The four members of Washington and Lee’s newest student band, Time Trav, performed on April 7 at Friday Night Underground (FUDG), hosted by the Arts, Recreation and Culture House.
The pop-punk-rock band, which had its debut show on March 3, performed to a small but energetic crowd that danced, cheered and sang along to the band’s set list.
Time Trav covered classic rock hits like The Stokes’ “Someday” and selections from Green Day’s discography.
They also performed several original songs that singer Isabel Duarte, ’26, described as her favorite songs to perform.
“It makes me really happy to see people come out,” she said. “I really love sharing our own unique music with people and contributing to the live music community of Lexington. We put so much joy and energy into our performances, and it’s amazing to see that joy come back to us.”
Duarte, who was in a band in high school, knew she wanted to continue singing at W&L. When she met drummer Bill Zheng, ’26, on the first day of her music theory class, she felt like “everything just clicked” and they began making plans.
“When Bill said he played the drums, I turned around and just asked him if he wanted to be in a band and he immediately said yes,” Duarte said. “And then we met John and Arun and our band was complete.”
Guitarists John Little, ’26, and Arun Ghosh, ’26, met each other during their pre-orientation trip and bonded over their shared love of music and Green Day. Mutual friends introduced the duo to Duarte and Zheng, and Time Trav was created.
“We chose the name ‘Time Trav’ because it’s catchy, and we want our fans to feel like time travelers when they listen to our music,” Little said. “The name also pays homage to Trav, which is a very unique W&L program.”
Duarte said the band pulls inspiration “from every genre” and portrays many different emotions, with the biggest influences coming from pop-punk and rock artists.
“I love incorporating the energy from rock music, the passion from punk, the joy from pop,” she said. “My favorite songs to cover all have good energy and are fun to dance to.”
Little also emphasized the importance of “punk energy” in the band’s performance and said that it is the band’s energetic stage presence that he receives the most compliments on.
“I’m really appreciative to see people not only come out to support us because they know us and are friends with us, but return because they genuinely enjoy our music and want to hear more,” he said.
The audience demanded an encore as the band was wrapping up. Audience members rushed forward to congratulate and compliment the musicians after their performance was over.
Michael Allen, ’23, told Time Trav that he was proud of them for “reviving FUDG” for the first time since the pandemic halted performances.
“For a long time, FUDG used to be the place to be on Friday nights – we’d have poetry, comedy, cover bands, everything,” he said. “But when Covid happened, all of this fell off, and I haven’t seen it revived until your band came along. Your music is not only good, it’s high energy and it’s engaging.”
The members of Time Trav plan on continuing to develop their sound and perform at FUDG while expanding their audience and potentially collaborating with Greek organizations and other student bands, such as Meat Puzzle and Hot Fudge Sundae, in the future.
“We’d love to play at a social event or party for students. I know we’ll be performing at the Alamo at some point,” Duarte said, referencing an off-campus student house. “I’ve had the chance to see the other student bands perform, and we’d really love to get in touch with them.”
Time Trav has also been working to produce a recorded single of their original song, “you’re dead (i’m mad),” with the help of Taylor Colaizzi, ‘23, which they plan to release on Spotify.
Further information can be found on the band’s Instagram, @wlutimetrav.