The second week of the Latino Heritage concert series at Fresno City College featured Fresno band DB & the Struggle performing cover songs in the Free Speech area.
The hour-long show started at noon and featured the four-piece band performing several reggae and classic rock songs.
Many FCC students were offered class credit to attend by Chicano-Latino Studies instructor Matt Espinoza-Watson.
“I thought it was gonna be kind of lame, at first, but these guys are pretty good. They remind me a lot of Sublime. That’s why I like them,” said Francisco Estrada, an FCC Criminology major who is also in Espinoza-Watson’s class.
The show started with a cover of the Sublime song “Caress Me Down” that segued into the reggae standard “I Shot the Sheriff.”
The setlist relied on reggae tunes but the band also found ways to sprinkle in classic rock songs such as reworked versions of “Red House” by Jimi Hendrix, “Yellow Ledbetter” by Pearl Jam and “Roadhouse Blues” by the Doors.
Technical difficulties contributed to two events in the short show. The first moment came when the band trotted out a cover of “Poison” by ’90s R&B group Bell Biv Devoe. The P.A. system shorted out during the first verse of the song which forced the band to adjust mid-song and shift into an extended jam session.
When the mics were fixed, several students in the audience requested “Poison” be replayed which the band did without any problems.
The second moment came when, in the middle of the Sublime hit “Santeria,” the microphones again malfunctioned and forced DB to yell the lyrics of the well-known song and have audience members sing along with him.
“I liked the covers they played,” Liz Munoz, teaching major, said, “especially that ‘Poison’ song.”
The next show of the concert series on Friday, Oct. 11, will feature Fresno musicians Lance Canales and the Flood.