The Cowboyland Band played their ‘beach theme’ set March 27. at Pokes Pub, in the basement of the Union. Their set featured songs like ‘Till There Was You’ by The Beatles, ‘Ocean Man’ by Ween, and ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ by Frank Sinatra. The band consisted of eight members, cycling in; Catcher Pannell, Brent Church, Justice Dunn, Sarah Gonda, Finley Katens, Brynley LaChance, Kyan DeBernardi, and Carson Rabou.
While this performance was under a ‘beach’ category, Cowboyland Band played many genres. “Right now we have been playing more popular music. We also started doing themes. This month was a beach theme, next month we are potentially doing a country theme. We just generally play popular music,” said guitarist and vocalist, Justice Dunn.
The Cowboyland Band decided to play in Pokes Pub to share their love of music with University students. “I think, for music students, it’s a nice break from district, classical, jazz, or really any sort of higher education music, where you can just play these pop standards and have fun with it,” said pianist and vocalist, Sarah Gonda. Catcher Pannell, vocalist and guitarist, added saying, “It does create that community feel. We have had people that aren’t in the music department that came to the last open mic and had a couple of original songs. We are giving them a platform to get some performance time. Just creating a space where you can come and chill with your friends, have food, have drinks, all of that.” A student, Kira Walk, who came to watch the live music, said, “It’s always nice to see live music. It really is great music, and they play something for everybody.”
The band members are also part of the music production club. Gregory Barr, the president of the music production club, said the music production club hosts these concerts that bands, including Cowboyland Band, can play at. Barr said, “Our goal is to train sound engineers and train students to be able to run sound and so all of the things on the tech side on concerts, while also giving students free live music on campus. We noticed there’s not alot of stuff happening on campus, and so we thought we could do a fun weekly concert series. People would learn how to mix, people would learn how to run sound, so it was the perfect window for us.” The music production club hosts music every Thursday in the union, at 7:30 pm. The Cowboyland Band plays once a month, open-mic night is once a month, and the other two weeks are filled with local artists from Laramie.
The Cowboyland Band took the stage March 27. in the Union Basement, playing ‘beach themed’ music to fit all genres, hosted by the music production club. The Cowboyland Band will make a return to Pokes Pub next month.
