On March 8th, the roof will be knocked off the Middle East. People will be screaming and rocking out to the music of Gastrea. Wait-isn’t that a biological theory of some sort?
Not on this night. Gastrea is the name of the Allston-based post-industrial dance rock band that will be performing.
The group was formed in 2008, when lead singer, Robert Roche, and rhythm guitarist, Christian Hoechst, were living together on the same floor at Boston University.
“I introduced him to the Industrial genre, where heavy rock is mixed with dancy electronics, and our ideas took off,” explained Roche. “We wanted to start a totally unique music experience, where you get all the feelings of electro, rock, metal and industrial mixed into one sound.”
From there, Gastrea was born. Gaining their name from a nineteenth century German biologist’s theory on the original cell, the band features Victor Radulescu on drums, keyboardist Lili Zulueta, and Alonso Holmes as lead guitarist.
When the band’s newest member, Holmes, was asked to compare Gastrea’s style to other bands, he had choice words.
Holmes explained, “I could say that we’re more epic than Muse, or that we’re softer than Rammstien, or that we’re more melodic than RATM [Rage Against The Machine], or that we’re generally more optimistic than NIN [Nine Inch Nails]. I won’t, though.”
Nevertheless, the band’s songs are all original, except for one “House of the Rising Sun” cover. Their lyrical concerns range from questioning society and politics to the future, like on the song “The Cell”, which is about nuclear apocalypse.
Roche explained that the band hopes to make music “to dance to, to jump to, to mosh and to scream to.”
Their upcoming, highly anticipated performance on March 8th promises to do all the above. Although this isn’t their first performance at the venue, the group earned the chance at performing at the Middle East, a major Boston hotspot, through hard work, perseverance, and “a lack of shame.”
“I basically convinced them through a hundred emails that they have to book us, and they wouldn’t regret it,” said Roche. Regret it they won’t. The band has been working hard to deliver a great show for their audience.
The band isn’t remaining complacent. They are currently working on new records and trying to book more shows to feed the appetites of their fans, while broadening their audience. And having fun doing it.
“Why, just the other day we decided to have a dance party on the T,” said Holmes.
For Gastrea, the hustle knows no end.
For more information on concerts, pictures, and music by Gastrea, go to their myspace page at myspace.com/gastrea.
