Thursday, October 4, 2007

The Champions of All Time breaking up

By Katie Libecco

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Band will play last show this weekend

YOUNGSTOWN – Send flowers. After six years, it's over for The Champions of All Time.

"It's like graduating high school, except you don't hate half the people," guitarist Kevin Sturdevant said. "Actually, to be in a band for five or six years and all be on good terms is pretty damn good."

TCOAT will play their last show Oct. 6 at Cedar's with The Kellys.

"It's officially the end of our youths," the 27-year-old Sturdevant said.

Their last show will include a two-hour, "career-spanning" set with old and new music, plus some songs that fans haven't heard yet.

Sturdevant explained the band is breaking up because they don't have time to play out anymore, let alone work on new albums.

The announcement on their Web site reads, "We've been dodging the questions of 'When's your next show?' for awhile so it's probably time we fill you in. Over the last few months, distance, master's degrees, work and marriage have made our situations very different from what they were when we started this band and we've come to the point we're at now. We're sorry to announce that we'll be putting TCOAT to rest."

"We don't want it to be sad," he said. "We have a really good attitude about the whole thing."

Still, the band is jokingly referring to the Oct. 6 show as a "funeral," "last rites," "calling hours" or "viewing."

TCOAT decided to play the show with The Kellys after a few other gigs in the past year-and-a-half. Sturdevant said they went with The Kellys because they are "super nice" and have "great fans" who stay to hear other bands on the bill.

But there won't be anymore costumed Halloween shows. Sturdevant said the band thought about going out with their traditional in-costume show around Halloween at Cedar's, but decided to make their last onstage appearance as a band, as TCOAT.

The celebration of lead singer Jason West's birthday, WestFest, will continue, even without the band's performance in March to celebrate it.

"WestFest started long before the band," Sturdevant said.

He said he's certain the band members will all continue musically in some capacity, but was unsure if they'd continue in bands or in solo projects.

"We'd all do another band in the same circumstance, but it's hard to find that circumstance," he said.

He said the band formed as a result of friends who wanted to have fun and make music. He also said there might be demos in the future, like their nine-song album. The album is available for download on their Web site.