An audience of friends and fellow students watching as you perform music that you love and even some music you wrote yourself is a dream of many young musicians. Especially when fans in the crowd are excited to listen to your music.
This dream came true for Manhattan High School senior Dezi Massengale. On April 16, Massengale, along with seniors Kimball Morris and juniors Will Gilligan and Ayden Jones, performed together on the stage at Rezac Auditorium at MHS.
“I had some songs I created, but mostly I just played a lot of songs that I grew up with,” Massengale said. “So there were a lot of covers, but it was kind of just a concert for me.”
The concert was open to anyone to attend for free. Many of the audience members have attended Massengale’s previous 21 concerts. This was a new experience for Massengale and previous audience members because the stage was elevated and so it felt more professional than before stages that were at floor level with the audience.
Jones played lead guitar, Morris played drums and piano, Gilligan played bass guitar and Massengale played the drums, piano, bass guitar and lead guitar. The boys performed “My Own Worst Enemy,” “Teenage Dirtbag,” “Everybody Talks” and 15 more songs, several of which were original pieces written by Massengale alongside several covers originally performed by other groups.
“As soon as I got the opportunity that came with my independent study, I’ve just been practicing ever since,” Massengale said. “The whole set list is out and everything, I knew exactly what songs I wanted to play.”
After many months of planning and practicing, Massengale got many other MHS students to grow in their excitement of making the dream of playing on the Rezac stage come true. Freshman Castor Kraft has attended all of Massengale’s concerts since meeting him in Physical Education this year. Kraft is also an aspiring musician who has found watching Massengale’s journey encouraging.
“I don’t consider it any small feat as a small artist to be performing in the Rezac Auditorium,” Kraft said.
Having a senior be an example for students who are looking for a path into music look up to Massengale. His music is currently on Instagram and Spotify, he also hopes to have more concerts in the future.
“I look up to him quite a lot,” Kraft said.
Massengale has quickly gained popularity with each concert and looks forward to bringing more inspiration to other musicians and fans alike. He has written two new songs since the concert and is working on recording them, but is not sure when he will release them.
“I want to try arts in the park,” Massengale said. “But we’ll see how that goes. But that’ll definitely be in the summer, that’ll be so much fun.”
