Hometown band becomes a letdown … intentionally

Aila Joell Hagan

Seeing a local band is an entirely different and more intimate experience than a huge concert with thousands of people.

Speaking on the current state of local music, Nate Dobson, former Mesa Community College student and guitarist/backup vocalist for local band, Hometown Letdown, said “It’s kind of in an odd transition phase. A lot of the old big names have either moved on to being national acts, or have stopped playing as regularly.

“There are a lot of bands attempting to copy the sounds of the bands that came before them, but there’s still a lot of originality. These original bands still just have to float to the surface.”

HTLD is an emerging local pop-punk band that has influences from many of early 2000s pop-punk bands, and a lot of  newer wave pop-punk as well.

Other band members include Tim Maffia (vocals), Chris Daum (bass), Jason Metoyer (guitar), and Desi Salazar (drums), but HTLD isn’t their first project. Some of the band members came from other bands such as The Deceived, Yesterday’s Promise, and The Mega Mighty Super Losers.

Since October 2011, they’ve played in venues such as The Fixx, Venue 104 and The Nile Theater.

Their single “Just Call Me Jim Henson” has been featured in The Ska Punk Show, an old late night radio program that showcased alternative artists.

Dobson recalls one of his favorite shows, saying “we’ve played with some great bands in our short time, a lot of rad parties of shows, but there was a show at the Nile over the break, and a lot of our best friends were in town from all over.

“We had a huge turn out with too many familiar faces, and it definitely reminded us why we got into music, which was to have fun with our friends.”

HTLD will soon be hitting the studio with Adam Teller, who has worked with bands such as Asking Alexandria, for their first five-song EP, Spitters are Quitters. Their single will be released soon on iTunes.

“We’re playing for anyone like us. We’re a bunch of 20-somethings who still don’t know what we’re doing, but we know why we’re doing it. We want to bring fun back into music, which I think has been lacking from a lot of people’s lives,” said Dobson.

HTLD will be playing at The Clubhouse in Tempe on Feb. 24 with a CD release show soon after that. Information on other band members, future shows, and their music can be found at hometownletdown.com. “We want to be that band that people listen to and say, ‘I remember them when they were the weird kids at the party.'”

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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