When 13-year old birthday girl Britt Pech and her giggling girlfriends piled into her parents' car last week, they all thought they were headed to downtown Denver to see a play. Unknown to Britt and her friends, mom Julie had arranged for a Rockstar birthday party at the newest ultra-cool-birthday-party venue, Dog House Music.
Julie says one of Britt's all time dreams is to be a singer, a dream she was born with and pursues daily. She takes voice lessons, sings karaoke for hours in front of a fully-mirrored basement wall and designs her own outfits. More recently, mom notes, Britt's been writing songs at the rate of about 2-3/week, sometimes getting up in the middle of the night to pen the stream of words coming through.
The rockstar party idea struck while Julie was taking a website building class. Instructor Jason Ackerman directed the class to
www.DogHouseMusic.com to show students an example of a site he'd developed. Says Julie, "I looked at the site and realized I'd found the perfect party for my soon-to-be-13-year old." The two had already agreed that they'd take friends to a play for the birthday celebration and the invitations were out, so Julie kept the plan in place while secretly coordinating the alternative event.
"When I called Dog House, owner Gary told me that not only would they give the kids rock and roll makeovers, but that they'd have a teen band from Dog House play live, that I could request a song for the band to learn and that Britt would be able to perform on stage with the band. This was so much more than I expected---a dream-come-true for my aspiring singer. I booked the party immediately."
On the arrival of the big day, the girls still had no idea they were going to Dog House, and no mention was made of it on the way. Julie said the moment of the girls' initial shock at having the party at Dog House instead of going to a play was priceless. But the best was yet to come as Britt still had no idea that she'd soon be singing one of her favorite songs with a live band. Britt and pals were escorted into the "ready room" where they were given rockstar hairdos and adorned with tattoos while the band warmed up.
Next, they went to the state-of-the-art rehearsal studio where a teen band formed through the Dog House music program played a selection of originals before inviting Britt on stage to perform. When her mom's pre-requested song, Paramore's "When it Rains," started to play, Britt said she could barely sing the first verse because she was so overwhelmed by the excitement of singing with a live band. But by the second verse she got down to business.
When the song finished, Britt finally let the tears of happiness go. "It was like having one of my biggest dreams handed to me---the experience was so amazing. I'll be back for more!" When the band finished, the kids were escorted into a room where they played popular video game "Rockstar" on a giant screen TV---four kids at a time. The evening wrapped with cake, presents and a t-shirt from Dog House sporting the slightly-tailored famous quote "You are the music makers, and you are the dreamers of dreams."
Dog House Music is the brainchild of owner Gary Lennox, a musician who's committed to helping kids make their music dreams come true. Dog House offers birthday parties for all ages (starting at $200). In addition to a bevy of music-oriented services, they also host summer camps for aspiring musicians designed to take students to their next level, regardless of where that may be. A single week-long summer camp session includes instrument instruction, forming a band, writing original works and a live CD recording of the end-of-week performance.
For more information or to schedule a party, contact Dog House Music at 303-664-1600 or visit the website at
www.DogHouseMusic.com.