Sun blaring down, the bright lights flash and the strum of the guitar adds to the anticipation of the awaiting crowd at BeatBox stage. They walk out from backstage at exactly 1:45. One picks up an electric guitar, the other sets up a keyboard, falling into a familiar rhythm of their high school gigs at Monkey Nest Coffee House. 

Graduates of the class of 2020, Jack Montesinos and Joe Roddy, alumni from the McCallum orchestra, created their own band called The Point while attending Mac. They were honored to have been asked to perform at the 2025 Austin City Limits music festival for their first time. 

From meeting in their sixth-grade orchestra class at Lamar Middle School the two boys hit it off from the start. With a shared love of music, the two began their own band in high school, which continued to grow as they began to play gigs at local coffee shops and sell CDs throughout their junior year of high school.  

Montesinos, the lead guitarist of The Point, has been playing music for 15 years, and fell in love with the art of music by listening to his dad’s old record collection. Montesinos began playing music just to have fun with his friends and loved the idea of being able to create something on his own. 

Throughout high school, the band performed small-scale at local coffee shops. These performances led to the inspiration for all their current songs, including their ACL set list.  

“All of our songs come from jams at our gigs or from hearing snippets from a video or something and building off those ideas that we missed in real time,”  Montesinos said.

As the song builds, the band members find their rhythm and work separately on their own parts to come together to make a song. Roddy and Montesinos have used this process since high school.

Roddy, who has been playing music since he was five years old, was raised with music in his blood, with his dad being a musician.

“My family was very supportive of music,”  Roddy said. “My grandma would take me to piano lessons, so it runs in the family, and it has always been around.” 

Music had a constant presence in his life due to the influence of his family. However, he developed a passion for the art in his own way due to the way it made him feel.

Learning his music base and knowledge from the McCallum orchestra, Montesinos was taught by Ricky Pringle, who is still the orchestra teacher today. Pringle could tell from the beginning that Montesinos had a gift for the string instruments, which ultimately led him to become a TMEA All-State Bassist. 

“Jack was a wonderful student and a great leader for the McCallum Orchestra,” Pringle said.

Montesinos was serious about his music, and really helped push the orchestra to be the best it could be, according to Pringle.

“Jack was a very no-nonsense kind of student,” Pringle said. “He set a high standard and challenged his peers in the orchestra to maintain the standard.” 

Montesinos attributes his success to the help of Pringle throughout his high school experience at McCallum.

“Mr. Pringle influenced me by never letting me give up and pushing me to always be better. He made it fun in high school, and I always looked forward to his class,” 

Both boys had taken their band very seriously, not just as some kind of high school phase, but they knew they wanted to pursue it in the future. They performed with adults from a young age, showing their maturity and earnestness for their craft. 

Pringle wanted the best for them and their career, as he himself loves and understands the power of the art of music.

“”[Jack] was playing music with adults even as a young child, and I could tell he was going to go somewhere with this talent,” he said.

According to Montesinos and Roddy, Mac helped influence them to keep a variety of instruments in the back of their mind, and to continue to focus on music as a fun activity, as well as focusing on school. 

Both Montesinos and Roddy were thrilled to play at the festival, happy to see friendly faces in the audience and to also reminisce about where they grew up. 

The familiarity of the city made it so much easier for the band to perform, as stated by Montesinos. The band members also enjoyed getting to see some of their favorite artists perform on the same stages as them. 

From the McCallum halls to the stages of ACL, The Point has taken what they learned in high school and built their own unique style of music. With a recent album release of “Maldito Animal” on Sept. 20th, The Point has moved on to begin their tour held at local bars around Texas. From Oct. 31st, to Dec. 20th, the alumni band will be making its mark.