By mixing in a little psychedelic rock and adding a dash of punk-funk, five student bands from Texas A&M will introduce their ensembles to the nightlife of Northgate this weekend.
Bringing a variety of music styles to College Station’s bar district, the Live from the Underground concert will feature performances by J.C. Juice, Chemical Bromance, YEEHA!, HYAH! and Bad Hombre on Friday, Feb. 2, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Shiner Park. The concert is free for ages 21 and up and $10 for those between the ages 18 to 20.
Live from the Underground, a concert organized by students, plans to bring an alternative music experience to Northgate patrons, according to Jean-Claude Faa, also known as J.C Juice, mechanical engineering senior. Faa said he and William Roberts mechanical engineering senior, a member of Bad Hombre and HYAH!, thought it would be a great idea to put on a big show to showcase their bands.
“Essentially, the vision was trying to get these bands that have been working so hard for the past year or so, a bigger platform to express themselves,” Faa said. “Bryan [Texas] is the music part. We’ve usually been at the Revolution or the Grand Stafford [Theater] so we wanted to get these bands on Northgate and sort of change up the scene at least for one night.”
Matthew Cradit, general studies senior and member YEEHA!, said this concert will be a great opportunity for the bands to expand their audiences.
Although the five bands are bringing a different sound to Shiner Park, Cradit said he is optimistic that the audience will dig the “danceable rock-funk” vibes of his band, YEEHA!.
“Downtown Bryan is more like underground music, a lot of indie, metal, there’s a big poetry scene and some rappers performed down there before,” Cradit said. “When I first moved here, I have this vivid memory driving down University and looking at Northgate thinking ‘Hmm, this is a weird place.’ I was kinda like ‘Man I’m never going to be playing there’ and now here we are.”
Hoping to end his last semester at A&M on a good note, Chemical Bromance member Kevin Boone said he is excited to perform in front of a bigger audience this weekend.
“We’ve only performed at ICON before, so Shiner will be a pretty big place for us to go,” Boone said. “Ravi [band member from Bad Hombre], he just texted me and was like ‘Hey we need a fifth band [to play].’ So I found out about it probably like a month ago. We just want everyone to have a lot of fun and we usually have a pretty good crowd and we want all of our friends to show up of course.”
In order to perform at the venue for free, Nnang said he and the bands worked to get sponsors throughout the College Station area. After a few emails and lots of negotiation, Holleman Crossing, 2818 and Parkway Place, the Berkley House and The Hudson will be sponsoring “Live from the Underground” concert this weekend. Roberts said he is still in disbelief that they were finally able to put this together.
“We are all friends, so everything is kind of intermingled,” Roberts said. “It’s also been the first show where we actually got to work on. It’s been very stressful putting it together, but I’m just excited to see it come to fruition.”