A crowd of enthusiastic students crammed into cottage 629 last Friday to see the Groundhog Day debut of Bizarro Will, Pomona’s newest rock ‘n’ roll band. The band, consisting of four Pomona sophomores, had the crowd in the palm of their hands from the very beginning of the night, playing sports arena favorite "Rock ‘n’ Roll," by Gary Glitter. Hands were clapping, feet were stomping, and long after the Listerine-shaped bottles of Lucky’s grocery brand gin and vodka were emptied, the crowd stayed on to hear a second set of classic-style rock originals from Bizarro Will.

The party, which also doubled as a celebration of Bizarro Will drummer Charley Ittner’s ’03 20th birthday, fills a void in a musical culture at Pomona which is long on turntable wizards and deplorably short on guitar-based rock ‘n’ rollers. With a sound reminiscent of Phish and the Doors, but remarkably versatile and fresh, Bizarro Will has distinguished itself on the Pomona music scene by its ability to do what desperately needs doing, compelling Pomona students to get off of their asses and dance.

The band was unwilling to divulge the origin of their name, but hinted that it derived from a real person somewhere on the campus. The band explicitly denied that Will Beach ’03 was the Will in question.

The Groundhog Day show was cut short when an intoxicated student pulled a fire alarm, but the band has so far made one other appearance, at Walker Coffeehouse. A slightly more sedate audience of about 30 students, sipping coffee and scarfing down "orgasmic" brownies whipped up by a feather boa clad Coffeehouse staff, stayed on for a set of all-original music by the band.

The audience included local rock god Matt Taylor, who moonlights as a school administrator in between gigs, and other student musicians coming to pay homage to their newest compatriots. Ping pong and conversation competed with the band for attention, but the majority of the crowd was attentive more or less from beginning to end.

Despite the success of their cover on Friday, the band rarely plays covers and prides itself on original tunes. "Cover bands are pretty lame," said guitarist Sam Gaines ’03. The Gary Glitter cover actually happened spontaneously, with Ittner starting the drum line on a whim and the other band members inventing their parts on the spot.

Stadium rock chestnuts were not necessary for the band to finally get students up and dancing towards the end of the Coffehouse gig, as five girls joined Claremont’s all-college interpretive rock ‘n’ roll dance champion, Wyatt Wells ’03, in getting down to a quirky Latin-inflected jam.

The audience had a great time at the Coffeehouse gig but Gaines insists that the Groundhog Day show was their best performance yet. "Friday night we were having a blast, we fed off of the crowd," he said.

Although Bizarro Will has been on the scene for less than a week, their triumphant entrance into the Pomona music scene reflects a month of practice before winter break and two weeks of practice between break and the Groundhog Day gig. Led by Gaines and Chad Naso ‘03, the band collaborates on the intensive song-writing. Naso doubles as Bizarro Will’s keyboardist and vocalist for most of their songs.

As for their future plans, Bizarro Will is thinking big. "We’re rock stars. We’re ready to sell out to the corporate interest," said bassist Chazz Preston ’03.

"We’re playing Madison Square Garden pretty soon," said Ittner, "we’re going to open for Radiohead, and then probably next year they will be opening for us."

"Seriously though," said Naso, "we’re talking to the Motley, we’re talking to CCLA about doing Grooveline." Although their next venue is not yet certain, Bizarro Will will definitely be showing up again on campus sometime soon.