Date: Fri 11-Sep-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

techno-Bergen-Garage-Heeled

Full Text:

A Party That Will Be Fueled By Plutonia

(with cuts)

BY SHANNON HICKS

If Spring-Heeled Jack (USA) can do it, why not Sam Bergen?

Spring-Heeled Jack is a ska/rock/punk/blues/swing band who is on the road

right now promoting its new album, called Songs From Suburbia . The group has

its videos being played on MTV, and its songs are being heard on radio

stations across the country.

Have I mentioned one of the band's members is Ron Ragona, a Newtown resident,

and the band has played at The Garage, better known as the Newtown Teen

Center?

Sam Bergen, a junior at Newtown High School, may get his start playing at the

same venue. Sam, who performs under the name Plutonia, is booked to play The

Garage next Friday night.

The show will begin around sundown, and continue right to midnight. Admission

is $5 per person.

Sam is a techno/electronica musician. Having just started playing with music

about six months ago, the 16-year old says he finds the music actually very

simple to piece together. Working from a Rebirth program on disc, Sam took

over an office computer during a recent interview and turned an editor's

office into a sound booth within minutes.

"I really started this just for fun," he said. "To me, it's very simple. I

don't believe I've taken this as far as I have, because it's actually very

easy.

"I don't know if I ever could, but I would love to make a living out of doing

this," he added. He isn't the only one. Currently, there are more musicians in

the techno vein of music than any other style, with more jumping onto the

bandwagon every day. Sam will be making his performance debut with the

September 18 performance at The Garage.

"But realistically I know there's too much better competition," he said.

Nevertheless, he is obviously willing to give it a go. His goal, he says, is

to make music that sounds good to him, and to those who come out to his show.

"I make whatever I can to sound good to other people."

Next Friday, The Garage will be turned into a pseudo rave site for one night.

Sam will be bringing in his own computer system to produce the music. Whether

he uses his own amp system or plugs into what is available at the Garage was

up in the air last week. Obviously the show will sound better if he goes with

all of his own equipment, but there was a question of compatibility.

In addition to the computer instrument to make the music for the night, the

show is going to be completed with lasers, sirens, strobes and black lights.

Having moved to Newtown from Colorado with his family just over a year ago,

Sam is familiar with the set-up of all-night parties called raves, where DJs

would combine music and beats all night at last-minute locations. In Colorado,

Sam said, he was able to get out to raves every weekend, which was when he

started getting into techno music.

In Connecticut, however, he hasn't been as lucky getting out to raves. While

the parties exist in Norwalk, Hartford and even New Haven, it isn't very easy

for Sam to get to them as regularly as he did while he was living in Boulder,

Colo., where parties were within walking distance of his home. "I've never

really taken much of an interest in the scene here," he said. "It's too much

of a hassle to get to any."

Like a lot of the music created for techno, Friday night's performance will be

something of an experiment. Because he is so new to the music-creating scene,

Sam isn't keeping a lot of his work permanently. He prefers to play with the

programs he has at his reach, taping the results only occasionally. He doesn't

name any of his songs, either.

Posters have been put up around the high school, and around town, announcing

next weekend's show. Sam says he is already "hearing a lot of feedback," and

is hoping to draw a large crowd to the show next week.

It might be a good idea to check out the show. If one band with a Newtown

musician can get its start after playing The Garage, who's to say Sam Bergen

-- a/k/a Plutonia -- won't be the next musician to follow that path?