The Band’itos – A Staple in the Harlingen Music Scene
- Abigail Muniz-Garcia
- 6 minutes ago
- 3 min read
(This article was written by Abigail Muniz-Garcia and was featured in the November 2025 issue of Explore Harlingen Magazine.)
Familiar melodic tunes of the 80s, 90s, and 2000s drift into the night as the door at Station 1 Bar & Grill in Harlingen opens on a Friday. The setup? An acoustic guitar and a drum set. While that may sound minimal, The Band’itos’ music is anything but. Dynamic strumming, powerful vocals and drumming that makes the kit sing and drives the song forward, keeps the ambience of the place light, cheerful, and energetic.
The band, which started as a 3-piece in 2022, stays busy with gigs at places such as Station 1, The 83 Winery, and Sir’s Martini Lounge.
Gilbert Elizondo, the guitarist and vocalist of the band, says they stay in and around the Harlingen area.
“It keeps us very busy,” he said.
Norman White, drummer and backup vocalist, and Elizondo both mention that the feedback they’ve been getting has been positive. They recently went from being a “loud rock band” as Elizondo describes it, to “not so loud” having gone from three members to two about two months ago and shifting to an acoustic sound.
White remembers Elizondo asking for more acoustic-driven songs in the past.
“We just never did it,” White said.
“You never wanted to,” Elizondo responds playfully. “And now he likes it.”
This shift has allowed the band to be more creative with their song choices and has expanded their set list as well.
“It’s been neat because we will be like hey, let’s try this song and we can kind of make it our own,” Elizondo said. “It gives a little bit more flexibility.”
Both have been part of the music scene for decades and are multi-instrumentalists with White having started off as a guitarist before getting into the drums.
“My mom was a guitar player, and she played country music in a band, so she kind of taught me some chords and that’s where I kind of started,” he said. “She’s the one that got me started.”
He found his way to the drums in the early 90s while playing for different bands in the area. He was part of an all original metal band, Inner Sanctum, which was popular in the Rio Grande Valley.
Elizondo started playing guitar when he was a sophomore in high school and was self-taught. His dad was also a musician and that had an influence on him.
“My dad used to play the piano a lot and he’s the one that got me interested in playing something… the piano to me, it didn’t make any sense, but the guitar made sense,” he said.
He has played and recorded with different bands as a musician not only in Harlingen but in the Dallas area where he moved to in 1998. He made his way back to Harlingen before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Their combined years of experience, the dynamic of the members, and their intentional song choice to keep it varied for the audience, have made them a staple at Station 1 on Fridays.
Even though they’re known as a cover band, they are open to the idea of one day creating original music together.
“The possibility is there. I don’t see why not,” Elizondo said. “It’s so much easier nowadays to write and record.”
At the end of the day, the band enjoys keeping the crowd going with the tunes they’re familiar with as they unwind at their favorite restaurant, bar, or at a private party.
“It’s fun entertaining people,” White said.
“We’ll probably both be doing it (playing music) well into our 60s and 70s. We’ll probably be playing in some RV park somewhere,” Elizondo said with a laugh.
You can find them as The Band’itos on Facebook or the_banditos on Instagram.
Comments