33 PERCENT ROCKSTAR

A music fan pursues stardom in a memoir
that plumbs the depths of playing bars and clubs in search of fame.

Sterling (Teenage Degenerate,
2016) recounts his misadventures while struggling to attain rock ‘n’ roll
stardom. The author, by his own admission, wasn’t a naturally gifted musician;
he struggled to learn how to play bass, but his persistence and devotion
allowed him to eventually play a host of seedy venues in and around Denver with
his buddy, Jake, and his band mates, Seth and Cody. But then, on New Year’s Eve
2000 “just like that, after three
and a half years, hundreds of shows, countless hours of practice, one EP, and
one full-length CD, the band was over.” The breakup of this first band echoes
throughout the book. Over the next years, Sterling played with three other
bands that toured out of Colorado, and the book details a blur of concerts and van
trips, all soaked in beer, as life on the road brought the young musicians only
privation and sleeplessness. Sterling has a natural, easygoing prose style that
suits his tale of the difficulties of making it in the music world. However, the
narrative often dwells excessively on the mind-numbing details of band life, so
that the many gigs and road trips begin to blur together. Sterling offers his
most engaging work when talking about his relationship with a woman named Ana, or
when analyzing his own failures, which he reveals with disarming frankness.
Indeed, this honesty is more engaging than the beer binges and gigging that
make up most of the narrative; also, after a while, the author’s penchant for
the F-word gets a bit annoying. One message, though, emerges from these
recollections—that the author’s love of music never wavered.

An earnest elegy to the band life.