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Advance-based Human Zoo is still rocking after 20 years
According to its Facebook fan page, Human Zoo is "arguably one of the top five rock bands to ever come out of Advance." Band members Todd Mayberry, Scott Slinkard, Andy French, and Youn Gonzales play with a spirit of humor and lighthearted fun that began over 20 years ago.
Human Zoo was formed in 1993, when the original members were in college. They played original songs as well as covers. Slinkard recalls recording songs from the radio onto cassette tapes so that the band could learn them.
As one might expect, the band has quite a few humorous stories to tell about those days.
"We were playing a show and Scott forgot something and had to run home. Scott and I were living in a duplex on a hill in Cape. He parked the truck, ran in, and when he ran back out the truck was gone. He thought someone had stolen it, but the truck had rolled down the hill and run into someone's house; the police were standing there looking to see where the truck came from. Scott explained what happened and the police asked him to wait while they spoke to the homeowner. It turns out the homeowner was messed up on drugs, and the cops lured him out on the sidewalk and arrested him. Scott was able to come back to the show and we were still playing the same song that we were playing when he left. He was able to jump back in and finish the song," Mayberry recalls with a laugh.
At one point, the band was able to secure a gig playing the Holiday Inn Circuit. The gig was to involve playing a week at one Holiday Inn after another. During their first week, one of the shows was so deserted that only the band, a bartender, and two other people were there.
"That was the end of the Holiday Inn circuit," Mayberry says.
The band played all throughout their college years; during their final dedicated year of playing, they played 65 shows. The group lost steam around 1996, when the members started focusing on careers and began to go their separate ways.
In 2010, Human Zoo decided to get back together to play a show just for fun, but enjoyed it so much that they decided to start playing again. Now members must balance family life and careers with the band's schedule. Mayberry, guitarist and lead singer, owns Blue Chalk Software in Advance; Slinkard, guitarist, is a CT technologist at Southeast Hospital and owns a software development business company; French, bass guitarist, is a farmer and business owner; and Gonzales, keyboardist, is a network engineer.
The band members still enjoy the experience of playing, but it's definitely a different atmosphere than it was in 1993.
"The first time we came back in 2010, there were so many people just texting and looking at their phones. It blew me away," says Slinkard. "I thought, 'We must be horrible!' Someone told me, 'No; that's just how it is nowadays,' I also have to make sure to pack things like ibuprofen in my kit, and know that I might be in a smoke coma the next day."
"The most fun thing is just being up there and playing. When you do a good job and when you see people dancing and having fun, that really motivates you," says French.
"It's nice when you put a lot of work into a song and people enjoy it," agrees Gonzales.
"Sometimes my kids come to see the shows," Mayberry says. "Someone at school asked Elwood what his dad does for a living and he said, 'My dad's a rockstar!' That's not exactly right, but it was a cool answer."