Straight outta Mesa: young band rises up out of the desert
Bethany Home takes off in its first year
HARK!
I hear…evolution….
Picture a band literally rising up out of the desert. A cholla morphs into a wild-haired bass player. A scrubby, baked bush becomes a drummer. A prowling coyote snags a guitar and windmills.
A diamondback coils up to a mic and spits venomous lyrics.
Meet Bethany Home.
Their rise from the desert wasn’t quite that Transformers-ish, but close enough.
Just a year ago, four teenagers bored out of their minds by the pandemic shutdowns decided to start a band. Shortly after, Bethany Home had its first show.
In the desert.
Literally.
“Our first show as Bethany Home was in the middle of nowhere with a couple of other punk bands,” said a laughing Jaden Jones, singer/guitar player for the alternative rock band.
“For the record, I discovered the spot,” guitar man Cameron McGregor put in proudly. He noted they didn’t send friends directions to the first show—they sent coordinates so people could GPS the location somewhere between Mesa and Gilbert, off the road and in the desert.
Having just turned 20, McGregor is the eldest band member. Jones and drummer Daniel Fenn recently turned 19; bass player Alton Chaney is the baby of the band, not turning 19 until later this month.
After a few fun, energetic-but-chaotic desert shows powered by generators, Bethany Home took off in the last half of 2021, playing frequently around Phoenix clubs like the Rebel Lounge, Trunk Space, Marquee Theater and Last Exit Live and even going on two short tours of California.
HARK Valley did a Zoom with Bethany Home the first week of January, with the four band members crowded into the van they slept in the night before at a Walmart parking lot in Santa Ana, on their way to a show the next night in Huntington Beach.
A van Zoom with Bethany Home (Alton Chaney is off screen).
Fenn said the pandemic helped bring Bethany Home together: “Whenever we would practice, we could practice for really long—because there wasn’t anything else to do. No school, no work.”
On Instagram, Bethany Home jokingly calls itself “Your mom’s favorite band from Mesa, Arizona.”
Though Mesa is hardly known for launching arena bands, the East Valley city has a surprisingly rich music scene, anchored by the excellent Nile Theater.
As three of the band members grew up in Mesa and the fourth (McGregor) in nearby Queen Creek, landing a show at the Nile six months after Bethany Home started out was a major freakout.
“I’ve been going to the Nile since I was a kid,” Jones said.
Playing there, Fenn added, “was terrifying—the preparation for it. But once you get on stage, it’s a little less mind blowing.”
The show must have gone well, as Bethany Home was invited back. The Mesa rockers play a show at their hometown spot Saturday, Jan. 22.
Jaden Jones screams a Bethany Home song.
Jones and Fenn met working at KTR, a skate park/game center in Mesa. The other two were friends of friends.
They say they were able to get shows early on in their career by networking. “It doesn't matter how good you are, it matters who you know,” Chaney said.
Several bands, Jones added, “totally took a risk with us. They invited us to play at shows trying to be nice and help out a new band.”
After nine months of practices and shows, they have a 30-minute set with eight or nine original songs. (“We don’t really play covers anymore.”)
You can check out “University,” “Algebra,” “The Cool New One” and several other Bethany Home songs on the band’s YouTube channel.
Live, from YouTube, it's Bethany Home!
Bethany Home continues to crank out hot, dry rock—but no more desert shows.
“The last one we played got shut down by cops.”