Area band competes on 'Prairie Home Companion'

Karl Stoll and his band "Danger Zone" recently took a trip to New Jersey and had a ball.

"It was the coolest trip ever," Stoll said of the band's first road trip outside of Northern Virginia.

The band, which has been together for six years, went to the Garden State to appear on "A Prairie Home Companion," a light-hearted, National Public Radio variety show that airs every Saturday night and repeats Sunday.

Though they didn't win the show's annual "Battle of the Bands" contest and the coveted Silver Water Tower trophy that comes with the win, they wouldn't trade the weekend experience where radio show host Garrison Keillor took them on a Friday night bus tour of Manhattan that included stops at Grand Central Station, Central Park and dinner in Brooklyn.

"He was like our tour guide. He was telling stories the whole time," Stoll said of Keillor. "He was a very gracious host."

The show, that airs nationally on many NPR stations and locally on WAMU-FM, draws millions of listeners each week, said Stoll, the band's lead guitar player.

Keillor's staff recommended that the five competing bands play to the people in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark rather than worry about the radio audience.

"We were told to 'Concentrate on the 3,000 in front of you and forget about the 5 million listening,'" said Stoll, a freelance video producer who lives in Manassas.

John Dickson, the band's harmonica player, said that was "really good advice," even though the four band members individually have been playing in front of people since the 1970s and 80s.

"We've been doing this for a long time and stage fright went away 20 years ago," Dickson said. "But to add 5 million people is a little intimidating."

Even 3,000 people is more than the rock and blues band normally draws when it plays local venues such as Molly's Irish Pub in Warrenton, Lion & Bull in Haymarket, Union Jack's in Bathesda and Dogwood Tavern in Falls Church.

Keillor had the bands play on the sides of the stage while he left the center open for dancing.

The staging helped, said the band's drummer, Brian Alpert.

"When the lights were on, you didn't see past just the few people in front of you," said Alpert of Reston.

Dickson said the dancing helped, too.

"It was like a packed crazy bar," said Dickson, who is an environmental biologist living in Fairfax County.

"It kind of felt like we were playing at Molly's or the Lion and Bull, some of the places we were playing around here," Stoll said.

Bass player Jamie MacDonald said Keillor's crew took care of every thing over the weekend.

"The crew, the stage manager, the sound man -- everybody was just topnotch, fantastic, enthusiastic. Across the board, not a bad experience with any of his folks at all," said MacDonald, a Reston telecommunications engineer. "It felt very comfortable and relaxed."

"It was the coolest weekend ever," said Stoll, whose band was chosen from more than 700 bands that auditioned to be on the show by uploading "danceable" songs to the program's website.

Stoll uploaded his original song "There's Something About You" and the Danger Zone was in the running.

"Much to my surprise they called in early April and we put it all together," Stoll said.

The winner of the contest, "April Smith and the Great Picture Show" out of Brooklyn, won by ballot from audience members in the arts center and online electronic voting by radio listeners.

Stoll said he and the band didn't mind not winning the contest.

"It was so much fun to be there, we really didn't care about the voting anymore," Stoll said.

To hear the bands, visit prairiehome.publicradio.org. Find "archive" and look for the April 17 show.

For pictures find "No Mercy in Jersey."

Senior Reporter Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.