“How can you come to shows? Aren’t you grounded?” Eric Nakamura asked Amy Yao, in a 1995 interview for the SoCal publication Giant Robot. Nakamura co-founded Giant Robot, and Yao was in a band. 

“Football games, ASB events, supporting school events,” she said: a list of excuses for her parents. 

Emily’s Sassy Lime, a riot grrrl band made up of Yao, her sister Wendy, and their friend Emily Ryan, was a secret sensation. Without their parents’ knowledge, the high schoolers played with other punk legends like Bikini Kill. 

Many teens had similar pastimes. 

“When I was first here at Venice High School—I started here in 2001—we had a lot of students in punk and metal bands,” said Ruth Greene, an English teacher at Venice. There were so many that Venice hosted a “Battle of the Bands” competition soon after.

 Guitar teacher Scott Burstein was instrumental in organizing the event. 

“He played in metal bands himself, and he inspired a lot of the kids to get more involved in that type of music,” said Greene. Knowing her penchant for punk rock, Burstein asked Greene to be a judge. 

Most of the Battle of the Bands participants went to Venice. For students who “wouldn’t necessarily have gone to a football game,” in Greene’s words, the competition was a way for them to get involved in school events. 

 While it’s easy to call this a bygone time, the occasional “FREE SHOW” flyer in Venice’s school hallways suggests otherwise. The teenage music scene is far from dead. It may even be experiencing a revival.

Though Burstein left Venice, Venice’s arts programs today continue to help musically inclined students like the band Mouthfull. Formed by junior Toby Bernov last year, Mouthfull also comprises senior Josette Truin, as well as sophomores Sienna Bennett and Kainan Lai.

Truin plays various instruments in Venice’s concert and marching bands. Bernov is in the Venice Choir and Venice Acapella, and recently starred in the VHS Playmakers’ production of the musical Amélie.

After their performance at Venice’s Winter Concert last year, Mouthfull played several songs at the Spring Concert on May 29, including the bittersweet original “Summer Nights.” Before they went up, another band called Enertia made their debut. 

“It’s great that we have concert band, classical, choir, acapella,” Mr. Sim, Venice’s music teacher, said while introducing Enertia. “But I want to hear some bands! I want to hear rock. I want to hear Black Sabbath. I want to hear Radiohead.” 

He got his wish when Enertia played their last song, Radiohead’s “Jigsaw Falling Into Place.” After that, Mouthfull went up. 

The lighting went from a flood of color to a simple spotlight, which barely kept Mouthfull’s black outfits from blending in with their backdrop.

Bernov called for another round of applause for Enertia and took his place at the microphone stand. There was a quiet pause. Then the band started playing, and their self-assurance lit up the auditorium. I left hoping to see them perform again. 

Another local band uses parts of modern life to their advantage. Sophomores Arjun Nayar and Lila Reitman, along with freshman Sivaram Nayar and Vistamar freshman Stellan Coyne, make up Nova. Since last year, they’ve performed around LA and established a fanbase.

Sivaram and Arjun Nayar, who are brothers, went to elementary school with Coyne and Reitman. According to Arjun, Reitman had the idea to start a band last June. 

“We were like, ‘Wait, we all play instruments. Why don’t we just do that together?’” he said. “So then we did, and then we kind of just never stopped.”

Nova has often collaborated with other bands. One of their shows this spring was a fundraiser for the legal nonprofit ImmDef with various teen musicians. Another happened at the popular all-ages venue Backyard Party, established as a way for young musicians to connect after the Eaton Fire. 

“A lot of our shows have happened through other bands DMing us to play,” said Reitman. To help with networking, she follows many other bands’ Instagram accounts. 

Although forming a band takes work, the members of Nova have had mostly pleasant experiences. 

“Our top two challenges? The heat in the garage, and leaving drinks in the garage,” Arjun said. “Yeah, we haven’t faced many challenges. I think because we’re all such good friends, it’s hard to actually get upset with each other.”

When asked about their music experience, Reitman and both Nayars cited a music school called School of Rock Venice. Coyne, the “guitarist, keyboardist, sometimes bassist, and sometimes vocalist,” is self-taught.

