At the annual Zipper Fest on Saturday, Sept. 7, the air surrounding Columbia’s Arcade District was filled with the sound of laughter, the smell of delicious food and most prominently: the blessing of amazing music. 

 Local band, drona, kicked off the festival  with a mesmerizing performance.

Drona is composed of the Raghu siblings, 19-year-old Arjuna, 17- year-old Surya and 14-year-old Pasha. They began their musical career playing together in their home during the pandemic. They have since moved their bedroom jam sessions to the stage and have even opened for one of their favorite bands, Dinosaur Jr. in Sept. of 2022.

“We didn’t start a band to do anything else except just to write songs,” Arjuna said.  “Getting to perform is just an extra benefit. If I wasn’t performing today, I would be out on my porch playing guitar anyway, but now I have people watching me do it.”

The concert took place on the Sentinel Park stage under a bright sun and breezy skies. Arjuna pointed out it was the first day of the year that felt like fall before the band started playing.

Throughout the course of the concert, drona’s synergetic harmonies attracted a full crowd of all ages. College students cheered enthusiastically in-between songs, young kids swayed along to Pasha’s mesmerizing melodies and headbanged to Surya’s drumming. 

A notable feature of drona’s performance was their hypnotic interim of looped guitar in between each song. Drona has stated in the past they do this so they can tune their instruments in between songs, but it also adds a unique, spacey feel to the set.

Drona’s distinctive sound can only be described as otherworldly. Each of their songs has a completely unique feel, and you never know when soft vocals and twinkly guitar will be cut through by screaming vocals and ostentatious drums. They often provided atmospheric noises, such as rhythmic chanting and clicking from the drums that made you feel as if you were falling down into an echoey cave. They utilize things like guitar whining and mic feedback to enhance the niche, artistic flair of their music. The vocal styles of each sibling complement each other perfectly, which reflects the years they’ve spent performing together and refining their style. 

Arjuna’s softer singing is occasionally reminiscent of singer-songwriter Alex G, but he frequently ramps it up with harsher, metal-like vocals. Pasha’s soft, vaporous voice floats buoyantly above the loud instruments and complements her brothers’ singing. Surya brings immense talent to the drums in the back, and the last song of their Zipper Fest performance, “you’re in good hands,” features this. The juxtaposition of styles in each song provides a rich texture to their set that keeps the audience entranced. 

One of drona’s many distinctive features is their visual branding. They design all of their album covers and merchandise themselves.

 “We’re all artists,” Arjuna said. “We’re visual artists that work in lots of different mediums, painting, sculptures, stuff like that. So for our album covers, we try to incorporate a lot of that stuff. As for our visual style — like how we dress and our merch and everything — we really like surreal artists, street style, and we all like rap style. You can see that in our jewelry and stuff. We’re half Indian also, so we try to incorporate patterns and textures from that.”

Drona and their fans have an exciting few months ahead of them, with a new EP lined up, titled “Blister Pack,” set to release in late Sept. or early Oct. 

“We are trying to put out sequential EPs and singles and have them lead up to an album, maybe in the winter time,” Arjuna said. “Our goal with that is to make some physical copies, hand them out, have people listen to it and have them sing it with us at our next show.”.

The energy between the band members and audience perfectly embodied the spirit of Zipper Fest, an event founded to provide a scene for community members to come together and enjoy art. The show was capped off beautifully with Arjuna calling the audience members to gather together at the front of the stage and dance along to the last song. 

When people hopped up from their tables and joined the band at the front of the stage, the lines between the performers and audience were blurred. They simply became a group of people bound together by music.

Edited by Ava McCluer | amccluer@themaneater.com 

Copyedited by Maggie Atkinson and Hannah Taylor | htaylor@themaneater.com

Edited by Annie Goodykoontz | agoodykoontz@themaneater.com