Avenida Music

A Band of Brothers

The Indio-based cover band Avenida Music sings an entrepreneurial tune with Little Street Music Hall.

Amanda Ulrich Arts & Entertainment, Current Digital

Avenida Music

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRANDON HARMAN

Josiah Gonzalez seems to have been predestined to play the piano. The same goes for his brothers: Vince, who plays bass guitar, and Sam, a drummer. Decades ago, their parents had grand visions of a family band, prophetically deciding which instrument each of their future children would play. Their family was always around music, at home and in church in Indio and Coachella. It seemed natural that the kids would learn to play instruments. 

“Our parents had a bit of intuition,” Sam explains. Somehow, each instrument seemed to fit the brothers’ personalities, and their father worked side jobs to pay for their gear and lessons. “Music was always there. That was our exposure. I think our parents saw that and thought, ‘Wow, it would be great for them to have that kind of passion.’ ”

In 2018, after years of jamming, their parents’ long-held dream formally took shape. Avenida Music, which includes the three brothers and drummer Sean Poe, was born. (Another Gonzalez brother, Dennis, plays the saxophone, but not with Avenida.) The group formed as a cover band, but the bandmates also separately write original music.

Avenida plays hit songs spanning many genres, adding their own groove, funk, and soul. At one of their recent gigs at Casuelas Café in Palm Desert, the brothers performed tunes by Amy Winehouse and Fleetwood Mac as well as a rendition of “Bennie and the Jets” by Elton John that faded into “Super Rich Kids” by Frank Ocean.

“We’ve carved out a niche,” Josiah says, noting that the band plays regularly at local restaurants and bars as well as private and corporate events. “People hire us because we do a weird arrangement of indie, alternative — stuff that sounds really different. People like that.”

Avenida

Sean Poe and Vince, Josiah, and Sam Gonzalez  make up Avenida Music, the Indio-based cover band that infuses its own groove, funk, and soul.

band of brothers

“Music was always there. That was our exposure. I think our parents saw that and thought, ‘Wow, it would be great for them to have that kind of passion.’ ”

Sam gonzalez

Avenida Music — which the brothers describe as half band, half business — plans to open a live music venue in downtown Indio, near their home, before the spring festival season.

The group incorporated as a limited liability company and holds monthly board meetings; each bandmate owns one quarter of the company.

Avenida Music local band

From the beginning, Josiah says, “we knew that we wanted this to be a lengthy thing. We knew that we wanted to turn this into a legitimate business.” They even host an annual company retreat for the four of them and their families. 

Earlier this year, the city of Indio approved a three-year lease for their Little Street Music Hall — in a building whose past tenants were a pharmacy and a burger joint. The group has spent months transforming the vacant structure, a time-consuming feat requiring manual tasks, such as redoing the floors, dealing with the sewage line, and making the space wheelchair accessible. 

When it opens, Little Street Music Hall will be a coffee shop by day and a taproom by night, with live music throughout. “We want to be a music hall that happens to sell stuff,” Vince says. “We want music and the arts to be the focus.”

Little Street, which will showcase Southern California talent with an emphasis on artists from the Coachella Valley, will add a much-needed performance venue on the east end of the valley. The brothers recognized that most of their gigs over the years have been on the west side of the valley, around Palm Springs, while the east side only has a small handful of music venues that aren’t casinos. 

“With a lot of local bands, their dream is, ‘I gotta get out of this valley, I have to go play in L.A. I have to go play in these big cities,’ ” Sam says, adding that Little Street Music Hall feels like part of the solution. “This is our home, and we want to make our home beautiful and awesome and increase its [offerings] for generations of musicians to come.” 

The next generation might even include a new addition to the Gonzalez family: Josiah’s 1-year-old daughter. “I want her to be a musician,” he says. “I’ll let her choose whatever she wants, but I’d love for her to play the piano.”

“This is our home, and we want to make our home beautiful and awesome and increase its [offerings] for generations of musicians to come.”

Sam gonzalez
Sam Gonzales
Local band
Casuelas Cafe

Avenida Music perform at Casuelas Café in Palm Desert.

COACHELLA VALLEY MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS

december 2022

2 / Folies d’Espagna
Alice Robbins (viola da gamba) and Margaret Irwin-Brandon (harpsichord). Presented by Desert Baroque. The Artists Center. desertbaroque.com 

11, 18 / Holiday Singin’ and Swingin’
Presented by California Desert Chorale. Hope Lutheran Church. californiadesertchorale.org

16–18 / Naughty or Nice?
Presented by Palm Springs Gay Men’s Chorus. Annenberg Theater. psgmc.com

17 / Bruce in the U.S.A.
Presented by Desert Symphony. McCallum Theatre. desertsymphony.org


january 2023

6 / 19th Century Parlour Music
From Mozart and Haydn to Stephen Foster, featuring Ellen Hargis (soprano) and Charles Metz (Clementi square piano). Presented by Desert Baroque. The Artists Center. desertbaroque.com 

8 / San Diego Symphony
Presented by Palm Springs Philharmonic Society. McCallum Theatre. psphil.org

26 / Music of the Carpenters Performed by Top of the World
Presented by Desert Symphony. McCallum Theatre. desertsymphony.org

26–29 / Oasis Music Festival
Presented by Palm Springs Life. Multiple venues. oasismusicfestival.com

29 / Coachella Valley Symphony
Rancho Mirage Amphitheater. cvsymphony.com


february

3 / Timeless
Ken Aiso, baroque violin; David Garret, viola da gamba; and Sonia Lee, harpsichord. Presented by Desert Baroque. The Artists Center. desertbaroque.com 

6 / Pacific Symphony
Presented by Palm Springs Philharmonic Society. McCallum Theatre. psphil.org

14 / Filharmonie Brno
Presented by Palm Springs Philharmonic Society. McCallum Theatre. psphil.org

23 / Beginnings: A Celebration of the Music of Chicago
Presented by Desert Symphony. McCallum Theatre. desertsymphony.org


march

3 / Time Out!
An outpouring of joy and soul from a band of dulcians, recorder, viol, regal, and harpsichord. Presented by Desert Baroque. The Artists Center. desertbaroque.com 

6 / Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Presented by Palm Springs Philharmonic Society. McCallum Theatre. psphil.org

17 / Tusk: The Ultimate Fleetwood Mac Tribute
Presented by Desert Symphony. McCallum Theatre. desertsymphony.org

26 / California Desert Chorale Spring Concert
Venue TBA. californiadesertchorale.org

26 / Coachella Valley Symphony
Rancho Mirage Amphitheater. cvsymphony.com

31 / The Opsahl/Pritchard Duo
“La selva di varii passaggi” features early modern Italian music for cornetto, recorder, and keyboards by Frescobaldi, Gabrieli, Guami and others. Presented by Desert Baroque. The Artists Center. desertbaroque.com 


april

2 / California Desert Chorale Spring Concert
Venue TBA. californiadesertchorale.org

2 / Los Angeles Philharmonic
Presented by Palm Springs Philharmonic Society. McCallum Theatre. psphil.org

11 / Eaglemania: The World’s Greatest Eagles Tribute Band
Presented by Desert Symphony. McCallum Theatre. desertsymphony.org

14–16, 21–23 / Coachella Festival
Presented by Goldenvoice. Empire Polo Club. coachella.com

28–30 / Stagecoach Festival
Presented by Goldenvoice. Empire Polo Club. stagecoachfestival.com

28–30 / Notorious
Presented by Palm Springs Gay Men’s Chorus. Annenberg Theater. psgmc.com

30 / Coachella Valley Symphony Rancho Mirage Amphitheater. cvsymphony.com