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Arts & Entertainment

Guitar Heroes at Age 10

A rock band comprised of fourth-graders wows crowds in Berkeley Heights.

They may not be a household name yet, but The Flies are working to change that.

"We want to be famous!" said 10-year old Samuel Lee, of Berkeley Heights, a guitarist for the popular youth rock band, comprised entirely of fourth-graders.

To a certain degree Lee and his bandmates may have already achieved that goal. The group has a Facebook page and videos on YouTube, and Lee said they plan to visit a recording studio soon.

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On Saturday, the Flies built some buzz with a seven-song set at Duckfest11, the live band portion of Saturday's Rubber Ducky Festival in Berkeley Heights. Billed as fourth graders who perform like tenth graders, the band played five original songs and two covers, one of which was, of course, "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin.

The Flies feature Lee on lead guitar, Johnny “Bones” Pullara on drums, Sean Pelcher on vocals, Spencer Park on rhythm guitar and Andrew Vanacore on vocals and violin. All are classmates, attending Mountain Park school, except for Pelcher who attends a private school.

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The young band already has three years of public performances under its belt, including Duckfest and the Mount Carmel Festival. Its members write their own music, as any serious musicians would. Their set list on Saturday included the original songs "Road to Love," "Tick Tock," "Criminal Market," "Five Thousand Bucks" and "Come To Think."

"John usually gives me ideas," Lee said. "I make the music and we all figure the rest out. "Road to Love was different. I had a rhythm and Sean developed some words for something."

According to Lee's father, Howard, "They started the band in part as a way of having them just enjoy music rather than say that have music for homework. Now it's like a like a giant play date and they enjoy it."

The band's name was inspired by one of rock's all-time greats. "I like the Beatles, so I thought of The Flies," Lee said. 

At Saturday's concert, the band members wore black t-shirts emblazoned with the image of a white fly. If not for their age, it would looks as if they'd already arrived.

"We've already had comments when we asked them to help with the equipment," said Johnny's mom, Danielle Pullara. "They told us that rock stars don't carry their own equipment."

Duckfest11 also included the Whitehouse-based band “Easily Confused,” which performed original rock, indie, and alternative music, plus covers of the Red Hot Chili Peppers; and the award-winning pop-punk band, Negative IQ. 

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