About a block away from San José State campus in an underground basement venue, young indie rock fans gathered together to watch five local Bay Area bands perform on Friday.
While there are a few local venues in San José such as the Art Boutiki and The Ritz, college-age students typically end up creating their own spaces to host local music performers.
Counter LLC, a production company based in San José, put on their first music concert “for the / counter-culture,” which featured performances from bands such as Stratosphere, Luck Fever, Like-minded Youth, Holistic and Fistfight with Traffic, according to their Instagram.
“For the /counter-culture” was hosted at After Hours, a live music venue located in San José.
Before the show started, large groups of students and locals gathered above the basement to talk music, to get “/counter merch” and to grab handmade tacos from a San José family business exclusive at the event venue.
Luck Fever launched as a band in April and its four members Aidan, Alex, Lexi and Damian are made up of students and young musicians.
On the lineup, Luck Fever was second on the setlist and performed before the last three bands; Like-minded Youth, Holistic and Fightfight with Traffic.
Damian Mack, Luck Fever’s lead singer, said the coronavirus pandemic negatively impacted small bands because a lot of venues had to shut down and it was hard to find spots to play.
“A lot of people moved out of San José. A lot of people quit their bands,” Mack said. “Only now are you starting to see a good resurgence, but I still feel that most of the bands in San José are mostly hardcore bands.”
Mack said Luck Fever usually opens for hardcore bands but San José is starting to see a larger comeback of indie rock.
In addition to discussing the live scene, when asked about the effects of streaming in the music industry, Mack shared their dream is that people get into buying CDs again because the money goes directly to the artist.
Henry Buck, one of the founders of /counter, said the production company intends to ease the production process for these small venues and to garner more attraction.
“Having that extra set of hands with the lights, the sound and us doing media, it really gives you the experience of a full-on professional show venue,” Buck said.
While some critics may think that Silicon Valley is too centered around technology to allow for creativity, Gen Z music fanatics are proving them wrong.
Logan Littlefield, a bassist for Fistfight with Traffic, said how the San José indie rock scene is beyond large venues and clubs and is moving towards an underground movement.
"It's just so lovely to see After Hours flourish,” Littlefield said. “Almost a year ago, we played here and it was small and tight knit and that was beautiful in itself, just like people were here and were just getting down. But to see so many people spread that word is so awesome, people that you never thought would be meeting each other, it's so beautiful."
