The garage band “House of a Stranger” is a group made up of students from Ridgeline. It consists of Sam Altom on lead guitar and vocals, Jake Bowen on bass, Mackay Roundy on drums, Ryder Bishop on backup guitar, and Owen Tait on backup guitar and backup vocals. Recently, the band played at Ridgeline’s Homecoming dance.

At 9:30 p.m., the band began playing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, a very upbeat and grungy song from 1991. “They started playing, and everyone just ran over and started moshing. It was super hype,” said Ashton Price, a senior who was at the dance. Jake Bowen, the bassist of the group, said, “I could feel the energy coming from the crowd in front of us, and it was freaking crazy.” After Teen Spirit, the band went on to play “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World and “Stacey’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne. When Stacey’s Mom was over, the crowd began chanting “One more song!” The band took a minute to talk it over, and then they started playing “Song 2” by Blur.

In an interview with the band afterward, Jake said that they were scrambling to figure out a third song to play. “We had Smells Like Teen Spirit and Stacey’s Mom, but we didn’t know what to play between those two. Coincidentally, we decided on The Middle.” The band nodded in agreement. It was Owen’s first time performing, and when asked about it he said that he was a little nervous but mostly really excited to show what he could do with a guitar. Ryder, who wasn’t able to perform because of a broken collarbone, said that he saw the bands Instagram post and that he was “excited for the rest of the guys.”