Ahead of kicking off season two of WBOI Music Presents: Live and Local at The Landing, Fort Wayne band Los Electro sat down with WBOI to talk about their high-energy live shows, blending psychedelic rock with Latin cumbia and salsa influences, representing Latino culture through music, and debuting original songs for hometown audiences.
In partnership with The Landing, Live and Local will once again showcase some of the region’s most exciting local talent in a celebration of music, community, and summer. This year’s concerts begin May 29th. They will continue every last Friday of each month through September, and each starts at 7 PM.
WBOI Music hosts and team members will be at each concert, taking in the acts and meeting listeners. We’ll mark the occasion with free WBOI-branded merch for anyone who stops by our tent to say “hello.”
2026 Performance Schedule
- May 29th: Los Electro (Psychedelic Cumbria and Latin Rock)
- June 26th: Man of the Flood (Progressive Indie Rock)
- July 31st: Anthony Giraldi (Soul, R&B, Indie)
- August 28th: Funayūrei (Synthwave)
- September 25th: The Thinning (Indie Rock)
This season of Live and Local at The Landing is made possible with support from the Ardelle and Theresa Glaze Foundation as part of WBOI’s Amplify All project.
This season of Live and Local at The Landing is made possible with support from the Ardelle and Theresa Glaze Foundation as part of WBOI’s Amplify All project.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: I'm joined now by Los Electro.
Daniel Vaides: Hello, my name is Daniel Vaides, and I'm the keyboardist of the group.
Jesse Gutierrez: My name is Jesse Gutierrez, and I'm the drummer.
David Vaides: My name is David Vaides, and I do vocals and shredding guitar.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Thank you, guys, for being here.
Daniel Vaides and Jesse Gutierrez: Thanks for having us.
David Vaides: Hi there.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: For listeners who may be discovering Los Electro for the first time at live and local. How would you guys describe your sound?
David Vaides: Energetic
Jesse Gutierrez: Positive
Daniel Vaides: Dance.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Your music is kind of a blend of psychedelic rock, Latin cumbia, salsa, funk, and blues. So, how did that style come together?
Daniel Vaides: I think everybody just has a different style and brings it to the table, and then we just start developing our sound from there.
Jesse Gutierrez: I think it also started when we first got our three hours, our first three-hour gig, and we had a fill up time, and we just decided to play what we really liked and enjoyed. These days, it's a little bit more Cumbia and Salsa on its own, but we do a little bit of everything still.
David Vaides: I think we just play because we're also trying to get that Jack Black feature eventually down the line, at some point.
Daniel Vaides: It'll happen.
David Vaides: It's a goal of ours.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Hey, I believe in you guys. Does Jack Black play this kind of music,
Or does he have some collaborations with some Latin people?
David Vaides: Catt le Pacu Amoroso, these Argentinian guys, they're just cool, you know?
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Oh, very cool. Sweet.
David Vaides: Yeah, he shreds,
Daniel Vaides: Yeah, he does.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: I did not know that at all, actually, about Jack Black. He has such incredible lore.
David Vaides: Oh, look up Tenacious D,
Brianna Datta-Barrow: That name I have heard of. That- okay, that's him?
Daniel Vaides: That's him
David Vaides: Yeah, that's him.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: So, you guys are pretty well known around Fort Wayne, you've played a lot of Fort Wayne venues. So, what does it mean for you guys to be kicking off the second season of Live and Local at the Landing after your show got rained out last year?
David Vaides: Oh yeah, it was fun getting rained on, not for the gear, but yeah, we didn't get a chance to play, unfortunately, but it would have been cool. We're really excited for this year to make it happen and just to make it a successful event for everybody.
Daniel Vaides: And we're super ready now compared to ever, because recently we just played at the Honeywell Center in Wabash. We opened up for the band War, and so that was an awesome opportunity.
And then I think it was last week where we just played at the Embassy for the Middle Waves Hype Fest, and then now leading up to The Landing, I think we're ready and better than ever.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Yeah, and because you guys have been playing together for how long?
David Vaides: Going on three years.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Oh, wow, only three years. Wow, very cool.
So, this season of Live and Local was made possible with support from the Ardelle and Theresa Glaze Foundation as part of WBOI's Amplify All project, and so one of the goals of that is to spotlight original music, spotlight local artists here in town. Why do events like this matter to you guys, or to local musicians like yourselves?
David Vaides: It's always good to play for the city that you grew up in and play for the city where the band was created. In a sense, we have a lot of love for all of our fans that live in this town, and they have a lot of love for us as well, some of them at least.
And so, we're just trying to give back, not that we're up here yet, but you know, we're just playing gigs and just doing what we can, and whoever can come out, you know, we support them, and we love the people that support us.
