Page 107 - ION Indie Magazine SeptOct 2024

“One of the best-sold shows I’ve coordinated since performing in Green Bay was actually
a Weezer tribute show my bandmate, Collin Catalano, and I came up with as a joke,”
DeVillers laughed. “We both thought it would be funny if there were a group of musicians
who put on a Weezer-centered show, with the same idea and professionality of Project
Pink’s Pink Floyd tribute shows, and in the same breath, we suggested to each other that
we would be the ones to coordinate and pull it off.”

Unsure if, what was eventually titled “WeezFest,” would be something the people of Green
Bay would resonate with, DeVillers and Catalano went ahead with planning the event
anyway, and to their bewilderment, outsold the venue’s capacity.

“We sold about 130 tickets for a 100-capacity limit room, and we just couldn't believe it,” he
grinned. “WeezFest is definitely one of the proudest moments of my career so far. The
success of that silly evening made us realize that people attending shows want to have just
as much fun in the audience, as we want to have on stage, which motivated us to keep
trying to do ridiculous, stupid stuff. For each new event and show we plan, we joke 'Surely,
this is going to be the one nobody shows up to,' but people keep showing up.”

Once DeVillers and Catalano realized how successful this approach to their social media
and band promotion was amongst the Green Bay music crowd, putting on serious shows
under a real band became a new priority of theirs. DeVillers and Catalano’s friends and
lead members of Appleton, Wisconsin-based band, Before Dawn, Rob and Kate Houle,
were equally impressed by the success of WeezFest and suggested another one-off music
festival centered around DeVillers’ favorite holiday, Halloween.

Before Dawn was interested in playing as the main act for what would later be titled
“SlashBash,” and they were looking to DeVillers to organize it. In exchange, all DeVillers
wanted was to debut his new band, Modern Haunting, as the opening act.

“I called Colin [Catalano - guitar] and Thomas [Killian - drums] from WeezFest, and Jacob,
who I played with for a couple of other projects, and I told them 'Hey, I’m planning this event.
There might be no people at it, but it's Halloween-themed in an old, haunted theater and
it'll be fun!',” DeVillers laughed. “They were totally into the concept. We had a few
rehearsals, and since SlashBash 2022, Modern Haunting has been rocking the Green Bay,
Wisconsin, area.”

SlashBash was the perfect scenario for DeVillers to debut not only this band name he had
been saving for a few years, looking for the perfect opportunity to begin his own musical
project in Green Bay but also a song he had written and completed.