CNJ staff photo: Andy DeLisle: Jim Bailey, foreground, practices at the microphone with other Cause + Effect band members Taylor Borden, left, and Zach Gerzon during hearsal for the Clovis High School talent show at Rock Staubus Gym.
By Marlena Hartz : CNJ staff writer
The combined age of Jim Bailey, Taylor Borden and Zach Gerzon is 49. The group of Clovis High School students has been a band for roughly 130 days.
Being young and green, however, hasn’t stopped them from amassing loyal fans, booking shows and winning accolades.
At a recent show, some traditional elements were missing. Fans sipped on lattes and cappuccinos, furniture left little room for crowd surfing, head banging or dancing.
Yet, even in this Clovis coffee shop, the band channeled rock stars.
“This song,” bellowed Bailey to a crowd of 40-some fans, “Zach wrote for his girlfriend. Not that one,” he joked. “That one,” he said, pointing to a girl standing inches from the band.
Bailey, vocalist and bass guitarist, contorted his face and gripped the microphone as he sang of lost love. Gerzon, vocalist and guitarist, swayed. Borden, vocalist and drummer, was dressed in black and let his long hair hang loose.
They sounded good, too, according to fans who packed into the Clovis shop.
Last December, their band, Cause + Effect, won Battle of the Bands, a competition sponsored by Cannon Air Force Base. They tied in first place with Odessa Massacre.
Cause + Effect is influenced by the popular band Blink 182. But Bailey, 17, adds: “We definitely have our own sound.”
Immediate plans for the band include another Battle of the Bands competition April 14.
Their real goal is to make music their career.
“I think they might make it,” fan Lyndon Foreman, 17, said.
They’ve already graduated from practicing in a garage to a rented warehouse to a real studio, owned by Borden’s father, who is also a musician.
Their songs are also featured on a local radio station, KICA 98.3.
“We’re serious about this,” Bailey said.
At a glance
• What: Battle of Bands
• When: 7 p.m., April 14
• Where: The End Zone, Cannon Air Force Base.
