By Stephen Appezzato
LOS ANGELES – Morristown native Charlie Flanagan is making his mark on the West Coast music scene. A rising senior at Loyola Marymount University and lead guitarist for the up-and-coming rock band Midfield Avenue, Flanagan and his band have played to growing crowds, including a recent performance at the iconic Troubadour.
“It was truly a dream come true,” Flanagan said of the band’s spring EP release show at the historic West Hollywood venue. “Just being in the alleyway beforehand and unloading all of our gear from the car was just the coolest thing. And walking upstairs, and being in the upstairs bar, which used to be the old dressing room for all of my heroes, was so surreal,” he said.
Flanagan’s journey into music started early, with lessons at The Original Music School in his hometown. “In fifth and sixth grade, I started taking lessons at a place in Morristown actually called The Original Music School, and my teacher, Steve McConnell, ended up being incredibly instrumental in getting me into it,” he said.
He later attended Delbarton School in eighth grade, where he joined the school rock band – an opportunity that sparked his passion for performance.
“I was really lucky to be a part of the band with the juniors and seniors at the time, and they really pushed me to be a good musician,” he said.
In 2020, the pandemic lockdown gave Flanagan more time to hone his craft.
“Suddenly having a lot of time on my hands with COVID, I really started taking it very seriously, and sort of taking what I had learned in lessons and applying it to self-teaching,” he said.
Flanagan co-founded Midfield Avenue during his sophomore year at Loyola Marymount. The band, named after drummer Jack Alberta’s home street, where they rehearse and host backyard shows, also includes vocalist Zac Brosky, bassist Arend Verfaillie and guitarist Josh Hsu.
“We all started practicing over there in Jack’s garage,” Flanagan said. “They put a half-pipe (for skateboards) in the backyard, which is pretty great of their landlord, and we do shows every couple of months in the backyard with local LMU bands.” These grassroots gigs regularly draw crowds of 200 to 300 people, Flanagan said.
Midfield Avenue’s music blends elements of all sorts of rock genres, “but the thing that I hear most people say is we have a really nostalgic sound,” Flanagan said.
The band draws heavily from their own lives when writing songs.
“We’re really writing about the stuff that we’re doing and the things that are happening to us in real time,” he said. “We have a good way of… giving the energy that you get as a 22-year-old in a rock band in college in Los Angeles.”
This spring, Midfield Avenue celebrated the release of its new EP “Used To,” by performing a concert at the Troubadour.
“It was a pipe dream of sorts,” Flanagan recalled. Landing the Troubadour show initially felt risky. “There was a lot of back and forth… because it’s a commitment, and it also potentially costs money if you don’t actually hold up your side of it,” he recalled. For some larger venues, artists must sell a certain number of presale tickets or face paying the difference to cover a set quota.
However, Midfield Avenue accepted the challenge, and it paid off. The band sold approximately 200 presale tickets and packed the venue.
“We sold out everything that we were allowed to,” Flanagan said. “It ended up being just that – a great thing.”
With the Troubadour milestone behind them, Midfield Avenue isn’t slowing down.
“We’re hoping to have a real big summer,” Flanagan said. “We’re going to do kind of a California tour… head up north, maybe a little bit down south and really expand our listening and see how far we can get out of Los Angeles,” he said.
The members of Midfield Avenue are also hard at work on new material and hope to release a full-length debut album at the end of the summer.
The article originally appeared in the June 19 – 25, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