School of Rock Venice, part of the company School of Rock, is walking distance from Venice High School. Its programs have seemingly helped a resurgence of teenage bands in the area. 

Intrigued, I attended the Eames Chuchen Foundation and School of Rock Battle of the House Bands in late February. The event was held in a bowling alley; as some teens performed, others ate oily pretzels or tried for a strike.

Over the sound of classic rock, people sang the school’s praises. 

“Being friends with your bandmates and having that social aspect of being in a band is really great,” said Lincoln, a student drummer from the West LA School of Rock. The employees I spoke to all emphasized the communal aspect of each location. 

Networking is a vital part of forming a band, but social media and music programs aren’t the only ways to do this. Sophomore Owen Kleinhans joined the band Crosstep after finding their “DRUMMER NEEDED” flyer. 

Having formed at the start of this semester, Crosstep is one of Venice’s newest bands. Kleinhans’ bandmates, sophomore Raphael Einzig, juniors Adrian and Anderson Mack, and freshman Kai Quan, surf together as members of the Venice Surf Team. Fittingly, they debuted their band at a team fundraiser on April 30. 

Wearing Crosstep shirts, sunglasses, and sandals, the band became increasingly confident as their five-song set went on. The event was laid-back, with surfers milling around, palm trees swaying, etc. Crosstep’s music was mostly funky, with an undercurrent of intensity.

Crosstep plans to play more shows, including a fundraiser for cancer research. 

“That’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a while,” Einzig said. “It’s never really been about personal profit. It’s been about having fun, and using our gifts.”

After Crosstep, well-established Venice band The Slurkeys took the stage. I missed the performance, but saw them play about two weeks later at the third annual Westchester Family YMCA Battle of the Bands. Even after nine other bands had played, their music was like an electric shock. 

Freshman Caleb Wong and juniors Filip Stevens and Micah Wong—a.k.a. The Slurkeys—are a post-punk group and part of the Venice Surf Team. Despite changes in lineup, their band had won the Westchester Y’s Battle of the Bands last year. They didn’t win this time, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if they did.

Junior Lumi Cushing is the president of the Westchester Y’s Teen Leadership Council, which organizes events like the Battle of the Bands. She uses flyers and Instagram to reach potential competitors. 

“Everyone was brought together by their love of music and their incredible talents,” Cushing said of this year’s competition. She said that Venice students are deeply involved with the event, whether through the Teen Leadership Council or by performing. 

Even with so many new bands appearing, an attempt to revive the Battle of the Bands at Venice didn’t reach fruition this year. Still, many of the people I spoke to were tentatively hopeful that such an event could happen. The teenage music scene has changed over the years, but it hasn’t become unrecognizable. 

 Over the years, this scene was built and rebuilt by teenagers with new issues, new ways to communicate, and new artists to draw inspiration from. Networks ranging from music education programs to surf teams shape the way they perform now. 

Publications like Lumea Magazine and the upcoming documentary Backyards chronicle LA’s youth culture. Some teen bands, like Kim Theory and the Linda Lindas, have even found fame and gone on tour. (Both bands have played with each other, and of course, Bikini Kill.) 

On an individual level, even a completely unmusical person (i.e. myself) can appreciate a good band. I saw many shows over the course of this semester, but my mind kept returning to Nova’s house show in Mar Vista last March. 

Seeing my classmates in someone else’s backyard was disconcerting at first. Once Nova started playing, everyone seemed unsure of what to do with themselves. That changed the moment the band started playing The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry.”

I’d seen the same transformation at Homecoming—classmates casting off their self-consciousness as soon as they heard a familiar song. For the hour after that, everyone became one group, jumping up and down and screaming in excitement. 

Nova matched their exhilaration, playing covers and original songs with aplomb. Someone listening from another backyard would have heard guitar solos, people cheering them on, and the ambient hum endemic to house shows, muffled through a tall hedge. 

Eventually, it was dark out and the crowd clamored for an encore. That evening, and countless others, made one thing abundantly clear: if the local high school music scene is really having a resurgence, it’s starting on a good note.