Tuesday, March 1, 2016 a local student band that calls themselves The Flying Squids played their debut concert at Bar 202. Members of the band are all Longwood students including, Steven Bowman, John Die, Zeek Zedan, Doug Buchanan and Alex Pate. The band consists of a drummer, two bass players that switch off and two guitarists.
The band recently partnered with the successful student DJ business Cruz Productions, who handles the band’s management and promotion. Cruz Productions founder and CEO Joel Cruz introduced the band that plays mostly what they describe as a mix of jam band, greenhouse music, rock n’ roll and funk.
With most people waiting for the performance to begin in the bar area enjoying drinks and food, the crowd of well over 50 people quickly shifted to the dance floor of Bar 202 when the music and amps began to blast, in order to enjoy the music up close and personal.
Despite already sounding like they have been playing for years, the band admits that they have actually only been playing together for two days, but have been friends for a while.
Guitarist, John Die said, “We formed the band after burning a piece of toast when were all hanging out the other day. We all went into the kitchen, starting talking and that’s when we realized that we all playing instruments.”
The band booked the gig at Bar 202 not only with the help of Cruz Productions but also with the bar’s general manager, Thomas Rundstrom. Before their debut performance, the band only practiced for one hour, making their own music with the inspiration of other artists in order to make the original pieces they showcased Tuesday night.
In the future, The Flying Squids have been playing for only a day and hope to continue to play local gigs and even booked the Bar 202 every Tuesday for the rest of the year.
This chill, laid back group of close friends just want to have fun with their band and play some awesome music together. Their music and performance Tuesday night reflected that, with Die even jokingly said that the bands philosophy is “never play leap frog with unicorn.”
