Evangerine began the day that two 14 year-old boys walked into their youth group and found a local Christian rock band playing. The band was named Crusader. The two boys were named Sam Crowther and Julio Martin. They left that concert two hours later talking about starting their own Christian rock band. Neither of them knew the first thing about music, but as time went on they refused to let go of their dream. Julio's dad gave him a gutiar for Christmas that year. Sam's parents told him there was no way on earth he would be getting a guitar. If he wanted to learn an instrument they had a very nice piano. Sam had no desire to play that piano so he settled for being the singer, and the stage was set.

Seven years later, in November of 1995, Evangerine took the stage for the first time in front of a surprisingly large crowd at the Wesley Coffee House at the University of Miami. Sam, now called Slap, was singing. Julio played the guitar. Chico Lebron played the bass, and Josh Concepcion was sitting behind the drums. Their performance was a success. After the show they met lots of people and received several invitations to play more shows at different places. These four continued to play around South Florida for the next year and a half, and had one song, "Hold," released nation-wide on a compilation CD called "Three Times We Pleaded" put out by Golden Point records. Then for various reasons Chico and Josh decided to leave the band.

Josh was replaced by Jed Brewer on drums and Sam played bass and sang. Sam vowed that they'd find a bass player if it was the last thing they did. In 1997, Sam enrolled in a Precalc class where he met Clint Roudenbush. Sam later dropped the class but kept in contact with Clint. Sam invited Clint to audition for the bass player position. Clint told Sam that he wasn't qualified to play bass. Well, he wasn't good, but they let him in the band anyway figuring that he could only get better.

Soon after Clint joined, Jed decided to leave the band so he could focus his time and talent on his own band, Ash Wednesday. It was some months before they found Alex, the current drummer. He was referred by one of Clint's internet friends. Alex joined the band and played his first concert with them six days later.

To be contiued. . .



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