Guitarist Ready to Rock New York
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Fairborn Daily Herald
RAINEY HOWARTH
Staff Writer
http://www.fairborndailyherald.com
FAIRBORN – In 1988, 15-year-old Casey Potts walked into Absolute Music and bought his first guitar with money he saved from a paper route. Seventeen years later, he's about to embark on a tour of the Midwest and East Coast as the lead guitarist of fatkid dodgeball, a band that's barreling rapidly toward the big time.
Potts, a Fairborn High School grad, said he was walking downtown when he saw a red Kramer guitar just like Eddie Van Halen's staring at him from the window of the Fairborn music store. He decided he had to have it and, after the purchase, kept coming back to the store for lessons with Paul Schauer, and eventually started giving lessons himself.
Although he joked that he wanted the guitar because he "sucked at sports and needed a girlfriend," it's not hard to see that he's really in it for the music. Listing all the bands on Potts' playlist would take its own article, but a small sample might include Guns 'N Roses, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Ramones.
Now living outside Columbus, Potts will always remember Fairborn as the start of his musical journey.
"Fairborn means Foy's Halloween Store, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Chicken 'N Pizza, and Cadillac Jack's," he said, "and this is where I learned all about music. This is where I first heard Led Zeppelin, my favorite band of all time."
Potts played in two other bands before finding the right fit with FKDB in 2001. He and band members Brian Frank, Brian Turnbull and Jon Lawrence formed a group that, for Potts, is "the best band I'll ever be in, and the first good band." They bring their fans music to have fun by. "It's upbeat, original rock 'n roll, with catchy melodies and choruses," described Potts.
It's not always easy for the four of them to agree on a melody or set of lyrics. "We play like brothers and we fight like brothers," he admitted, but the work and the close relationships pay off. "By the end of the day, the moment you hear the song play, people responding to something you created, that's the best part."
After the disagreements are worked out and the songs have taken shape, the band takes the stage for live performances that Potts loves. "I've always wanted to be in a band where you are blown away by the live performances. Our live performances are better than any mp3. We're very energetic on stage."
And the music means as much to Potts as it does to his fans. "No matter where you are or what technology you have ... there's this element that can capture in your mind pictures of where you were the first time you heard a song. That release is something that is important to me, that escapism."
Fatkid dodgeball's songs are broadcast on Columbus radio and available online at www.fatkiddodgeball.com and www.myspace.com/fkdb. At 10 p.m. on Dec. 30, they will perform at Elbo's, 200 S. Jefferson St., Dayton, and the next night they will be in New York for the famous club CBGB Gallery and Lounge's "Last New Year's Eve EVER" bash. The New York City icon will close its doors forever next year, and Potts said playing there, where many of his favorite bands played, is "a dream come true." That performance will kick off a winter tour, giving Potts a start on another dream – to play in every state in America.
But he promises not to forget his roots. "I grew up in Fairborn. Fairborn is my home. I've moved around, but Fairborn will always be home. One day I'd love to play at the Nutter Center and say 'Fairborn' – they like to say it's in Dayton, but it's not – Fairborn, Ohio, 'get ready to rock!'"
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