Brandon VanHorn has been going to local shows since he was 14.

“Whenever my friends and I had the chance, we’d go out and see any local band that we could,” he says.

Now, VanHorn is often on the other side of the stage, playing guitar for Huxley-based band Multipurpose.

When VanHorn and vocalist Kyle Vitzthum met in high school, VanHorn says they knew they had to form a band. They played together for a year before joining forces with two other friends, drummer Thomas Avney and bassist Josh Thompson, to form Multipurpose.

VanHorn describes the band’s music as a mix between punk and metal, with major influences like the Deftones, System of a Down and NOFX.

“Right now, we’re leaning more toward the metal side,” he says. “There’s a lot of really heavy guitar parts.”

Vitzthum says he tries to mix the “sort of rappy” style of Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against The Machine with that of early 1990s punk bands like Pennywise. His vocal style has been compared to AFI front man Davey Havok.

The band is no stranger to Bali Satay House, 2424 Lincoln Way, having played there about seven times. They say they enjoy the larger stage Bali built after expanding into the building that used to house Home Team Pizza.

“I really like it; the stage is actually bigger than a two-person table,” Vitzthum says. “We could hardly get everything on [the old stage]. There was no room to move, and we’re only a four-piece band.”

VanHorn recalls some difficulties they had on the old stage at a show last year.

“We’d just started our set; we started our second song and my wireless microphone [for my guitar] broke, so I had to change the cord for the microphone into my guitar,” he says. “After that, the strap fell off my guitar and it fell down. It all happened in the same song, within about five seconds.”

Despite his difficulties, the rest of the band kept playing, and he says he feels it shows how well it works together.

“After the show, we had people come up to us and say it takes balls to keep playing when things like that happen,” VanHorn says. “Even if something goes wrong, we’re still there to back it all up.”

The band is trying to expand its fan base by booking shows at the Roadhouse 69 in Ankeny and venues in Omaha and Wisconsin. VanHorn has entered Multipurpose in a battle of the bands at Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines and is trying to sign to a small, independent Iowa record label.

“It’s all about a fan base,” VanHorn says.

“The more people notice you, the more everyone will notice you.”

Who: Multipurpose

Where: Bali Satay House

When: 9:30 p.m. Thursday

Cost: $3 for 21+, $5 for under 21