Gym Class Heroes play gym

By Richard Nieva

I'm not yet sure who the commencement speaker at this year's graduation ceremony will be, but now I get the feeling Gym Class Heroes wouldn't be a bad option.

"To all the seniors, congratulations," said Gym Class frontman Travis "Schleprok" McCoy. "You can do anything you want. But do it on your own time. No one else's," he said, as a lead into their aptly-titled song, "On My Own Time (Write On!)."

We've probably all heard this before, but maybe this advice is taken a bit more enthusiastically when yelled into a screaming crowd a few moments after McCoy sang a song with panties on his head.

But we'll get to that later.

Thus was the scene Tuesday night when the alternative hip-hop band Gym Class Heroes graced the Leavey Center stage at the Activities Programming Board-sponsored event.

The band cycled through their catalogue of songs, including breakout hits "Cupid's Chokehold" and "Clothes Off!"

Every time the band performed one of its chart toppers, a member from the band's entourage waved a flag with their logo on it, as if it were a signal to some of the casual fans in attendance: Here's one you can sing all the words to.

The band opened "Cupid's Chokehold" with McCoy pounding on his microphone in three-beat intervals for a reverberating effect, with the band eventually joining in. The oddly familiar beat became apparent after the frontman began singing the opening bars to Kanye West's "Love Lockdown."

He also took some time during the song's breakdown for political celebration. "You better scream like we got a brand new president!" The crowd readily complied.

Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump appeared via background track for his choruses on both "Cupid's Chokehold" and "Clothes Off!"

McCoy introduced the latter by making a request in true rock star fashion. "Feel free to throw any undergarments on stage," he said, which triggered an onslaught of unmentionables being flung toward him.

Bassist Eric Roberts played the song with a bra hanging from the tuning keys of his bass.

(And this is where the aforementioned panties came into the picture.)

But aside from the usual stage antics, McCoy offered some other pearls of wisdom, commenting on the shortness of life. "Take advantage of each other's company," he said. "Why waste your time being assholes to one another?"

He challenged every audience member to take the time to say hello to a person they know should they see them on the way to class. "You might make a new friend," he said. "You might stop someone from doing something stupid to themselves."

McCoy then told everyone to hug the person next to them.

For a moment, it felt like I was back at a high school church service, where students would hold up Mass for minutes trying to hug all their friends.

"Don't act like you're too cool to do it," he said.

Among their hits, the band also played segments of songs from their early "Paper Cut Chronicles" EP. And even further blurring their genre-bending reputation, they performed the song "My Own Summer" by Sacramento natives Deftones.

Roberts spoke about the band's genre when I caught up with him, guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo and a few of their entourage backstage.

"That's usually something we leave up to the listener," Roberts said. "I think the music industry likes to categorize, because that's how they make money. But we really don't fall into any place."

Lumumba-Kasongo agreed. "We're like a record label's dream come true and nightmare at the same time," he said.

Roberts and Lumumba-Kasongo then reflected on live performance and the joys of touring.

"All or nothing, that's my personal philosophy, right? Balls to the wall, baby," said Roberts, when I asked him about his approach to playing live.

Lumumba-Kasongo continued. "I don't have a philosophy, but if I had one, I'd probably take that one," he laughed.

Amidst the jokes, Roberts got sentimental -- though very briefly. "As much as we all smell bad right now, I love being on a 12-person bus with 13 people," he said. "I think that's the sweetest thing right now."

We walked down the narrow hallways of the Leavey Center interior as the interview ended. We passed a display dedicated to Steve Nash, with memorabilia from his Bronco days and early NBA years.

The band awed at the shrine, with one friend pressing his head against the glass.

The evening's bill also featured another set of Broncos hoping to make it big.

Recent graduate Adam Mariucci and Ryan Rosendin supported Gym Class Heroes with their alternative rock outfit, The Relay Company.

"This is kind of my last hoorah, my grand finale. I finished in December and I'm walking in June," said Mariucci.

Maybe by then, we'll see if this whole Gym-Class-Heroes-as-commencement-speaker theory has legs. We'll see.

Contact Richard Nieva at (408) 551-1918 or rnieva@scu.edu.