had a change of heart, Dom said.
Cory and Dom continued to practice together, when they found Damore, also through one of Dom’s father’s mail routes. The band formed under the name Stuck on Stupid, with Damore playing drums, Dom playing guitar and singing, Jackson playing guitar and Albright playing bass and singing backup vocals.
Dom said the name came to him when he was helping his father install a ceiling fan. Al asked Dom to get him a wood drill, and when he brought him the wrong tool, Dom said his father got frustrated and said, `What are you, stuck on stupid?`
Dom said he laughed and thought it would be the perfect name for the retro rock ‘n’ roll band.
Never in his wildest dreams did Dom think Stuck on Stupid would amount to much more than a garage band, but since its creation, Stuck on Stupid has made it much further than many teen bands do.
The band has regular gigs at bars and nightclubs around the Capital District, has performed at the legendary Chance Theatre in Poughkeepsie, and in August will perform with well-known rock bands such as Puddle of Mudd, George Thorogood, Candlebox and Twisted Sister at the Rock Gone Wild festival in Algona, Iowa.
But Dom said the band’s success would not be made possible without the help of the band’s fathers.
`I’m really thankful for our dads,` said Dom. `And especially Jim Moore. He’s not a dad, but he’s like our fifth dad.`
Moore is the host of a television show on the Time Warner Cable public access channel called Media Zone.
Moore said he was working with Jackson’s father, who kept telling him that his son was in a band that was really good and that Moore should put one of the band’s videos on air.
After viewing the video, Moore said he was `taken aback` by what he saw and knew there was definite talent.
Moore was inspired by the band and enjoyed the company of the dads, so he decided to join the group as a `roadie,` he said, and travels with the band to help load and unload the equipment and do stage lighting. He will also be with them when they go to Iowa in August.
To see photos of Stuck on Stupid or listen to their music, visit them on MySpace at www.myspace.com/stuckonstupidrocks.
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