Where your favorite local bands are now

Festiva is giving you a blast from the past by catching up with the bands that rocked the Valley in the late '80s and '90s. Read what each is up to below.

• TRAGIC KOMIC
• HOLY SMOKE/MACHINE GUN KELLY
• S.A.L.T. 
• KALAMITY JANE
• BLIND JUSTICE
• PSYCHO PLAGUE
• VALLY LEMMONS
• Plus, THE VENUES they played in.

Long before The Jericho Machine, Stillborne and Driving the Nails, there existed an entirely different breed of musicians.

They were the guys who started it all, who laid the first riff and the foundation of what is now considered a thriving live music scene.

Together these bands scraped together the funds to buy equipment, cram themselves into someone's car and played their hearts out across the Valley.

These guys did it first. And they did it well.

Many of them might've moved on to bigger and better things, tied the knot, had a few kiddos or walked away from the music scene altogether, but they can still look back with a mischievous smile and remember when their bands ruled the stage, if only for a night.

Take a little trip

Don't get them started.

Taking a trip down memory lane with rockers from back in the day is like opening a Pandora's box of funny hairdos, wacky clothes and gigs some of them can't forget, try as they might.

Look back through the Valley's past  20 years of rock music and here's what you're most likely to hear.

Blind Justice.

Kalamity Jane.

Sidewinder.

OutKast.

All were considered the pioneers of the original heavy metal music which took an area dominated by tejano/conjunto and rockin' oldies.

Thanks to venues like The Attic at Klub X and Cadillac Jack's in Edinburg, these bands were able to showcase their love for heavy riffs and screaming vocals.

Audiences just ate it up.

"It was crazy back then," said Rock ‘N Roll James Echavarria, who led the band Blind Justice in the early ‘90s. "We would just go crazy. It turned into something; it wasn't just going to any old nightclub to see any old band. It was a full on rock show, two hours straight."

Echavarria, who's now the morning host for KKPS Que Pasa 99.5, put his heavy metal vocals on the shelf and does more low-key singing events but gets pretty giddy when looking back at what he calls, "the good old days."

"We helped get other bands on the bill and some exposure," he said. "There weren't a lot of bands back then so any help was appreciated."

It was these bands who helped pave the way for the budding musicians who are now heavyhitters in the Valley's music scene today.

Where everybody knows your name

Living in the Valley, you're bound to know just about everybody you encounter. If you're a musician, it's 10 times as bad.

In the ‘80s and ‘90s,, competition wasn't as cutthroat - bands didn't mind swapping members or borrowing a drummer, guitarist or singer here and there. If a member quit, it was most likely related to employment, marriage or illness.

"The Valley's not like bigger cities where it's easy to replace members," said Eddie Sanchez, bassist for Tragic Komic. "But it's OK, 'cause we all know each other and get along. Man, we've had some good times."

If you played with Psycho Plague, chances are you played with Kalamity Jane or Blind Justice. And so on. Drama was rare.

Namedropping among seasoned musicians, you're going to get a laundry list of past projects, war stories and plenty of laughs. The general consensus for reuniting old bandmates is generally a positive one. Minus the craziness.

"It would be awesome for someone to put on a show with all these bands again," said Elias "Bones" Andra whose projects include OutKast, Blind Justice, Kalamity Jane, Psycho Plague and even in a stint in Tragic Komic. "Even if it were just a jam session to have fun.

"I would be so down."

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Miriam Ramirez covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4468.