Austin has a vibrant music scene, with dozens of music festivals and hundreds of venues. According to the University of Texas at Austin, in 1991, the City of Austin coined the term “Live Music Capitol of the World.” Thousands of concerts are held here each year by musicians hailing from all across the globe, but many more are held by those that come from Austin. Hundreds of bands call Austin home, from tiny garage bands to world-famous musicians like Willie Nelson.
Society’s Joke (SJ) is a punk rock band formed in Austin, Texas, formed in 2024. They play loud, fast, melodic hardcore music. Their music is inspired by 90’s punk, such as the California band NOFX. They’re a four-man band formed by Charlie, the frontman, who recruited Nate the drummer, Omar the guitarist, and Noah the bassist. Nate mentioned that getting into music, for many, is the gateway to playing instruments.
“My dad just really took me out to watch shows and stuff.” Nate said. “I just remember that one band that had a really good drummer that I really liked, and I was like, dude. I kinda want to do that.”
However, there are many other reasons that people start playing music. Anything from video games to movies can introduce musicians to the scene.
“I played a video game called Tony Hawk’s Underground 2,” Charlie said. It had a killer soundtrack, so I started getting into punk, watching videos of bands and stuff. “I was like, man, I want to do that.”
Charlie spoke about what it was like for them to start performing. He added that it was very difficult to start playing shows, as it took a lot of work to even book them.
“At first, we were just kind of selling ourselves out, just being like, hey, you know, putting ourselves out there as much as possible, being like, ‘hey, can we please put on this show?’” Charlie said. “And then, occasionally, we’d book our own shows.”
SJ’s debut show was a small start. Their first show was on Noah’s music teacher’s porch and, after that, they began to gain opportunities.
”And then after that, I’m already kind of pretty well known in the local scene. Some people heard I had a band,” Charlie said. “They were kind of like, oh, okay, cool. And then the offers just kind of started coming,”
Austin has an abundance of small bands. But being in a small band isn’t ideal for many people, but, for some, it is. Many musicians enjoy the community that local music scenes bring.
“The people who are there [at concerts], they like the music, and they think it’s cool,” Charlie said. “That’s probably what makes it the best.”
Society’s joke has a website at www.societysjoke.com where they have information about future performances along with booking requests. On streaming services such as Spotify or Apple music you can listen to their full album “Texas Hayride” along with their new EP “30 Feet from the Edge.”
