CHICAGO — Two former Danville men stand poised on the brink of success, but they need some help from their hometown friends to make the leap.

“It’s an easy, easy favor to fulfill,” Ben Hunt said. “(Our band) The Dirty Rooks has a chance to play at Lollapalooza.

“Really.”

For those unfamiliar with the music festival, Lollapalooza started in 1991, before Hunt and fellow band member Grant Ghol-son started high school. The event’s popularity continues. People who grew up in the years since then sometimes are called the “Lollapalooza generation.”

Music played during that weekend includes all forms of rock, including the bluesy-type The Dirty Rooks deliver.

Their chance to perform at Lollapalooza comes as part of a contest, like reality TV shows. Instead of a telephone number to vote for favorites, this contest relies on a computer and a mouse.

“We’re part of a competition called ‘Last Band Standing,’” Hunt said. “People vote for the unsigned band they’d most like to see playing a slot at Lollapalooza.”

Votes are cast by logging onto the contest Web site and following the link to The Dirty Rooks.

In the current round of the contest, the band ranked eighth Wednesday night. This round’s top 100 vote-getters go to the next round. This round ends June 30, with three more rounds to go.

Votes can be cast once each day.

This year’s Lollapalooza takes place Aug. 3-5, right in The Dirty Rooks backyard: Grant Park in Chicago.

Hunt, Danville High School class of ’97, and Gholson, DHS class of ’98, went their separate ways after graduation. They’d spent years together in marching band and shared the same group of friends, so they never lost touch.

Both wound up in Chicago, a city known for the blues.

They even shared an apartment for a time. It wasn’t long before each picked up a guitar instead of the horns they’d played in high school band.

Like other artists, both have day jobs.

Hunt, Sara and Henry’s son, works as auditorium programs coordinator at the Shedd Aquarium.

“I design programs that we take off site to schools. We might focus on whales or sharks in an assembly,” he said. “We incorporate the state’s science standards.”

Gholson teaches theology at De LaSalle Catholic High School, following in the footsteps of parents Lois and Jim, retired Danville District 118 teachers.

“I’m working on my master’s in church history,” he said. “I’m considering pursuing a PhD in historical theology at some point.”

When they had the idea of forming a band, “It was just for fun,” Gholson said.

Dan Stalilonis, a friend of Gholson’s, sang. They found their drummer, Nate Urbansky, on CraigsList.org.

Coincidentally, he also had a marketing and advertising background.

“Without Nate,” Gholson said, “we’d still be languishing.

“I wrote a few songs, and we recorded our first album this year. The melody and words may start with me, but the music is really a collaborative effort. “

The band developed a fan base that surprised even diehard supporters like Gholson’s parents.

“We went to hear them play at The Abbey Pub in Chicago,” Lois said. “They have a real following, a group that knows all the words to their songs. I didn’t expect it to be so big.”

Hunt had the same response to The Dirty Rooks’ success thus far in the Lollapalooza competition.

“I was dumbfounded when I found out we hit in the top 10,” he said.

Neither plans to quit his day job — but what if they won that grand prize and their Lollapalooza performance led to a record contract?

“I’d seriously consider if this could be a career,” Hunt said.

Gholson said, “I might chase that dream for a while.”

Regardless of the Lollapalooza Battle of the Bands outcome, The Dirty Rooks are considering a Danville gig this summer.

“If everyone in the city votes for us,” Hunt joked, “we’ll play a show there with no cover.”



TO VOTE

According to Ben Hunt, “To vote, click on the link:

http://lollapalooza.mp3.com/feature/2007lollapalooza/?band= THE-DIRTY-ROOKS.

They'll send you an e-mail with another link for you to click on, and that's it. Then repeat the process the next day. You can vote every day, once a day.”