::: Say Goodbye to 2010 at ZanderZ - 12/18 :::

Dateline: March 2011

Hello, everyone. Yeah, it's been a while. Into The Arena is still here - much to the dismay of others, haha. But really, we have been doing most of our updates through Facebook and other Social Media outlets. There has been expansion in the ITA world as well. Our beloved drummer, Mr. Dean Minerva is out playing and recording with other musical projects such as Dangerous New Machine and Xander has formed his solo band with with former Stronghold/Icarus Witch drummer Chris Batton as well as ITA bassist Matt Williams and ITA keyboard virtuoso Adam Heusey. The first show for Xander's project will be Thursday, March 31st at Bella Luna in Murrysville, PA followed by a show at the Hard Rock Cafe with guitar wizard Neil Zaza on Friday, April 8th. Not to worry, ITA will be back in full-form on Saturday, April 9th at our home-away-from-home ZanderZ in Plum, PA.

Make sure you become our friend on Facebook for all the latest. We will always keep arenatribute.com alive and as up-to-date as possible.

::: Say Goodbye to 2010 at ZanderZ - 12/18 :::

This has been a crazy year. Into The Arena had started this year with all of the original members intact and we went thru a massive change after co-founding bassist Ben Bond departed the band. ITA now has bass virtuoso Matt Williams in the band and the chemistry is just... there. Not convinced? Come see the final show of 2010 and see for yourself.

2011 is shaping up to be a huge year! Xander has a signature guitar coming out in the coming year, Dean is a certified YouTube celebrity, Adam has become a father to two kittens, Ronnie got married and Matt.... well, there's some things that you all need to know about Matt Williams:

• Matt Williams kicked Neo out of Zion, now Neo is "The Two"
• Matt Williams ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.
• Matt Williams is what Willis was talking about
• Once a grizzly bear threatened to eat Matt. Matt then showed the bear his fist and the bear proceeded to eat himself, because it would be the less painful way to die.

So now you know... and knowing is half the battle.

::: ITA turned 4 years old on June 8th! :::

Four years ago on June 8th, 2006 a new band was born in the Pittsburgh area. That band? Into The Arena. It's been an amazing ride so far and it's always interesting when something big happens on your birthday and in our case we welcome new bass player Todd Demont into the band. Todd and Xander played in a band called Stormfront back in 1993 along with vocalist Bryan Cole and drummer Mike Stover. 17 years later and their together again. Todd's first show will be at Pluma in Irwin, PA Friday, June 11th.

In other news, we have a very busy summer coming up which is a rarity but it should be a good one. We have new songs to show off and Todd's energy will be a welcome addition as we move into our fifth year of rockin' the 'burgh.

::: ITA on the Jumbotron at PNC Park :::

Oh man, it's time to shoot some hot dogs... and an ITA video to go along with our new jingle we wrote for the Pittsburgh Pirates. We would like to send out a big THANK YOU to Eric Wolff of the Pirates organization and New Persective Media for recording us and working around the Into The Arena schedule. This is a great opportunity for ITA considering we have some big schedule changes and additions for 2010.

The Bio Page has been updated with all members' bios and endorsement links. Again, please check out our Facebook, Twitter and ReverbNation sites as well as MySpace for all of the latest. Both Dean and Xander are adding videos to their user profiles on YouTube so check them out when you get a chance.