The Hi-Tops, the all-female band from just across the river, will be performing their Farewell Concert this Sun. night, June 9th at the Jeffersonville, Ind. Riverstage, at 5:00 p.m. They will be accompanied by special guest “Black Friday.”
The Hi-Tops have been our local rendition of The Go-Go’s or The Bangles, but more than just a gimmick group; they back it up with talent. Just last year, the Hi-Tops finished second at the National Association of Music Merchants’, or NAMM’s, nationwide “Battle of the Bands,” in Anaheim, Calif. They also won the “Fan Favorite” award, in the same competition.
The Hi-Tops are comprised of lead vocalist/guitarist, Remington Maxwell; lead guitarist, Jessica Madill; keyboardist, Ally Whitlow; bass player, Bayley Whitlow; and drummer, Madison Cunningham.
The band has been together for a long time, 9 ½ years, and is only breaking up due to an important rite of passage: graduation from high school to college. Four of the five Hi-Tops will start college in the Fall, with Bayley Whitlow, the lone exception. She isn’t slated to graduate until 2016.
So what do you think the Hi-Tops felt the biggest benefits were to playing in the band for all of these years? The money? The fame? The travel?
No, it came down to doing what they love to do, which is play music, and serve as examples to young children and adolescents.
“The awesome part (of being a Hi-Top) is I get to do what I love, which is play music, AND make others happy while doing it,” said Maxwell. “Being a positive role model for our fans. It is humbling to walk off the stage and have a line of little girls and boys excited to meet me. It is mind-blowing to think that they think I am that awesome, because little do they know, I am just your average high school teenager.”
Bayley Whitlow, bass player and the youngest of the Hi-Tops, started playing when her instrument was nearly taller than she was. She was 6 years old.
“I loved being an example to young fans and showing them you can be in a band or play whatever instrument you want to no matter how young you are,” Bayley said.
For Madill, it was more personal.
“My little cousin is my biggest fan,” said Madill. “I love watching her watch us like we’re big celebs.”
No doubt Madill’s cousin will be among the scores of young, impressionable fans that will be at the RiverStage this Sun. for the Hi-Tops grand finale’.
See you there.
Photo by: Sandy Madill
