This isn’t your typical high school final. 

The culminating performance for the second year of Riverside High School’s rock band class on Friday, May 30  at West Linn’s Youth Music Project was both a final and a rock show. 

“Rock band is really different because a lot of the times you have to look forward to, at the end of a semester you have finals, you have a big math test. For us, instead of going and taking it like a test and like a quiet classroom, you have to go play in front of, like, 50 or 60, or however many people are going to be at the next show,” said student and bass player Caden Vallejo. “We have to work together, as opposed to working together so we can get a good grade … (we) get to enjoy something we like outside of class and that’s really fun.” 

Named “Lavender Wings,” after the school’s mascot and colors, the Riverside student group rocked   the concert hall packed with family, friends and West Linn-Wilsonville School District Superintendent Kathy Ludwig. 

Songs included the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers opener “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” Eagles’ “Hotel California, ”Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away” and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstitution.” 

“This most recent show, I was experimenting with a lot of bass lines, like I did on ‘Drift Away,’” said Caden Vallejo. 

Teacher Matt Whitehead started the rock band class in 2013 in Riverside’s predecessor,Arts and Tech High School. 

When ATHS was transformed into Riverside —the district’s option high school and International Baccalaureate program —, Whitehead thought the rock band program would suit the smaller classes. 

“I mean we could start with a choir and band, but I don’t think you want a choir with six kids and a band with five kids,” said Whitehead. “This (is) much more of a niche kind of class. I can draw in choir kids, I can draw in people that play instruments, but I can also draw in the piano player, the drummer, the guitar player, who never get to do those things, because the traditional band program doesn’t offer that.” 

In the first year of the program, Whitehead taught a group of seven students; this year that number grew to 18 for the first term and 13  for the second. 

“I did choir in middle school and I’d say it’s insanely different than being in a rock band,” said student vocalist Romy Rosenheimer. “In choir, it’s really intense; it’s very competitive… in rock band your part is more singular.” 

Next year, the number of students registered for rock band has ballooned to 30. 

“(The class) becomes a community,” said Whitehead. “It’s not like a regular symphonic band or choir, where you have all these bodies; it’s a much smaller community, and they’re more dependent upon each other. So if I only have three singers, those three singers need to work together. They can’t hide behind the 27 other singers in the soprano section.”

With busy high school schedules, homework and other extracurriculars, it isn’t surprising that Rock band is many students’ favorite class. 

“How is rock band different from other classes? Rock band is awesome,” said student vocalist Madeline Vasbinder.