Coffee and rock and roll blended on May 21 when a HENST took the stage at McCann’s Coffee Café in Oxford.   This Valley-bred band brought in quite the enthusiastic crowd as they made their debut.  This energetic group is made up of Sara Thompson, on lead vocals, Matt Sears on lead guitar, Danny Rodriguez on guitar and Matt Blanchard on drums.   I was quite surprised by the amount of fans this band had on their first night out and even before taking the stage it was standing room only, some looking in from the window outside!




For the most part, these young bloods are really quite amazing.  Their set list is comprised of all originals - lyrics and music collaborated by Sears, Rodriguez and Blanchard.  Pretty impressive for this group of four self-taught musicians, who are all under the age of 21.





Henst started the evening out with “Running Out’, followed by another heavy number, “Death by Dishonor”.  Thompson’s vocal talent stood out on their tune properly entitled, “Dreams”.   Thompson is reminiscent of a young Amy Lee.  Lead guitarist Matt Sears, who draws his inspiration from Randy Rhoades and Eddie Van Halen, didn’t show any stage fright and got right into the crowd to show off his talents.  Sears brought the house down during “Reasons” and his showmanship ran the gamit by playing behind his head and with his teeth.   Complementing the group with his guitar licks is Danny Rodriguez, and although he has a somewhat quieter stage presence than his band mate, his talents do not go unnoticed.  Rodriguez’ influence is drawn from Jimmy Paige and Carlos Santana.