The crowd is wild, crazy, they are jumping on top of each other, but he is calm, cool and collected. His heart is pounding as he walks on stage and into the light. He picks up the guitar and strums it a few times. The music blares as he feels the sound of the bass in his chest while the crowd screams.

Sophomore Jeff Patterson lives for that rush. That is why he started his band Broken Concrete.
All through his life Patterson has loved music. He taught himself how to play piano, drums, trombone, bass, the ukulele and the guitar.

In Broken Concrete, he prefers to stick with one instrument as the band’s lead guitarist. Also in the band is a rhythm guitarist, a bass player and a drummer.

“I am inspired by several punk bands, like Green Day, Blink 182, Nirvana and Black Flag,” Patterson said, “but I also have a little bit of a blues influence when I play, like Stevie Ray Vaughan.”

The band plays in restaurants, bars and has even competed at a few Battle of the Bands at different schools. The bands typically gets paid for their gigs, but for Patterson, it’s not about the money.

“It’s not about where I’m going, It’s about what I’m doing right now,” Patterson said. “And right now I’m just having fun.”

Stage fright is a stranger to Patterson. Instead, he’s the band’s motivator before every show. He usually gives a small pep talk to his band as a pre-show ritual. He puts himself into an on stage mind set.

“It’s really about being a performer,” Patterson said. “It’s my job to put a little bit of my passion into every strum of the guitar.”

Patterson does not want to be a rockstar that lives in the glory of fans. All of the other bands are celebrating and talking to other people who are telling them how great they were, but Patterson doesn’t want any of that. He plays his music for people and for the fun of it.

“The music that I play isn’t for me,” Patterson said. “It’s for the people I’m playing for.”