Music fans gathered at Burning Bridge Brewing in San Dimas, Calif. on March 22, 2025 for “Bracket of the Bands,” a music competition for rock bands performing for a chance to advance to the finals set on March 29. Six bands participated in the event, including Jacob James, The Queen Bats, Frequency Within, Black Cat Coalition, Chapstick & A Plan and American Diet.
The event officially started with Jacob James, who gave a heartfelt performance with an acoustic set. The next set began with The Queen Bats, a Noise Punk duo with Fonzo as lead vocalist/bassist and Mario Josue Bertrand on drums.
Alt-Rock Band Frequency Within hit the stage with Erica Torres as lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Jenna Alonzo as co-vocalist and lead guitarist, Oli Navarro on bass, and Jon Celiz on drums. As a way to stand out from the other competing bands, Frequency Within incorporated a banner with their logo, spotlights, and a fog machine into their set.
When she’s not performing on stage with Frequency Within, Torres works as the head photo lab tech in the photography department’s printing lab located in the technology and engineering building at Fullerton College.
“I am passionate about [music and photography], I love my job here at Fullerton and the way I balance it is quite easy. During the days [at Fullerton College], I am staff and during the nights, that’s when I do my gigs or my songwriting or rehearsals and during the weekends, that’s where we go out and play concerts,” said Torres.
Once the fog filled the stage, the band members made their final preparations and did a quick group huddle before they began their set.
“I get nervous before performing, I’ve been doing this for 12 years,” said Torres. “You never know what you’re going to get when it comes to live shows.”
Torres started the set with her signature jump kick with the rest of the band playing their instruments. The crowd was full of energy and enthusiasm with some of the attendees dancing to the music. After the first song, Torres picked up her guitar to get ready for the next song on their setlist.
Halfway into their performance, Alonzo walked into the crowd and later towards the bar, which was placed near the back of the establishment, while still playing her guitar. She made her way back to the stage to join her bandmates and continued the set. The band showed no signs of slowing down, keeping the energy high throughout their performance.
After all six bands performed, the event host asked the audience to vote for two bands to advance to the finals. Once the votes were counted, the results were announced. Despite Frequency Within displaying excellent showmanship in their performance, Black Cat Coalition and Chapstick & A Plan were chosen as the winners.
“Unfortunately, we did not place in the finals, but we had fun,” said Torres. “We definitely plan on doing more battle of the bands to get it under our belt and hopefully win.”
Frequency Within is set to perform at The Sardine in San Pedro, Calif. on March 30, 2025. More upcoming shows can be found on their Instagram page: @frequencywithin and their website frequencywithin.com.
