High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Starting Line is an American pop punk band based from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that formed in 1999.In 1999, the band that would become The Starting Line was initiated in Churchville, Pennsylvania via an e-mail from guitarist Matt Watts to vocalist/bassist Kenny Vasoli. It asked if the then fourteen-year-old Vasoli, who was at that time in a band called Smash Adams, was interested in "Jamming and shit", as the message title read. Only a few weeks later, Vasoli found himself rehearsing with his future bandmates Watts, guitarist Mike Golla and drummer Tom Gryskewicz. That year, Smash Adams released a tape, Batteries Not Included. It had 7 songs, of which only 4 were mastered. One song from that tape was incorporated into another bands work, 5 Days Ahead.