Music for morale

By Cassie Tomlin

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008 | midnight

Until a few months ago, Kelly Garni hadn't picked up a bass guitar in 25 years.

The local wedding photographer, a rock band veteran, recently found a reason— to entertain U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Garni says veterans he's talked to have told him the same thing over and over: music got them through some tough deployments.

Garni knows music. He was a founding member of the metal band Quiet Riot, though he left the group before it released its 1983 breakthrough album, "Metal Health."

In July, he joined the band Aleister Wild in hopes of touring military bases in Afghanistan.

Two members of the Ohio band, founder and guitarist Terry Span and singer John Lane, moved into his historic downtown Boulder City home.

Those three and drummer Jim Ott practice their "Norweigan death metal" six nights a week in a studio behind Boulder Station in Henderson, but they haven't secured their tickets abroad yet.

They're still working with Armed Forces Entertainment, the Defense Department agency that sends entertainment to the troops, to join the overseas tour. The application requires a biography, photographs, mp3s, video and corresponding background material— mostly none of which the band has yet.

If accepted on the tour, AFE pays the band's travel and lodging expenses, and $150 a day for each band member.

Aleister Wild in 1999 embarked on its first tour for AFE to Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Since then, the band has played 30 countries, including South Korea and Honduras, five U.S. embassies and an aircraft carrier, he said.

Lane joined Span on the last tour, but Ott and Garni have never been abroad.

"It's certainly a dangerous situation and dangerous for the military guys too," Garni said. "We're all in this mess together, so ... let's give them a show."

Span said he's not interested in joining the tour again for money or his ego. He knows he's got no rock-star recognition. But, he said, the troops still treat him like one.

"You'll never, ever play for a more appreciative audience," Span said.

In a black-and-white video of Aleister Wild's first stint overseas, soldiers in fatigues crowd-surf, wave American flags and sing along to a cover of "Sweet Home Alabama." The band invites soldiers on stage to sing or play their instruments.

Span and Garni said they've talked to enough soldiers to know what they want to hear, and they know how to deliver it.

"We want to go over there and knock their socks off," Garni said.

Garni also wants to film a documentary about a band in war zones, documenting that band's hardships and sacrifices, the danger of war and the troops' reactions to the band.

But in the end, Span said, he and his bandmates just want to go give the men and women fighting the war a taste of home.

"We just want to go over there and boost some morale," he said. "These guys really go out of their way to make you feel special and appreciated, and then you come home and you're anonymous."

Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or [email protected].