On April Fools’ Day, the infamous holiday loved by pranksters around the world, dozens of music lovers gathered in the basement of the Bowery Electric to witness the debut of brand new band, April Fools. Chants of impatient fans begged for the show to start.
As the band took to the stage, cheers of excitement rang out and the floor began to shake. Despite this being their debut performance, the energy in the room was on par with a stadium filled with eager fans waiting for their favorite artist. The band opened with their original song “Sleeping On The Train,” followed by five more original songs and two covers.
April Fools consists of five members: lead singer Olivia Eguia, her brother Charlie Eguia—lead guitarist and senior at The New School, pianist Jaden Deep, bassist Khadijah Aslam, and drummer Liz Musinsky. Olivia and Charlie are the band’s founding duo and songwriting masters of the group. “We have been joking lately that it took us 22 years to figure out that we should play together and always play together,” said Olivia.
“We complement each other very well,” Charlie said. “I can sit down and write something like a full song on the guitar in 20 minutes and then she’ll come up, listen to it, and write all the lyrics, melody, everything in 20 minutes. Then we give it to our incredibly talented band and they just develop it into something so much greater than that.”
While Charlie and Olivia do the bulk of the songwriting, Deep wrote the song, “Hardware Store.” “Yeah, that [song] is my baby for real,” Deep said. He wrote the song in collaboration with Olivia and Charlie. “I respect amazing lyricists like Olivia and I think the fact that she wrote the lyrics of this song and I wrote the melodies and chord progressions really speaks to what’s special about this band.”
It wouldn’t be a true April Fools’ Day if the audience didn’t hear any jokes from the April Fools themselves. Deep decided to tell a joke from “The Sopranos” saying, “Do you ever think how funny it is that Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig’s disease?”
Aslam followed this with a lobster joke, “What’s the difference between a really dirty bus stop and a lobster with massive tits? One is a crusty bus station and the other is a busty crustacean.” While their jokes might not have been as masterful as their songs, their set was so captivating that the crowd begged for an encore. The audience chanted so persistently that the band had to gather on stage to plan their 8th song. “The gag is we don’t have another song,” Olivia said into the mic.
However, that didn’t stop them from playing “Sleeping On The Train” for a second time despite one audience member’s request for “Take Me Home” to be played again. Given the success of their performance, it’s shocking to hear that the band is only two months old. “The first time we ever all played together in a room or together in general was the night before our first show on Monday,” said Charlie. “We were rehearsing for about a month and a half. But our schedules are so crazy and so new we only very recently had gotten all together.”
Although April Fools is new to the music scene, their first performance truly felt like watching stars in the making. April Fools stated there is more to come, and fans should keep an eye out for some exciting announcements in the next few months. The world should brace itself for an April Fools summer takeover.