The Michael Craig Band and Austin Eldridge, along with 10 students from St. Monica’s School, two teachers and a dozen family members recently went to the Blastbeat World Finals in Dublin, where five bands and five student-run music multimedia companies from four different countries competed for grand prizes.
More than 1,000 people attended the six-hour concert at the Tripod in Dublin, which featured the five competing bands and seven guest bands from Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The Michael Craig Band includes three Malibuites-Mike Goldman (junior at Malibu High School), Nick Sandler (freshman at Berklee School of Music) and Drew Beck (a 19-year-old living in Boston)-and lead singer/songwriter Matt Schwartz from Lake Arrowhead. The band came in a strong second place, receiving attention from the music industry VIPs in attendance and especially Blastspace Records.
“Dublin went crazy for these guys,” said Tori Eldridge, Blastbeat US regional manager for the West Coast. “Matt Schwartz captivated everyone with his distinctive vocal stylings and great melodies on both keyboard and guitar. Mike Goldman wowed the audience with his amazing slap bass solo. Drew Beck had the Dublin kids rockin’ on guitar and Nick Sandler laid down a thick groove on drums and broke the hearts of hundreds of Dublin girls. Great things are in store for these guys in the very near future, so pay attention.”
Austin Eldridge, a sophomore at Malibu High, was awarded the Spirit of Social Entrepreneurship Award after impressing the founder of Blastbeat, Robert Stephenson. Eldridge completed the last month and a half of the program, including the making of a video and producing the Battle of the Bands concert. He also gave a 15-minute formal presentation to the judges at the Regional Finals by himself after the other 59 members of his company dropped out. The Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award has been created in his honor and will be awarded to one Blastbeat participant in the world every year at the World Finals.