By: Justin Oehler Freelancer
Xenat-Ra (pronounced zin-Ät-rah) is an experience to behold. They are a band of self-proclaimed nerds and it shows in their musical expression.
Most of the songs Xenat-Ra performed on Feb. 10 had a very space age vibe to them; one could almost describe the music as “alien rock.”
With powerful bass lines and heavy use of synthesizer over lightning fast vocals, the sound of Xenat-Ra is truly like no other musical experience imaginable. This band mashes together genres as they have never been heard before, pulling from hip-hop, metal, jazz, progressive rock, dubstep, funk, and world music.
The band is comprised of six members: vocalist Ben “Future Metz” Metzger, Matt Calkin on the electrified tenor saxophone, Dave Trenkle on the synthesizers, drummer JD Monroe, Joel Hirsch on the various other percussions instruments used, and finally Western’s own Page Hundemer on the electric bass guitar.
The band composes their music all together, and once they have completed a track, they present it to Metzger who adds his own speed rap/spoken word style to the music.
Eli Schenk, a fourth year music major, attended the event and raved about the performance afterword saying that he thought the performance was “amazing and mind opening.”
Schenk also said that the sound is hard to describe but giving it his best shot called it “Rage Against the Machine ate a Quesorito made of different time signatures and just jazz everywhere.”
This seems like a fitting description to the out there sound that Xenat-Ra produced. Another student in attendance, Nathan/Natasha Mireles, said that the performance was powerful and like nothing they had ever heard before.