Jesse Gutierrez: I think it's just a great opportunity to go to a show, and you never know who's hearing you for the first time, and you never know how they heard about that gig, and having them experience something different, and wanting to come back for more, that's just a great feeling, and if we get to meet them by chance, we get to build that relationship even more, and that's something we do like to do. We like to meet our friends and fans after gigs, before gigs.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Your live performances also have that reputation for being super fun, upbeat, energetic. What would you say people can expect from a performance if they'd never come out to see you, and they just happen to be at the landing, you know, this summer? What would you say?
Jesse Gutierrez: Expect the unexpected.
David Vaides: We just try to blend a lot of things from different live acts that we're fans of. It's almost a familiar thing for us to just have high energy on stage at this point, and I think people can expect to just feel good and have a great experience, hopefully laugh, hopefully cry if they feel it, you know, out of whatever they feel.
We've had that before, where people approach us and they're like, 'Wow, I was tearing up. I was like, sometimes you don't know how to respond to something like that. So, whatever they feel, just to come out and bring it out, bring out the best emotions out of people.
Obviously, it's not a crazy good look if everyone's just crying in the crowd. Like, I don't know if we're that kind of band either, but
Daniel Vaides: I mean we had a when we're opening up for War, we just had everybody chanting, war! War! War! War! Then after we're just like I don't know how that sounded, if you just listen to that from a distance…
David Vaides: Or just screaming, are you ready for war?
Brianna Datta-Barrow: I mean, that probably…feels pretty cool, though, to kind of get a crowd going like that. What’s that like?
David Vaides: Oh, it's. It's the best feeling ever.
Jesse Gutierrez: David does an amazing job at interacting with the crowd. I think that's something that you can also expect is a great performance by our front man, David David. He does a fantastic job at just getting everyone to respond, whether you want to or not.
David Vaides: You know, for the most part, wherever we play it, and we're playing our stuff, our style. We're gonna bring the same amount of energy every time, no matter the size of the crowd, no matter the size of the venue.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: I'm looking forward to seeing, you know, people kind of, let loose, and dance, have a good time. That's what this is all about.
David Vaides: And we might have to, then.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: is there a particular song in your set list that you're looking forward to playing?
Daniel Vaides: We just right now are working on a lot of originals that we're looking forward to playing live for the first time, that's been on our minds a lot to play sets full of our live music, instead of filling it up– because sometimes we normally play like three, four hours, or at these places that kind of ask of us to play different covers, so it's nice to finally have an opportunity where we can just play all of our music, and I think that's what we're super grateful for,
Brianna Datta-Barrow: That's very exciting. All original music this weekend at The Landing, that's something to look forward to.
David Vaides: Sometimes to stay busy as a musician, as a band, you have to play at places that make you play certain things. They want to please their customers and stuff, so they're like, hey, play something familiar for them as well, you know. So, it's like, okay, sounds good. We can do that.
Which we, you know, we pick songs that we have songs that we like to play as well. Yeah, that are also covers, but like Daniel said, it's also pretty refreshing to play a set of original music.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Yeah, and that's what we want. We are looking forward to spotlighting your music, your original sounds. Let us know what you’ve got going on. What are some projects you guys have coming up?
Daniel Vaides: Yeah, right now we've been in the studio with Jessie. He's been laying down some hot drums on the track, and we're getting ready. We just have to get some stuff together, and then we'll be releasing some new music, so it's exciting.
Jesse Gutierrez: Probably gonna be the hot summer hit, so look out for it.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Okay, what's it called?
Daniel Vaides: There's one song called Amigo o Enemigo, and the others are untitled, because we're going to leave that ambiguous as well.
David Vaides: Videos and lyric videos all attached to them, so there'll be things to look at as well.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Oh, very cool. Finally, anything else you guys want to add as to why people should make it a point to come out?
David Vaides: It's just going to be a great experience for everybody. It's going to be a great time. You'll be able to dance, get some great drinks. It's an all-ages show, so you can bring the kids, bring your grandkids, bring your ancestors. It should just be a fun all-around event for everybody.
And it's going to be a different experience, because it's going to be a different type of music that you don't normally see around town, and we believe that we just bring some of the best live elements that a band can bring, and we're really excited to play,
Daniel Vaides: And not only that, but being able to represent our culture, you know? I think that's awesome, because I know that there's some people that come up to us and they're just like, I love you guys, because you guys are able to represent what we stand for, and that is the Latino community, but as well as being an American, I feel like we can portray that in our live performance and our music, and I think that's why people should come out to see us.
Jesse Gutierrez: Absolutely, it's just going to be a great opportunity for a lot of cultures to be mixed around, and you know united through our music and through the energy that we're bringing. We want to get you out of that, you know, winter blues and smile with this spring.
Daniel Vaides, Jesse Gutierrez, and David Vaides: Hey, what's up everybody? We're Los Electro, and this is our song, Amigo o Enemigo, live on WBOI.
The following song, “Amigo o Enemigo,” was provided by Los Electro ahead of the band’s performance kicking off season two of WBOI Music Presents: Live and Local at The Landing.
