Local Bands: No Love In the World Anymore

The last few weddings, quinceañeras, and other bit parties that I’ve been to really have me thinking. This past Saturday night, I passed by a local dance hall and noticed there was a wedding reception with a band. Out of courtesy and curiosity, I decided to go ahead and see who it was. Upon entering the hall, I saw the band putting up their equipment and instruments. Wait a minute…it was only 11:00pm!!!

I was baffled by the site: 11:00pm, people still drinking, eating, talking, having a good time. Why did the band leave so early? WTF?!?!? Concerned as I was, I approached the band and discovered it was one of Corpus Christi’s finest, Mr. Carlos Banda and Lupito Banda. These guys have been around for a LONG time. And man, if you take a blood sample from these guys and look at it under the microscope, you see music notes, not blood cells. Anyways, Carlos was saying that the couple only hired them for a couple of hours. Well? Did they think the price was too high? His overall explanation was that people generally do not want to pay the “expensive” price for a band, and would rather hire a DJ instead. I’ve heard this from many people, but to hear it from a Banda family member, it hit me pretty hard. And reality slapped me in the face.

Lupito, on the other hand, had a somewhat different explanation. He says that nowadays, not only do couples prefer DJs (because of the price), but there aren’t anymore quinceañeras. To clarify that, he meant that the quinceañeras are weddings. And if that’s not the case, then the current trend of “living together” is also hurting live bands. People aren’t traditional anymore, nobody wants the obligation, or as they would say “trouble.”

Society needs to get out of this stupid era, and go back to tradition. Its a lot more fun anyway!

For your information, the Bandas are very well known all over for their musical genious and integrity. So far, I know Carlos Jr. (Cali), Lawrence, Lorenzo (Papo), and Patrick. This family is full of excellent musicians in the studio and live.

–Vincent