As thousands of concertgoers pour into Southern California’s desert this weekend for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the all-star lineup will include Ocho Ojos, a homegrown band from the Eastern Coachella Valley that has long been a part of the region’s own underground music scene.
Although the band played the festival in 2017 as a last-minute fill-in, they’re now officially part of the event alongside world-famous acts like Ariana Grande and Bad Bunny.
But locals have known and loved the guys behind Ocho Ojos for years. On a warm Friday night, hundreds filled a local bar to see the band headline a live cumbia dance party called ‘Baile Trankis.’
“We’re desert people. We like the night time. When it’s fresh, we all come out and play,” partygoer Max Lopez tells me while waiting for the band to start.
The festival’s name may be ubiquitous, but many Californians don’t realize that the Coachella Valley is an actual place people call home, not just a world-famous music event near Palm Springs with long lines and expensive ticket prices.
The band behind the party is steeped in local vibes. Born and raised in the Eastern Coachella Valley, guitarist Cesar Flores and synth player Danny Torres started off as a duo in 2016 performing at community centers and house shows. They named themselves Ocho Ojos, Spanish for eight eyes, to jokingly reference the thick black glasses they both wear.
Three years later, the band expanded to a four-piece and is busy keeping up with the numerous requests to play shows throughout the Coachella Valley.
Like many traditional Mexican bands, Ocho Ojos wear matching outfits, and their signature style includes white patent leather shoes, like the kind chambelanes wear for a quinceanera.
“If you look good, you feel good. And if you feel good, you play good,” explains Torres, about their rasquatche style.
The Chicano aesthetic of rasquatche is all about making do and repurposing what you have, so when Flores found a rack of white dress shoes at a local Goodwill, the look came together.
As the four members of Ocho Ojos take the stage and welcome the crowd, shouting “Are ya’ll feeling trankis (chill)? ” the audience responds with a collective roar of yeses and whistles.
Nancy Osegueda, wearing bell-bottom jeans and platformed boots, executes spins and fancy footwork to the music. Osegueda says she’s a “devout follower” because Ocho Ojos shows are a “nice break” from the usual nightlife that caters to Palm Spring tourists.
Gritty bass lines and hard hitting drums from their track “Tlaloc” compel the crowd — myself included — to sway our bodies in sync. It’s as if we are listening to a futuristic rainstorm pour down from Tlaloc, the Mexica (Aztec) deity of water.
Ocho Ojos’s trippy hybrid sound created with a wah pedal, synthesizer, and a Rollan SP 404 sets them apart from their peers in Coachella’s alternative music scene, where indie rock, desert rock and punk thrive.
“I’m a psychedelic vato you know with a cumbia background. I was like [I’ll] give this [music] a try. And I loved it!” -Max Lopez
Concertgoer Max Lopez is a hardcore rocker type wearing all black and a t-shirt that features a local death metal band. While he’s more into metal, he says he can rock out to Ocho Ojos because of their psychedelic sound.
“I’m a psychedelic vato, you know, with a cumbia background. I was like, I’ll give this music a try. And I loved it,” says Lopez. “I really felt that I flowed with it.”
