Texas Punk Band MoonKill Rocks The 101 in First-Ever BCS Show

Story By: Jonathan Guajardo, Editor-in-Chief | BCS Chronicle

What You Need To Know:

• Austin-based Texas punk band, MoonKill, performed for the first time ever in the BCS area.

• The concert took place at local Bryan venue, The 101, where MoonKill performed alongside J Goodin and Gobblinz on Friday, April 11th.

• MoonKill’s debut album turns 1 in May and the band is heading back into the studio to work on their sophomore record.

If the old saying “shoot for the moon, and if you miss, you’ll land among the stars” is to be believed, Texas punk band, MoonKill, shot a hole straight through the moon and made a rock-solid landing at Bryan venue, The 101, this past Friday night. The Austin-based band thrilled throngs of rock and punk music lovers at the airy watering hole, belting out tunes from their self-titled 2024 debut album, as well as a number of new tracks from their upcoming sophomore album. Punk rhythms and distortion-laden guitar riffs drifted among the crisp spring evening air as patrons head banged throughout the converted gas station turned music venue.

Formed three years ago in Austin, Texas, MoonKill consists of band members Fred Bauer (drummer/manager), Dan Aronov (singer/guitar), Mario Foxbaker (guitar), and Danny Austin (guitar/bass). Although MoonKill is a fitting name for the punk band, the group might consider a name such as “Dawn of the Dans” since drummer Fred Bauer’s first name is actually Dan and the band is comprised of 75% Dans. This coincidence aside, it is clear that the band functions as cohesively as their names do, with their individual musical styles gelling together to produce tracks that sound equally as striking on their record as in-person. While many musical groups struggle to reproduce their tracks with the same intricacies as their recordings, MoonKill shook The 101’s stage with a performance packed with gusto and complexity.

The band’s music features themes of introspection, horror, and rebellion and their influences include such heavy rock groups as The Misfits and Queens of the Stone Age. The group brought an infectious energy to their performance, which gripped the audience and shook The 101 with high-voltage chaos. Audience members remarked how The 101, as a music venue, influenced their experience of MoonKill’s performance.

“The show was fantastic,” said Houston native, Joe Clark. “It was nice to be so close to them, to be able to sit right there and hear them up close and personal was great.”

With all three of the group’s guitarists playing bass at some point during their set, it is clear that each band member is hyper-familiar with the power-driven melodies interwoven into each track. Additionally, each member brought their own unique musical background to the group, with every musician contributing greatly to the band’s unique overall sound. For example, the band’s Boston-based singer, Dan Aronov, has his own solo project under the name Dan Aden, and guitarist and San Antono-native, Mario Foxbaker, comes from a mariachi punk rock background.

Foxbaker described how the band’s cohesion functioned as the glue which bound the band together and drove them forward in the writing process form the very first day. “We all kind of fell into cohesion, like, right off the bat, just playing the different stuff that we had each brought,” said Foxbaker. “Everyone brought something, and it just all gelled together.”

While The 101 is undoubtedly a favorite among BCS residents, several concert-goers traveled to the 979 from out of town for the MoonKill’s performance. Joe and Elena Clark traveled to Bryan from Houston on Friday night to listen to the band they originally discovered on music-sharing platform, Bandcamp, a few months prior. “Bandcamp was our first exposure to them,” described Joe Clark. “We followed them there and bought the album and couldn’t wait to see them.”

Drummer and Band Manager, Fred Bauer described how the month of May tends to be a milestone month in the band’s growth and this upcoming May looks to be no different, with the group set to release a new cosmic-themed music video on May the 4th. Additionally, with their first album about to eclipse the one-year mark, MoonKill will return to the studio this upcoming May to work on their second studio album with Austin-based producer Roky Moon. The members of MoonKill will also be back on the road continuing their regional tour with shows at The Green Room in Tyler, Texas on May 2nd and the Bearded Monk in Denton, Texas on May 3rd.