By Ethan Walshe
Staff Writer

On Saturday, September 25th, local band Break a Promise played its first big show at Rocko’s in Manchester, New Hampshire. The band was part of Lay It To Rest Fest. The event featured 13 other bands, most of them local high school students from around the area, but a few were touring, including Ender and Heal These Wounds.

Break a Promise is a popcore band based in Westford, Massachusetts. The band features senior Pat Hunt as screamer, sophomore Sal Daniele on rhythm guitar and clean vocals, junior Rob Gilman on lead guitar, sophomore Andy Gabrielson on bass and junior Nick DiNatale on drums. This is their third show after having played at a Forge Beach battle of the bands on September 11th and playing the Parish Center for the Arts rock show on the 24th.

The band shares a variety of musical interests and styles including from bands such as Of Mice and Men, For All Those Sleeping, Pierce the Veil and Underoath. While they have many more modern influences, guitarist Rob Gilman says that he tries to incorporate some classic rock influences like Guns N’ Roses into many of his solos.

Break a Promise took the stage as the first band of the second half of the show. They played through a 4 song set including originals “I Swear I’ll Let You Down, I Swear”, “I’ll Call It Wonderland”, and “This is AMRCA” as well as a cover of the popular song “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha.

The band showed lots of energy and seemed very excited to be playing their first big show. Drummer Nick DiNatale said, “The show was pretty solid, especially for our first non-local show.” Vocalist Pat Hunt also said “we got a great reaction from the crowd and we met a ton of amazing people from the other bands.”

Overall the show was a success. All members of the band felt that it overall went well, as Rob Gilman said “The show was solid, although we need more practices before the next ones.” The band’s next show is bound to be a big one. The band will be opening for Ice Nine Kills and The Venetia Fair at Rocko’s on October 23rd.