Benny and the Jets Wants To Turn Wang Pavilion Into A ‘Caverned Club’

Benny and the Jets has been in the works for some time. Collectively, the members have known each other for three years, longer in some cases. Benny and Aditya were roommates sophomore year after transferring, both arriving with extensive musical backgrounds: Aditya in Indian Classical tradition, Benny in Western Classical. They had collaborated over the years, but it was always Benny’s ambition to form a band with the friends they’d made here. They brought in Audrey on bass and Rayan on lead. Between the four of them, there’s real talent and shared history. As they declare, “we’ve had time to settle in here, and now we’re ready to perform.”

For a first-time audience, they want the show to feel truly alive. They want the music and the space together to evoke something like a caverned club or speakeasy, “think Smalls downtown during a post-midnight session,” they say. Immersive, atmospheric, present. A lot of their friends have been waiting to see them perform, and they’re determined to give them a real show.

Their sound traces back to rock ’n’ roll and, before that, blues and folk, the mixture of sounds heightened in the musical exchange between the UK and America in the ’60s and ’70s. What they play is “in respect to that tradition,” while channeling it into their own originals. The goal, they hope, is for people to appreciate the music because it feels “both rooted and fresh.”

They want each performance to feel fleeting and specific to that audience, “something you had to be there for.” When people leave, they hope it feels like they’ve seen and heard something meant just for them.

Looking ahead, some members are graduating while others have more time left in their undergraduate careers, but they plan to remain in each other’s musical lives. “We all have history together,” they say, with hopes to keep that going in any way possible. The drive to perform and create, Benny adds, “never goes away.” They’ll keep growing together and seeing where it leads.

And will they be playing Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” on Thursday night? They refuse to show their cards—“You’ll just have to find out for yourself at the show.”