Residents of Lorton, prepare to rock. The first Terminal Fest is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 19, at Pohick Church, also known as the Warehouse.
Featuring 13 bands from across Fairfax County, Terminal Fest is the brainchild of Derek Stapleton, a spokesman for music promoter Capital Underground, which is sponsoring the concert.
"We wanted to do something for the local bands that usually play small shows before they all go back to college," said Stapleton. "Usually, these are bands that are used to playing small gigs without getting paid for them. We thought this would be fun."
Most of the bands on the line up, including Lorton's Kill Ketura and Burke's Hello, Hospital, have been playing across Fairfax County for months, if not years.
"We got a call from Derek and immediately we agreed to play," said Adam John, singer and guitarist from Hello, Hospital. "It's a good idea to end the summer like this."
Hello, Hospital was a name before it was a band, John said.
Thomas and Andrew Mitchell, twin brothers who play bass and drums respectively, came up with the name for the band when they were children, John said.
"They saw a stupid T-shirt that said that on it when they were in elementary school and thought it was a good band name," he said. "I just couldn't come up with anything better."
Hello, Hospital's influences range from the Mitchell brother's love of the Goo Goo Dolls to John's appreciation for "pretty much everything. I know our drummer likes to listen to different stuff than the rest of us, so it just depends on our mood," he said.
At the end of an already busy summer — John is in a French immersion program at the University of Virginia — the band has been spending every spare moment on weekends practicing for the last few shows before the rest of its members head off to college in the fall. Another guitarist, John Yi, has already gone back, John said.
"It'll be great for people to come to the show, there's a lot of great bands playing," he said. He's especially looking forward to hearing Madison Apart and Kill Ketura.
"We're really happy to be playing in this show," John said.
With a line-up including Bertram Windsor on drums and vocals and brothers Daniel and Derek Stapleton on vocals and guitar, Kill Ketura has become a well-known band in their native Lorton and Fairfax over the past few years.
Daniel Stapleton, in an email, said the original members of the band "met because we were all church-raised, home-schooled kids and our parents belonged to the same social circles. We hit it off immediately when we realized that none of us had any social skills whatsoever."
Their first 10-track album, "Privacy" was released in 2003 and the band played a series of shows to support it before taking a break in 2004.
Daniel Stapleton said the band calls its sound "alternatronic" because "it's a mixture of rock, electronica, and pop. We don't like to pigeon-hole ourselves or limit ourselves to a narrow sound or style, so we are constantly altering what we do ever-so-slightly, especially in live shows, without compromising what makes our music ours," he said.
Kill Ketura has been playing at the Warehouse in Lorton regularly since it's beginning, practicing at the church at the same time they're slated to play during Terminal Fest.
"We actually plan on showing up at our regular time and pretending nothing out of the ordinary is happening," Daniel Stapleton said. "Maybe [we'll be] eating some Wendy's on stage and telling stories about our days at work."
Daniel Stapleton said music lovers should attend Terminal Fest because of the variety of music that will be showcased.
"They're all doing it simply because they love rocking out and sharing their music with anyone who will listen," he said. "You couldn't ask for anything better as a music fan and we're very excited to be part of it."
One of the few bands not from Fairfax County, Madison Apart from Woodbridge will also be playing at Terminal Fest.
"Kill Ketura are good friends of ours, so when they mentioned this to us, we really wanted to sign up," said Zakk Farkas, one of Madison Apart's two guitarists.
The band is made up of Jeremy Morgan on lead vocals, Kyle Farley on guitar, Jeremy Rose on drums and Shawn Adams on bass, Farkas said.
"We're trying to spread our name around and get out there a little more," he said.
Recently signed to an independent label, Farkas said that Madison Apart has a full tour booked for 2007 and will be spending the fall in the studio, preparing a CD for release next spring.
Terminal Fest "is going to be a good show, there's a lot of great bands playing," he said.
Music fans should come to the show simply to make sure that local music keeps being made, Farkas said.
"Bands won't stay around much longer if people don't come out to support them," he said. "I think it's great that there's so many bands on the line-up."
The show is open to all ages, Derek Stapleton said, hopeful to attract a wide-ranging audience for the bands.
"The church is a family-friendly place, the bands can't play songs with a lot of swearing or anything like that," he said.