Live at The Bronco

Student, local bands transform DaSilva’s usually debaucherous atmosphere

This past Friday, four bands met for a performance at local dive bar DaSilva’s (affectionately known as The Bronco). The bar, which often draws hordes of students for Thursday night partying and handfuls of locals on the weekends, has begun to also serve as an underground venue as it hosts more local and student music groups. 

On Feb. 24, Santa Clara student bands Vudu Caravan and Madxsen played, sharing the bill with off-campus bands The Enjoyers and Fistfight with Traffic. Students (and some parents visiting for Family Weekend) grooved and swayed to the band's tunes, decked in their Friday bars best.

Vudu Caravan opened Friday’s show. The band delivers a fusion of funk, rock and soul, but if anyone stumbled into our outdoor interview for a cigarette break, they’d simply address themselves as a rock band. The band played a set of predominantly rock originals, as well as a Marvin Gaye cover. In three words, the band chose to describe themselves as: “funky love, baby.”

Since the band's last interview with The Santa Clara, they have cultivated their chemistry and their sound. Their inspirations and musical styles all differ, but onstage they amplify the best aspects of each others’ distinct backgrounds.

At their latest set, the band brought a new taste of funk to the stage through their senses of fashion–an aesthetic look they promise to deliver again in their upcoming shows. For Vudu Caravan, looking good and playing well go hand in hand. 

“A lot about music isn't just about how it sounds. It's about how it looks,” shared drummer Burroughs. “It's 100% an expression; the music is an extension of ourselves, we all use clothes to express that.”

Raul Murillo shares that he made the choice to dye his hair to match his guitar, nonchalantly sharing that he’s clearly the most mundanely dressed. 

All of the band’s members are ecstatic for the upcoming sold-out Battle of The Bands and their soon-to-be released single Hope it Hurts, debuted at The Bronco last Friday. 

Second to play on the four-band lineup was The Enjoyers, an Arizona-based band headed by San José native Mikey Flores. 

Flores described the band’s sound as “soulful indie art rock,” which does well to sum up the swirling, melodic flavor of indie rock that the band specializes in. Tender, emotional lyrics glue together the members’ clean guitar progressions, tight drum patterns and dynamic bass lines.

Though Flores did not have his usual bandmates with him, he delivered a cohesive and confident performance. Calling up high school friend Vince to play bass and freelance drummer Juan Carlos, the three rehearsed for the first time together the morning of the show.

Naturally, the trio’s experience was much different than the two Santa Clara acts performing. For Juan Carlos, The Enjoyers is just one of dozens of bands he has played for in his freelance career. 

“Honestly, sometimes they will last one month, three months, a couple of years–it totally depends. I just try to make justice to the music.”

This breadth of experience was on full display in the show. At one point between songs, Carlos simply listened to 10 seconds of a drum beat on his phone and proceeded to play the entire song from just that snippet as if he had been practicing it for years.

Fistfight with Traffic was up next. Hailing from the East Bay, the four-person band usually plays in Berkeley and San Francisco. Honing a unique blend of progressive alt rock, Fistfight displayed their deep musicianship in their set. Vocalist Maddi Schrader combined sweeping, powerful melodies with Mat Gracias’ perfectly chosen guitar tones and riffs. The group also features bassist Logan Littlefield and drummer Kyle Libatique, who both play off complex, intricate rhythms and provide a booming foundation for the band’s sound. The band prefers to play for college students due to the responsiveness of the crowd.

For both bands from outside the Santa Clara bubble, playing for college students was a highlight. Citing the lively, energetic crowds of local universities, both bands find their music hitting home the most for college-aged audiences. 

“Yeah, it's the most relatable crowd,” said Gracias. “It feels better to be playing to people who are kind of in that same place in their lives.”

As lead singer and songwriter Madysen Moreno, performing under artist name Madxsen, stood up to deliver a preamble to one of her pieces at a break in the concert, lead guitarist Mat Gracias started playing the melody to “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid. Then, in a synchronized domino effect, bassist Charlie Barber got wind of the change after glancing at Mat, just before drummer Dino Bevilacqua joined in the medley. 

“It was a beautiful moment,” recalls Barber. “It was so spontaneous and creative. And I didn't know what I was gonna play, it just kind of happened.”

For the band, who primarily backs up Moreno’s indie solo originals as well as occasional covers, spontaneity is paramount to making and performing music. 

“I've always been a person that has a lot of trouble talking and communicating, especially in English, which is not my first language,” shares Gracias. “But even in Portuguese, words were always really hard to string together for me. So getting really into music, we're able to have all of these unspoken conversations that are only existing in these, like, four minutes of music. That is where I'm most comfortable communicating.”

The band’s cohesive ability stretches beyond their ease of melodic communication; all members are also currently involved in multiple other groups. 

The members shared that for many of them, the purpose of creating music is to have the chance to play with as many people as possible, as much as they possibly can. 

Madysen shared excitement for the band’s upcoming show on March 10, also at The Bronco. Each of the members of her band will be playing in their own projects before coming back together to close out the show with a Madxsen performance. 

“Everyone's just going to be rotating throughout the set, and I think that that idea of being able to intimately help one another gig and play shows and have it be a community of mismatched sounds is really amazing,” shared Moreno. “It's that exposure to music. Chasing more music.”