Alt-Rock in NOLA
The alt-rock scene of New Orleans can be defined as a social web and team of independent musicians and venues serving to preserve the legacy of underground music.
It's hard to lump all the city's alternative subcultures in an umbrella term. The mosaic of tight-knit bands cross many genres and share each other's members. The brute-force of DIY culture is a mod-podge of hardcore, grungecore, shoegaze, indie rock, and math rock. It is a tiring attempt to compose the full list, but it's all one familial cluster.
Here are a few local artists' experiences in the music scene, and their creative strategies to bond with the city. Spoiler: Mainstream appeal and commercial drive is not on the show bill.
Evan Hendry is a guitarist in indie-garage band Hotel Burgundy with Jacques du Passage, Josh Rovira, Jonathon Hidalgo, and Jack Bidleman. He's delved into the depths of the New Orleans music underbelly since 2023.
Hendry loves the home-grown, authentic live performances, and the unique advantages of being in a nestled city like New Orleans over larger-city markets. "Playing an empty room means just as much as playing a packed room because you're participating in art with your friends," he said.
Hendry finds inspiration writing music from experiences at live shows and the opportunity to play live with bands he admires and respects. One of Hendry's favorite shows is when he shared the stage at one of My Beloved's first shows—a newly formed group composed of dear friends at No Dice. The room was shoulder-to-shoulder with family, loved ones, strangers, and musicians. The venue is run by a respected figure, and true friend, Kat Dilonno. Hendry described this night as a surreal representation of the alt-scene, a full-circle feeling of "home," and, with that, he confessed, "I loved that show so much that I left my guitar at the venue by accident."
When first starting out in New Orleans, Hendry learned the significance of simply "being a yes man." Through saying "yes" in the scene, he was introduced to Jackson Ryder, which eventually led Hendry to join a new band. "Everything that Jackson does as an artist also propels me as an artist."
Jackson Ryder, frontman and songwriter of Donny's Demeanor with Joe Kalb, Rob Florence, and Evan Hendry, has helped put a raw spotlight on New Orleans' DIY punk operation. Donny's Demeanor hit the streets of St. Claude in 2025, crashing in with a ferociously raw setlist.
For Ryder, the alt-rock scene is not a distant subculture, for it's a crowd of old-head punk veterans and local musicians who move through the same rooms night after night. He said Donny's Demeanor's passion to engineer autonomously, without agents and labels, is mutualistic sentiment among local bands. "We do the work, the whole nine yards, ourselves," he said.
A 17-year-old aspiring-rocker emailed Ryder for advice, and he recognized a version of himself in the message. Before Donny's Demeanor's conception, Ryder spent years attending shows and was inspired to be a part of them. "I was going to shows five, six nights a week," he said, "And one day, when I started writing music again, I had enough friends to play music with," slowly building relationships with who would become his band.
His advice to younger musicians is rooted less in formal pathways, for the pivotal way to get involved, he told the sweet 17-year-old emailer, is to engage with bands personally. That can mean helping bands load in gear, assisting with sound setup, and simply sticking around after shows outside.
Ryder also pointed to the fragile balance local venues navigate, particularly around affordability and sustainability. Still, he emphasized the unique bond between band and bar. "It's not just for the bands," he said. "It's also to support and sustain the bars, too."
Indie-pop band badoutfit (Zach Smallman, Taylor Law, Liam Reilly, and Mike Tenreiro) have an idea to build their own stage. The group is transforming their work as graduates of Loyola University with a mission to host an interactive experience to bridge the gap between audience and stage. Frontman Zach Smallman said, rather than a traditional set-and-spectate performance, a "build a badoutfit event" is a space for creatives to collaborate, even with a printing press. The events are not mere gigs, for their intention is to establish a creative integration. "You bring a blank canvas, we bring the badoutfit world and a heat press, of course."
Online, the band extends with a strong identity on social media, collaborating with Creative Director Kayla Mendiola to produce a clear aesthetic. "I think visual aesthetic is the number one goal of catching people's attention," he said.
Smallman said, "Don't be a hermit crab," advising to attend as many shows as possible. He said New Orleans "feels pretty good to be here right now, knowing that everybody's trying to develop something and help each other out."
To draw a crowd through street-wear and collaboration, they hope to tether the community through sound and stitch. Badoutfit released their first single on April Fools' Day in 2026, marking the beginning of a project.
Local culture and music journalist Elisa Gomez, runner behind online publication @altscenenola, highlights artists through interviews, articles, and documentation. In her view, the stand-out bands are those who consistently show up, collaborate, and embed themselves in overlapping friend groups. Bands commonly use word-of-mouth, social media, flyers, and utilize relationships to promote shows, she said.
Gomez has been sinking her teeth into the hardcore realm. For her, the high-energy is part of an unspoken agreement of the art of a mosh-pit. It is a free-flowing, chaotically reverential, full-body experience. "People throw out their hardest and best moves, and if somebody's on the ground, there's six people pulling them up," she said. "It's all in good faith, all in good fun."
Her shout-out of bands in town include Butte, D.sablu, Fake Coffee Club, W9, Days of Grief, Laughing Torso, Laura Fisher, Doctors, and Slowhole. Her venue suggestions include Fredhampton Freestore, Siberia, Okay Bar, No Dice, BJs, Saturn Bar, and, for super-DIY shows, backyards. The alt-rock music scene is founded on the power of friendship—reflecting the heart of New Orleans culture at its core.
"What rocks must continue to roll," Ryder grinned. Even in the underground, the city persists in laissez les bons temps rouler.
