Luc NeJame got his first taste of the Gainesville rock scene at “Overload,” a punk show curated by a few UF seniors determined to keep the music community alive.
As NeJame watched bands like Gnomes of Neptune and Breaking Monarch perform, he knew he had found something special.
“People say rock is dead, but it seems to be anything but in Gainesville,” he said.
The house show was the first event for RockGNV, an organization founded this semester with the goal of supporting musicians and giving everyone a chance to involve themselves in the rock community.
“It's the best of both worlds for the artists and consumers of art,” said NeJame, an 18-year-old UF behavioral and cognitive neuroscience freshman.
As a musician himself, NeJame would like to become established within the Gainesville scene soon, much like Ethan Braelow did when he came to UF.
Braelow, RockGNV’s president and Breaking Monarch’s guitarist, said he understands how daunting it can be to start a band when you’re new to town.
The 21-year-old UF media production and management technology senior added it has become more difficult to get established in the scene due to the dwindling number of venues. Places like the High Dive have closed their doors, and house venues like The Treehouse seldom host shows nowadays.
Though disappointed the rock scene isn’t as active as it once was, Braelow hopes RockGNV will inspire local creatives to pursue their craft, whether it be music, photography, design or any other contribution to the community.
“It's really important with this organization that we can show, ‘Hey, you can do that,” he said. “Don't kill your creative passions just because you don't see it happening.”
Garrett Goodkin, RockGNV’s vice president and Monday Night Drinking Club’s bassist, was thrown into the music scene his freshman year. He was blown away by the amount of self-expression and community he found and was starstruck seeing bands like Driptones and The Housing Crisis perform live.
But as Goodkin, a 22-year-old UF marketing senior, added, it's not all about the bands. It's about the community, too.
While other campus organizations work to promote and market specific local musicians, Goodkin said, RockGNV is a way to build an audience for those musicians.
“They get them places, but without the community, then what is there to show for it?” he said. “RockGNV works the other side of that, where we're able to build that community that's going to show up to these events and see these people.”
Goodkin said he has found that many people want to have a hand in the scene. RockGNV provides them a place to do so.
RockGNV has had two general body meetings but hopes to transition to more interactive and community-building events, from jam sessions to patchwork workshops. Thursday, the club met to spray paint the “immortal” Norman tunnel, as Goodkin described it. Wednesday, the club will collaborate with Swamp Records to host a build-a-band speed dating event.
Treasurer Walker Pawlik also wants the club to start a zine.
It was Pawlik who first proposed starting a club after he played a show with his band, Gnomes of Neptune, in Tampa. The 21-year-old UF English senior was encouraged by the president of RockUSF, housed at the University of South Florida, to start his own organization in Gainesville.
Pawlik wants RockGNV to be an organization that provides guidance for artists, independent of any particular musician, and hopes the club will outlive any one band.
He emphasized how meaningful it is to have a support system as a musician, even if all that looks like is turning to someone and asking to borrow equipment before a gig.
“Playing in a band in the scene here, you really realize how close the community is and how important it is for it to be close,” he said. “The community doesn't exist without each other to hold each other up.”
Contact Isabel Kraby at ikraby@alligator.org. Follow her on X @isabelgkraby.
Isabel is a general assignment reporter for The Avenue and is starting her first semester with The Alligator. She is a junior journalism student and transferred to UF from Daytona State College after her freshman year. When she's not writing for Ave, she loves going to concerts, crocheting and designing spreads for Rowdy Magazine.
