Fatkid having a ball as his band rises through the rock 'n' roll ranks
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RAINEY HOWARTH
Staff Writer
Local guitarist Casey Potts' climb toward the top began at Fairborn's Absolute Music, where he bought his first guitar. He's now lead guitarist for band Fatkid Dodgeball, a group that played legendary New York punk rock venue CBGB's last New Year's show and was recently propelled even further into the limelight with a MySpace.com contest win and a special to air on MTV2 this summer.
The group won a chance to open for Fallout Boy at Blossom Music Center near Cleveland this weekend thanks to fan votes on the MySpace online community Web site. It will be the band's largest venue to date.
"I swerved into another lane when I found out we were opening up for Fallout Boy. We are so excited, so blessed. We've worked so hard for this and want to share it with the fans," Potts said. "We can't wait to rock 30,000 people at Blossom."
If that's not enough, a half-hour special on the group is set to air on the MTV2 show "On The Rise" next month.
After playing CBGB's, the band hit the road for a midwest/east coast tour, recorded an album and had a song featured on MTV's "Laguna Beach." They even have a new five-song CD coming out in a few weeks, available on MySpace.
What's all this activity and attention doing to the group? "I think it's affecting us in a positive way," Potts said. "...it's made us more mature in our song writing. We used to write about ex-girlfriends and drinking binges. Now we write about more serious material."
They've come a long way, and Potts said they're ready for the next step. "We've chased the dream farther than 99 percent of all bands, most bands that come out of small towns ... we've gotten an appetizer of the big time and we're ready to take a big bite of the big time."
As the band steps into the spotlight, Potts said he still feels at each event that he is representing his home town. And he can't resist giving a shout out to former Fairborn teachers, the greatness of the Chicken 'n Pizza pepperoni bonzo and local fans following the group's success.
"If I can come from 58 Erie Ave. or 115 Greene St. and make it to CBGB's or open up for Fallout Boy, then anything is possible."
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