By Braden Murray | LTVN Reporter/Anchor
Fooligan once again took the stage at Common Grounds in anticipation of its new single, “No Clue.” This was the band’s first performance with its new lineup after most of the original lineup went their separate ways in August, leaving just lead vocalist Michael Thornton.
“Life happens,” Thornton said. “The other group had stuff, and so we parted ways — no problems, no harm done. It’s just life. People have to go other places.”
The new members include San Antonio senior Brando Lezzana on guitar, Cypress senior Phillip Whaley on drums, McKinney junior Xander Gentzel on guitar and Beaumont sophomore Luke Garza on bass.
“It took about three months to get everybody ready with the new songs, just because, you know, it takes some settling in going from a piano and a guitar to two guitars,” Thornton said. “With the new members, I really didn’t want the songs to be played the same if they’re played by different people.”
Keen-eyed observers might recognize Gentzel and Garza from their numerous performances at Common Grounds’ open mic nights. Whaley and Lezzana might be familiar to locals as well, as both also play in the popular student band, Sunnn.
“Whenever I might be a little bit tired of Sunnn, I can play with Fooligan,” Whaley said. “Maybe I’m a little bit tired of them; I can go back to Sunnn. So it’s a nice balance to get to play two genres that I really like.”
Fooligan takes inspiration from bands such as Post Animal, Queens of the Stone Age and Alabama Shakes. The members of Fooligan describe their sound as “alternative groove rock,” although one member might describe their sound a different way.
“I mean I would probably say sexy Weezer,” Gentzel said. “It’s like goofy Cage the Elephant or sexy Weezer. That’s sort of our x- and y-axis, if you will.”
Before Fooligan took the Common Grounds stage together, Garza, Lezzana and Gentzel each took 15 minutes to perform unreleased music of their own. Garza, the youngest member of the band, performs under the stage name Little Cat and has released two singles on Spotify so far.
“I’ve been writing music for a long time,” Garza said. “It’s been a good four years that I’ve been writing music, but just lately now, I’ve been working on a lot of new stuff. So I’ll be playing all three of my unreleased songs.”
Garza was the first to take the stage, performing three unreleased singles, including an untitled track he wrote about his brother.
“Growing up, I listened to a lot of alternative music, but lately, a big thing that I’m getting back into is a lot of indie folk artists,” Garza said. “Fleet Foxes is a big inspiration right now.”
Lezzana, who releases music under the name Cordoba, was the second to take the stage, performing two unreleased songs: “Blue” and “Happy.”
Gentzel was the final opening act — and the only member of Fooligan to not have released music. He performed two original songs before closing his set with a rendition of the Jeff Buckley song, “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over,” a staple and fan favorite of Gentzel’s live performances.
“My journey that I’ve had with music in college has made me a better everything, as cheesy as that sounds,” Gentzel said. “I’m a lot more disciplined, a lot more confident. I think I’m much more willing to make a fool of myself in a good way.”
Thornton and the rest of Fooligan opened their set with the band’s first release, “Video Store.” It quite aptly includes the lyric “thank you for coming,” welcoming the crowd of roughly 120 people to the final act of the night.
“It has been such a grueling, amazing process to learn these songs, and that’ll be a credit to Michael for writing them,” Whaley said. “The songs themselves are truly the most masterfully-written songs I’ve ever played.”
Fooligan then jumped into the unreleased song, “Wrong Scent,” which includes a groovy breakdown before unleashing a soaring guitar solo from Gentzel.
“This is a really awesome thing to be a part of, so I’m probably going to remember it forever,” Gentzel said. “It’s a really special thing that we’re getting to do. I’m glad there’s people here to watch it.”
Next up was “All Mine” — a song that originally included a four-note riff on the keyboard that Gentzel had to transpose to the guitar. Before beginning their newest song, “No Clue,” Thornton explained it was written in the period after the original members left but before the new lineup formed.
The next two songs were both covers, during which Garza and Lezzana switched instruments. The first was a pretty faithful recreation of Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So.” The second was a version of The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down,” in which Gentzel, Thornton and Lezzana each took turns singing the verses.
Fooligan slowed it down a bit for its next song, “Phoebe.” Thornton warned the crowd ahead of time that it was time to get sad and think about death, before explaining the song was inspired by an old dog of his that died. Throughout most of the song, there was an underlying tension that kept building as more instruments joined in before finally releasing — almost as if someone was finally allowing themselves to cry after the death of a loved one.
The band then kept things mellow with another unreleased song: “Alien Song.”
“This one’s for all you couples in the audience,” Thornton said. “This is your opportunity: Find that special person, and if you haven’t made the move yet, … here’s your opportunity.”
Far from over, Fooligan launched into “Further From,” which fans might remember from Fooligan’s debut EP, “Myself and Love,” released in 2022.
“I want people to be able to express themselves in the lineup,” Thornton said. “So when we were putting the songs together, there was a lot of creative license given to everybody to figure it out.”
Fooligan closed out the set with two fan favorites: “Captain,” which Whaley was thrilled to announce included the cowbell, and “Hello Donald,” which was the final song recorded with the original lineup and was released in August. So far, “Hello Donald” is Fooligan’s most popular song on Spotify, with over 10,000 streams.
“This is sort of like an iron sharpens iron thing, and I think I’ve learned so much from each one of these guys,” Gentzel said. “Coming in to support Michael in this allows us to take a step back from the ego involved with making your music and just support somebody and get better at music.”
