KAYLIN HARR / DAILY NEXUS
To find the show, you have to follow the sound of the music the way a cartoon character follows the wafting smell of a pie. Once you see string lights and partygoers on the roof, you know you’ve arrived at your destination: an Isla Vista band party.
A typical Isla Vista band party consists of three things: someone’s front yard, cigarette smoke that interferes with your view of the band and an unspoken camaraderie between the rotating bands and audience members.
The streets that stretch the length of two miles have their very own soundtrack, effortlessly (and loudly) entering the homes of tired college students on any given Friday or Saturday night.
The I.V. band scene has their own rules, like which time slots are the prime time to perform at, which houses are the best to book and how to delicately balance a set list with original music and classics that the audience will sing back to the band.
Most incoming freshmen are drawn towards the strobe lights, open bar and themed parties that take up the oceanside street of Del Playa Drive. While every ecosystem depends on each individual factor to thrive, like a college campus, the different varieties of parties is what makes I.V.’s party culture so great.
However, band parties stand alone in offering a different kind of drunk enrichment for college students aching to dance: they’re able to watch friendships grow onstage, carefully listen to someone’s creative outlet and surround themselves with other people who highly value the making of art in any capacity. Frankly, there’s nothing else like it.
Sure, a partygoer can observe the crowd, band and music, but the other side of the stage holds completely different stakes. In order to understand the band scene in I.V., one must become acquainted with the bands.
Caden Heinze, Santa Barbara City College student, was the foundation for the local band named LOAF.
“The band scene in I.V. is what inspired me to make a band,” Heinze, LOAF singer and guitar player said. “Any Friday or Saturday you have at least three bands playing.”
Complete with four members, LOAF is an integral part of the Isla Vista band scene. Booking the sacred 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. spot in shows and performing mostly original music after just one year of performing together, they too are grateful for the uniqueness of the local community.
“I don’t think any other school has this,” Adam Kubinyi, LOAF guitar player, said.
Not only do the band shows create a space for community members, but the band themselves do too. The self-proclaimed garage rock and grunge band show their personalities in the music they make but more so in the way they interact with each other.
Each of the band members are dressed in their own personal styles, made up of accessories, loafers and rings galore. They inadvertently accent each other’s styles, creating the perfect metaphor for the conglomeration of music in I.V.: Kubinyi’s long blonde hair and flared sweater sleeves mixed with Heinze’s graffitied shirt and earrings seamlessly work together.
“They cut their hair, and we haven’t been the same since,” Kubinyi said.
The bandmates mesh so well together, you wonder how they find time to make music when the conversation between them flows so naturally that sarcastic quips easily fall out of their mouths.
“What’s it called when you ask someone to join a band only because they’re good looking?” Heinze said.
Their crossed arms and reserved voices are completely opposite to their stage presence, which is demanding and captivating to watch.
“I think it’s awesome having friends do the same thing you do,” Marcus Flowers, bass player for LOAF, said. “Playing onstage with three of your buddies is way cooler than playing with people you don’t know.”
Their friendship bounces off the speakers and adds to the atmosphere of the show. Though each individual band’s music may be different, they all share one commonality: loving the music they make with their best friends.
The uniqueness of our college town lies in the faulty oceanside balconies and unpaved bike roads; in the intense party culture and simultaneous overpacked library; and, more specifically, in the bands.
We will never get to live like this again — wandering up and down P.T.S.D. (Pasado Road, Trigo Road, Sabado Tarde Road and Del Playa Drive) trying to replicate a bat’s keen sense of hearing to find the music.
We will never get to be this young again — listening to our classmates’ authentic music while the people around us murmur and question the band’s name, while other people sit in trees and linger around fences to hear the next song.
Spiders can feel pain, singular raindrops are still felt on cheeks, dust bunnies are found and taken apart and these small college town band shows are still profound in the music they’re creating and performing: size does not equate to magnitude.
Who knew that such intimate and sometimes last minute shows would serve as a place to meet more people, expand your music taste and learn how to properly participate in a mosh pit.
That seems to be part of the charm of band shows in I.V. — the unseriousness mixed with friendship and an itch for good music.
That’s what the band Duende thinks, at least. Composed of three members and producing hard rock and blues, the band tries to time-manage their music with the other responsibilities life throws at them, while still maintaining their friendships with one another.
“I can do something that’s not music, and it will unintentionally make me better at music,” Joel Jaffe, bass player for Duende, said. “Living a more balanced life can make you a better player.”
Duende practices once a week for two hours in Isla Vista. Their garage, complete with instruments strewn around the couch and floor, has an added layer of professionalism with acoustic panels on the walls.
They describe finding each other as the “right place, right time.” Each member speaks over one another and words are lost in translation, falling to the floor of their garage as the band camaraderie spins around the room as they deduce how, when and where the band started.
Each question asked becomes a conversation starter for the bandmates, as they reminisce and situate themselves in their own history.
“Matt sets up his drums for about an hour, and then we yell at each other,” Jaffe said.
“Joel says something like, ‘Take your ear protection out!’ and then we play for about an hour,” Arman Sanchez-Mohit, guitar player and vocalist, said.
Asking each of the bandmates to list their top three artists was like pulling teeth, each of them dodging the question and asking for more time, frantically scrolling on their Spotify playlists and rambling off rock bands and then taking it back.
Their final answers varied, except for their overlapping artist of Alice In Chains, which is a widely known staple in the rock world.
“When I was twelve, I smoked weed and listened to Pink Floyd for the first time and thought, ‘Wait, music is literally a drug the same way a psychoactive substance is,’” Jaffe said.
Their laid-back energy protrudes through their words and shows in their stances, as Jaffe comfortably sits atop a stool and Mathew Swanson, Duende’s drummer, thoughtfully reclines in his chair.
On their crimson red couch sits an electric guitar, and it’s obvious how excited they are — not just for their music but for I.V.’s music scene in general. Every inch of their space is covered in passion, from the endless music equipment and to each of their unintended musical taps on their seat while pondering their next answer.
“I don’t pay to go to concerts anymore because you get world class music here for free,” Jaffe said.
The overflowing amount of original music and bands seemingly outnumber the amount of houses in Isla Vista.
Despite the different bands choice of music, style, frequency of practicing or even number of members, they all quench the thirst of Isla Vista by constantly providing new, original and thoughtful music.
Long live the Isla Vista music scene.
Kira Logan appreciates and advocates for the Isla Vista music scene.
A version of this article appeared on p. 9 of the November 14, 2024 edition of the Daily Nexus.
