Twenty one years ago this summer an album from a much forgotten Long Island band was released that to this day still deserves more attention. Said band is no longer making music but this blog will serve as a way to remember them. The band was Huntington’s Stage and the self-titled album came out on Maverick Records and was masterfully produced by Gregg Wattenberg.

Anchored by strong-lunged vocalist Ryan Star, Stage had a brash, bold and engaging form of alt-rock that tethered them to the likes of Thirty Seconds to Mars, Oleander, Chevelle, Our Lady Peace and Bush. Their songs were undoubtedly heard-hitting not just sonically but also lyrically. Frontman Star pondered weighty concepts like like war (“Country Bleeding”, “Flag”) body image (“Live Happy, Live With Anorexia”) teenage bullying (“Perfect”) and even stalking a crush (“An Angel Screams From Outer Space”).

For all the ragged guitars, thunderous drums and hypnotic bass the songs themselves were titanic, stadium-ready and awash in giant choruses. Penultimate album closer “The Scientist’s Canvas” was a 10-minute tour-de-force that to this day is still one of the more compelling pieces of music this writer has ever heard. And for all the concussive, hard-hitting moments the album was not without quiet. Star and his bandmates did meander in mid-tempo melancholy and wintry piano balladry at times. And to be fair, the album worked, but only briefly.

Having been a band since the early 1990s (when the band members were in their early teens) the band’s polish and swagger was not accidental or without coincidence. This was a band that worked tirelessly to hone their craft and created an album that very much echoed that hard work. On paper, Stage should have toppled the alt-rock music charts and should still be playing stadiums to this day. When Maverick Records tumbled, so too did Stage.

Ryan Star of course found himself a solo career, releasing his debut solo effort Songs From The Eyes of an Elephant in 2005. He even appeared on the reality TV singing competition Rock Star. His 2010 solo album 11:59 launched a handful of singles and some still have millions of streams on Spotify to this day. He was making music as recently as 2021, but his social media presence has been quiet since then and his last piece of music available under the Ryan Star name is 2017’s “Don’t Give Up.” According to his Spotify bio, he has switched his interests to entrepreneurship and launched the music company Stationhead.