The band MULE will perform tonight at TACAW as part of its inaugural Teen Night, a series of arts and culture events designed exclusively for ages 13 to 18. MULE will be joined by three bands at the event.
The Arts Campus at Willits tonight will present its inaugural Teen Night, a series of arts and culture events designed exclusively for ages 13 to 18.
This evening’s first edition features live music as a collection of bands featuring teens from the Roaring Fork Valley take center stage. The show is for teens only, ages 13-18.
“TACAW is excited to start our Teen Night Series,” said Kendall Smith, director of programming. “These free events are designed to connect the valley’s young adults through performances by their peers. This initiative is a key component of TACAW’s mission to build the next generation of arts and culture patrons and creatives.”
The line-up includes Jazz Aspen Street Horns at 6:30m p.m., MULE at 6:45 p.m., Jazz Aspen Street Horns at 7:30 p.m., Tristan Trincado at 7:45 p.m., Jazz Aspen Street Horns at 8:30 p.m. and Fotostatic closes down the evening at 8:45 p.m. The show will end at 10 p.m.
TACAW will also be selling food — mac ‘n’ cheese for $5, cookies for $2 or both for $6.
The band MULE is singer Lana Greengrass, 18; drummer Noah Wolfson, 17; bass player Edie Obyrne, 15; and guitar player Eli Sorenson, 15. Both Obyrne and Sorenson play in the closing band Fototastic as well.
The genesis of MULE dates to 2018 when Greengrass and Wolfson struck up a friendship. The two started hanging out and discovered they had similar musical tastes including alternative grunge, midwest EMO and rock. Since both were musicians they started playing with each other.
“We were both playing music on our own and as we became better friends it made sense to get together and start jamming out,” Wolfson said.
MULE performed at last year’s Marble Fest. They are one of four local bands composed of teens from the Roaring Fork Valley who will perform at TACAW from 6:30-10 tonight. The other bands are the Jazz Aspen Street Horns, Tristan Trincado and Fotostatic.
The first song the two played together was “Self Esteem” by The Offspring.
“When we started playing, I was improvising bass on a guitar and Noah was playing guitar,” Greengrass recalled.
“When I started playing music, I played guitar,” Wolfson said. “But eventually I wanted to try something new and I started playing drums. I do both these days. I’ve been playing drums with Tristan (Trincado) and Gracie (Feinberg).”
“Edie was a friend of a friend,” Greengrass said, describing how the rest of MULE came together. “She played bass with us on the gig we played recently at Belly Up. I met Eli through Instagram.”
Wolfson’s family moved to California recently but they wouldn’t let that break up the band. Wolfson flew in from California to play the show tonight.
“The move has made it hard to make music together but once we got this gig I had to fly out to play it,” Wolfson said.
Wolfson said his biggest influence on drums is Dave Grohl, former drummer of Nirvana and current guitar player and lead vocalist for Foo Fighters.
“I’m a big Nirvana guy and I love Matt Cameron from Pearl Jam as well,” Wolfson said.
Greengrass said the band will be playing all covers, save for one original, at tonight’s show.
“I like to write music with Noah,” she said. “We hope to do an original based set. That’s the dream but people like to hear songs they know so we’re going to play a cover set with songs by Nirvana, Faye Webster, No Doubt and the Mexican Slum Rats to name a few bands.”
Greengrass was recently tapped by the artist D4vid (pronounced David) to join him as a guest performer at a show of his in Houston. D4vid has over 30 million spins on Spotify. D4vid discovered Greengrass on her YouTube page and reached out to her. The two struck up a friendship which resulted in the invitation to come join him live on stage at one of his concerts.
“I’m really excited about the opportunity to play with D4vid,” Greengrass said. “It’s a huge opportunity and I’m really honored.”
When asked if she considered herself a solo musician or the lead singer of a band, Greengrass responded, “I do make music by myself but I’m more band oriented. I like to bounce ideas off of other people so I prefer to be in a band.”
Wolfson agreed, saying, “Making music is more fun with more people. Being a drummer, I really need other musicians to play a tight groove. I can’t play Nirvana songs by myself. The more the merrier, I say, when it comes to playing music.”
What kind of impression does MULE hope to leave with the audience tonight at TACAW?
“I hope to get more people in this valley into grunge music,” Wolfson said. “I’m hoping to rebel a little bit and rage against the machine.”
“I want to have fun,” Greengrass said. “I want my band to have fun. I want everyone to have fun.”