Imagine this: Jan. 20, the moon has overtaken the sky, yet the clock reads 7 p.m. It is snowy and cold, the night is young, it’s syllabus week and schoolwork hasn’t quite taken over your entire life. There have been flyers around campus advertising live music — “Eastman on Campus,” to be specific. There is nothing better to do, so after trudging through the snow, the cold air stinging your cheeks, you arrive at the frat quad assuming that the event must have not had many attendees.
Once the doors open, the music runs through the floorboards – not any ordinary house party music, but saxophone and trumpet-led jazz music, as expected from Eastman’s jazz prodigies. The night was hosted by Alpha Delta Phi (ADP) and WRUR. The frat house was filled with warm yellow light, jackets were strewn across a pool table, and bodies were squished together to get as close to the bands as possible. The house was filled from the crowd directly in front of the bands to people lingering on the stairs down to the basement and up to the second floor.
Two large speakers and woofers surrounded the bands, the drum kit in the center, the bass and guitarists along the side, and the bass and woodwind instruments in front of them. The music was very loud, heard at a consistent volume throughout the open-concept foyer and living room. The crowd started to loosen as the night progressed, but the energy maintained and grew as the hours passed. The majority of the time, jazzy tunes filled the room and swayed the crowd.
The lineup enchanted the crowd as if it were a music festival. The bands who performed were “The Dylan Knowles Combo,” “Sarahnaders,” “ISquare The Band,” and lastly “Bug Day.” Three out of the four bands to perform were Eastman-based, with a few River Campus students in the mix. Their high-quality training was evident in their performances, and they maintained a groove only live music can provide. There were even a few well-known covers thrown in — “ISquare The Band” performed “Arabian Nights” from the 1992 cartoon “Aladdin.”
The night ended with a complete shift in energy and tone, to a self-described “Noise Rock/Art Punk/Free Jazz” band, the only non-Eastman group in the mix. “Bug Day” brought reverberated guitars, heavy bass, screaming, and a mosh pit. There was an energy burst throughout the room; everyone’s pent-up anger was unleashed throughout the venue, and the floorboards shook under everyone’s feet as snow boots banged on the ground. The place shook with blaring guitars and songs about a girl named Louise and a guy named Kevin. It became evident throughout their performance that people wore shirts bearing their name, and that this band was no small student group. They even have another performance at the Bug Jar on Feb. 2 at 9 p.m.
Leaving “Eastman on Campus,” my ears were buzzing from the loud music, my stomach was buzzing with adrenaline, and my mouth was begging for water after such a vivacious experience. Flurries floating down, coating the ground in several more inches of snow, “Eastman on Campus” was a perfect start to the spring semester.
