Blank Face isn’t your sister’s favorite new band, a pseudonym for your favorite El Paso band or even a hot new venue destination for your favorite local acts. Rather, Blank Face hopes that it can be a bit of everything.

Blank Face is, as its anonymous representatives suggest, a collective of local El Paso artists looking to revive the El Paso indie and rock music scene through a twelve-part music series held once a month through the end of 2026.

Blank Face #1

On Jan. 7, Blank Face took to Instagram to announce its plans to reform El Paso’s local music scene through what would be the first in a series of posts aimed at promoting what the collective deemed as Blank Face #1.

In the coming days, the collective’s interpretations of FitFam El Paso’s drunk driver mugshot posts, Tarantino filmography and NBC’s “The Office”-style humor garnered over thirty thousand views via TikTok and Instagram in preparation for the collective’s debut show on Jan. 23.

The show, first in a twelve-part series, was held at local house and electronic venue 8o8ofc and headlined by indie veterans Sweet Ventura, UTEP rock favorites Acrolein and alternative powerhouse nvmd.

On the night of the show, Sweet Ventura was the first of the headlining acts to take the stage. Following an introductory performance by DJ Anserito, the four-piece act wasted no time setting the rhythm for concert goers seeking refuge in a frenzy of shared frustration brought to life by a mass of bodies pushing and shoving in a controlled panic that could only be described as exuberant. Acrolein, building on previously established crowd work, was quick to shape the room in an image seemingly born out of the band’s own “emo sprinkled” interpretation of the rock genre. After two headlining performances, nvmd took to the stage to round out the night.

The group, whose alternative sound was brought to life by various interpretations of backyard indie aesthetics, capped out its performance with a memorable, crowd-led, impromptu break into Justin Bieber’s “Baby.”

Who Is Blank Face?

Choosing to keep the identities of their members anonymous, Blank Face is looking to emphasize its status as a collective by choosing to draw attention to local musical acts and performances. nvmd member Santiago “Chavo” spoke on the collective’s behalf.

“It is the culmination of efforts between all the artists, bands, photographers, venues; it’s everyone taking part in a Blank Face show,” said Santiago “Chavo” Marich-Bravo.

The collective hopes to operate under the premise of creating a consistent space for a curated live music series under the Blank Face name. Through the series, collective representatives are looking to place a greater emphasis on genres – namely rock and indie – that collective members feel are underrepresented in the greater El Paso music scene.

As a collective, Blank Face is by no means a new concept; collectives and coalitions have long orbited the El Paso music scene in hopes of helping local acts sign to record labels, distribute music and tour the country.

While the concept may not be entirely original, Blank Face isn’t exciting because the concept is fresh. Rather, Blank Face is exciting because their concept exists in the lexicon of the most valuable qualities needed to make a music scene feel unique and original; Blank Face’s inception is personal and organic.

Challenges

While tasked with shedding light on musical acts in the El Paso area, Blank Face faces its own challenges.

Those familiar with El Paso’s musical history know that El Paso has faced an additional string of challenges that have long made it difficult for borderland acts to find national success.

The biggest of those problems: the lack of structural support, both geographic and financial, that acts can expect from institutions in the region.

While staying ahead of the curve to break out of the El Paso scene may be difficult, it isn’t necessarily impossible. The Bobby Fuller Four managed to capture the attention of national audiences in the 60’s, paving the way for 70’s and 80’s Chuco punk acts like The Rhythm Pigs and Teenage Popeye.

A popularity that only grew with musical acts like At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, and while it’s been nearly ten years since the release of Khalid’s breakout album in the mid 2010’s, it hasn’t been nearly as long since El Paso act Late Night Drive Home found national success.

Now faced with an interesting dilemma, Blank Face must first navigate issues associated with the execution of a year-long concert series while finding fresh ways to engage community members with new and quality acts from the El Paso area. After that, the collective must find its way around a number of issues that plague the El Paso music scene: the lack of infrastructure, city noise ordinances and seeming lack of music venues and media coverage, but not all is lost.

A musical tradition

It may be true that El Paso does not have the infrastructure to promote the regional acts that occupy its musical scene, but that doesn’t mean that infrastructure can’t be built if the scene demands it.

Marina Monsivais, host of 88.5 KTEP-FM’s weekend morning arts and culture show “State of the Arts,” identified one of these pieces of infrastructure: former El Paso alternative rock station 94.7 KHERO. Monsisvais, who worked as a host for the station during its time on air, attributed the station and its willingness to play alternative rock acts as reason for the genre’s success in the El Paso region.

“It’s simple,” Monsisvais suggested. “It starts from the bottom up.” Before any motors in support of a scene exist, there first needs to be a demand for the sound that warrants the creation of any infrastructure.

Avenues for bands to create that demand exist, but a majority lie in the willingness of acts to apply a form of DIY ethics to the processes that create a scene.

A DIY aesthetic isn’t new to the scene, El Paso High School poster committees in the mid 1990’s advertised local shows and curated local bands for their friends, while local second and third wave emo acts across the city were known for playing across DIY venues like bars, restaurants and quince halls across the city.

When asked about challenges posed to the act by a lack of venues, Blank Face expressed plans to find solutions like those that have long represented the El Paso area, expressing interest in playing new venues as their series progresses.

Moving Forward

The process through which musical scenes are created is without a doubt complicated. It requires fresh solutions to problems that are constantly taking new shapes and these problems require talented musical acts, devoted fan bases and an incredible amount of luck. There is no denying that creating a scene is no easy task, but Blank Face is up for the challenge.

With their second concert scheduled in a few days, on February Friday the 13th with local acts Gorilla Mintz, Blushed, and Laserbrain headlining at 8o8ofc, the collective has its work cut out for them.

Until then we’ll keep our ears peeled.

Joaquin Madrid is a writer and may be reached at [email protected].