What began as a handful of self-taught musicians learning instruments in their dorms and garages is now Frontier, the fast-growing band playing LSU\u2019s bars and nightlife every weekend.<\/p>\n
The ensemble is made up of LSU juniors Nico Sciullo, Jake Maples, Noah Adams, Doug Ricalde and Zach Montz, and their majors vary from construction management to industrial engineering.<\/p>\n
Sciullo, the band\u2019s lead singer, started singing his senior year of high school in a band called S.O.L. He said on top of singing, he aims to be a true entertainer and always get the crowd excited.<\/p>\n
Frontier played its debut show in December of 2025 at The House in Tigerland under its original name, River Would. Since then, the band has stayed booked with events, bars and fraternity parties.<\/p>\n
While they may have gone through a name change, everything else is constant as they steadily progress their way through the LSU music scene. The band recently played at JL\u2019s, marking the first live performance at the bar in seven years, and Frontier got hired back immediately after.<\/p>\n
College cover bands aren\u2019t an anomaly, but the members of Frontier try to set themselves apart by focusing on their own enjoyment when playing as much as the audience\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Maples and Ricalde both grew up with a paternal musical influence, as both their dads played guitar and encouraged them to take up the art. Maples, one of the band\u2019s guitarists, said that though his dad wanted him to explore music, he was never interested until he got older.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur whole house is full of guitars,\u201d Maples said. \u201cI hated hearing him play all the time until I understood it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guitarist and backup vocalist Ricalde said he was always interested in music. Along with guitar, he learned other instruments like drums, bass and keyboard; he started playing when he was 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad used to play in his room,\u201d Ricalde said. \u201cOne day I picked it up and started strumming. I didn\u2019t know what I was doing, but he told me he thought I had good rhythm and told me I should play.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of now, the group only plays covers, but Sciullo said the next step is writing original music. Ricalde currently works on writing songs on his laptop and shares them with the group for feedback. Inspiration for the writing comes from other bands like The Strokes, Kings of Leon, Red Hot Chili Peppers and sometimes Metallica.<\/p>\n
When the band plays live, its setlist is made up of crowd favorites mixed with each musician\u2019s preferred song. They said they fight about what to play at every practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe argue a lot about it,\u201d said Maples. \u201cEveryone wants to play what they want because there are certain parts of songs that are cooler for one instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n
From classic staples like \u201cFree Bird\u201d to \u201cSex on Fire,\u201d the band works to make sure everyone in the crowd has a good time.<\/p>\n
Frontier has been trying to cater to the crowd more, playing songs like \u201cIris\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Look Back in Anger,\u201d and has been successful in doing that.<\/p>\n
Sciullio said the priority isn\u2019t always the setlist and more the songs themselves. Longer songs like \u201cPurple Rain\u201d need to be trimmed to keep the crowd entertained, while other songs might be extended with solos. Montz said some songs are heavier or more energetic, and they rarely play solos exactly like the originals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all musicians that are together as a band, so however we play a song is going to be different than whoever played it first,\u201d Maples said.<\/p>\n
Adams, the bass player, said Ricalde got him into playing during their freshman year at LSU when they lived together. Adams has played piano and drums since he was little, so he already knew some music theory, but Ricalde helped him read a fretboard and got him started with the new instrument.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot of learning on YouTube,\u201d Adams said. \u201cI\u2019d find a song and then find another song that\u2019s harder and keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two of them practiced in LSU\u2019s dorms without the amp plugged in to avoid any noise complaints.<\/p>\n
Montz on the drums started playing when he was 9 years old. He likes that the instrument is naturally eccentric and joked that sometimes it\u2019s a way to get his anger or stress out.<\/p>\n
Being a student band unleashes a different set of challenges for the men of Frontier. The members said their schedules rarely align, and balancing class, practice times, gigs and studying can get difficult. They often practice the same amount as some students work.<\/p>\n
Beyond shows, the group thrives on rituals and their brotherhood. They go to Waffle House after a show and alternate speeches in a huddle before a performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all friends who just happen to play music together,\u201d said Sciullo. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun and we all appreciate each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source lsureveille.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What began as a handful of self-taught musicians learning instruments in their dorms and garages is now Frontier, the fast-growing band playing LSU\u2019s bars and nightlife every weekend. The ensemble is made up of LSU juniors Nico Sciullo, Jake Maples, Noah Adams, Doug Ricalde and Zach Montz, and their majors vary from construction management to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2284435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2284434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Frontier-band-is-lighting-up-Baton-Rouge-nightlife-with-rock.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2284434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2284436,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284434\/revisions\/2284436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2284435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2284434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2284434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2284434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}