Clearwater band rides crest of TV fame with 21-show tour

Tres Bien! appeared for weeks on the Fox reality show The Next Great American Band.

By TERRI BRYCE REEVES, Times Correspondent
Published January 18, 2008

Clearwater band Tres Bien! performs Saturday at the Neptune Lounge in Tarpon Springs after its return from Hollywood. From left, Michael Crowe (lead guitar), Mikey Bostinto (vocals, guitar, keyboard), Ryan Metcalf (drums, vocals) and Cody Wilson (bass guitar, vocals).
	[Douglas R. Clifford | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Douglas R. Clifford | Times] Mikey Bostinto, left, hustles CDs Saturday with his friend Roxanne Evensen of Los Angeles before the band's performance in Tarpon Springs. [Douglas R. Clifford | Times] Tres Bien! guitarist Michael Crowe, left, and others move band equipment in an alley at the Neptune Lounge before the group's performance Saturday night.

CLEARWATER - City Manager Bill Horne and Vice Mayor John Doran were lunching at Pickles Plus this week when they met a couple of young mop tops from local spunk-rock band Tres Bien!

With newfound confidence, lead singer Mikey Bostinto told them, "We're putting Clearwater on the map!"

That's not just rock 'n' roll swagger.

Tres Bien!, which means "very good" in French, recently gave this city a prime-time boost on the Fox Network during its seven-week stint on The Next Great American Band, a music competition by the producers of American Idol.

Five years ago, 21-year-olds Bostinto, Cody Wilson and Michael Crowe, and 22-year-old Ryan Metcalf met at Clearwater High School and bonded over their common love of the Beatles, the Yardbirds, the Kinks and the Who.

They formed a garage band. Or, more accurately, a bedroom band: All four wrote, practiced, produced and recorded their own music in Bostinto's small bedroom.

"Our aim was never to become famous," Wilson said. "We just wanted to be able to make a living playing music."

But appearing on The Next Great American Band gave the foursome a huge boost.

Earlier this week, the bandmates were sitting in a booth at Pickles Plus, still pumped from their whirlwind trip to Hollywood.

They recalled their first night on television: the vast stage that nearly swallowed them, the lights, the cameras, the fog machines and the roaring crowd.

Then there were the judges who scrutinized their every move and musical note: Johnny Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls, percussionist Sheila E. and Australian TV personality Ian "Dicko" Dickson.

Not to mention the TV viewers - millions of them - waiting to phone in their favorites.

It was quite a leap for a band used to playing in what they describe as "dive joints."

"It was surreal," Bostinto said. "I thought, 'How did this happen? Why are we here? Who am I? And what are the words to the song?' "

The fans, who apparently liked the band's amalgam of garage rock, power pop and soul, kept Tres Bien! on for seven shows. They made the final six, but didn't get farther than that.

The band returned for the finale in December. The winners were the Clark Brothers, a band from Nashville, Tenn.

Thursday, they began a 25-day, 21-show tour throughout Florida and up the East Coast as far as Boston.

"It's amazing what six weeks on TV will get you," Wilson said. "You can't buy that kind of exposure."

Fast facts

On the Web

To learn more about Tres Bien! visit www.myspace.com/tresbien.

[Last modified January 17, 2008, 20:24:17]