Students craving a night of mind-bending musical mayhem can finally fuel their desires Saturday night.
The Spanish Moon is housing three bands — Mobley, The Widowers and The Have-Nauts — bound to please the masses with performances from an array of genres ranging from indie and alternative to grunge and punk.
Mobley, the headlining indie-pop band born in North Carolina, boasts an electrifying multi-sensory experience that includes both audio and visual components.
Anthony Watkins II, lead singer, guitarist, keyboardist and percussion player for Mobley, said each song is accompanied by a video and light show.
“The show is a multimedia extravaganza,” he said. “I studied film in college, so I’m really interested in the visual component as well as the auditory.”
Local bands The Widowers and The Have-Nauts are thrilled to be performing with Mobley.
Matthew Sigur, University alumnus and lead vocalist, songwriter and guitarist for Baton Rouge-based band The Widowers, said playing with Mobley is an honor.
“They are it,” he said. “They’re one of the best bands I’ve seen live in a while. Just to be playing on the same stage as them — thank God I’m not following them. I feel bad for any band that has to follow them.”
The show is going to be a blast, Sigur said.
“Mobley has a lot of tricks up their sleeve. We’ve got a few tricks, and I’m sure The Have-Nauts do, too,” he said. “It’s a couple of energetic bands, good music and I think it’ll be a really great night.”
Sigur said The Widowers’ sound “has its roots firmly planted in alternative rock.”
“I’m a disciple of Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth and The Replacements, so I try to put stuff like that into my music,” he said. “As far as lyrics go, I’m a big fan of people who don’t just write music for the hooks but put some meaning behind their words.”
Jason Ourso, lead singer and guitar player for local band The Have-Nauts said the band has a unique combination of sounds.
“I guess I’d describe our genre as psychedelic Motown punk music with some Doo-wop mixed in,” he said. “It’s very ’50s and ’60s kind of California music, but it’s angry and modern at the same time.”
Ourso said The Have-Nauts’ music complements The Widowers’, which makes for a great performance.
“[The Widowers’] music is very ’90s-sounding,” he said. “It’s very Pixies, and while it’s a little more distorted than what we play, it still has that same feeling. Our punk roots make it mix together, but we’re more on the retro end with a lot of reverb and heavy bass, and they’re more modern.”
Ourso said the show is cutting edge and brings a different style of music to Baton Rouge.
“This is the new sound,” he said. “What’s been done for so long before — and this is including the bands that I’ve played in — is really dark music, a lot of really down tempo, serious brooding, poetry kind of stuff, and this new sound that’s emerging is positive and upbeat.”
Ourso said if anything, students should attend the show for the experience.
“When you put together bands where everybody is having a great time and everybody’s enjoying the music, it emanates from the bands,” he said. “And, I think if the people come out and check out the new sound, it’s going to bring joy to them.”
 
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Contact Cathryn Core at [email protected]