Indie Rock Returns with a Vengeance to 'Sco

Campus Bands Bring the Noise, Bring the Love

Oberlin's campus is rocking with the weight of adorable musical kiddies ready to unite and conquer. Wednesday's Campus Band Night at the 'Sco kept the crowd tapping, if not jumping.

The new band on campus, The Boston Donor, saddled first onto stage as if they'd been riding for years. The stage atmosphere may have inhibited their ability to stay together, but that didn't stop them from having a good time.

"I thought they were cute! They were just indie rockers having a good time up there with their friends," senior Douglas Gillison said.

Except for a healthy belch into the mic by senior lead singer Jesse Woghin, the band focused mainly on instrumentals. Led by seniors Nate Heneghan on drums and Lauren Viera on bass, the rhythm section kept the set cohesive, with senior Jacob Ciocci's dewdrop keyboards donating the character.

A cross between Belle & Sebastian and Peter Gabriel , the set moved through the ages from eerie vampire to shoo-bop basslines, and even made allusions to overproduced '80s synthetic pop. In the end, the crowd's heart was won by a stolen lick from Duran Duran's hit "Ordinary World," thrown in the midst of The Boston Donor's most triumphant cover of Journey's "Faithfully."

Setting the introspective aside for the brawny, the crowd couldn't resist the insistent punk beat of Roque Monsieur. All was in place for a raucous show: the vocals blared, the bar chords soared and senior bassist Sam Howard stood with his feet three shoulder widths apart.

The crowd was not disappointed. The band's high-energy tunes sparked like the Dead Kennedys', yet caught the crowd like Spacehog. Stepping down from the first three pulsating songs, the fourth number exhibited the most depth, pulling dissections of the song within the song consistently with a hard offbeat. Who knew if the crowd understood senior Zach Lehrhoff's cry, "I know it's gotta change!" but it didn't matter. While this was Roque Monsieur's 'Sco debut, the crowd seemed to know them well and showed their appreciation with loud support. As sophomore Emma Straub said,

"[They were] Adorable. Absolutely adorable." Roque Monsieur closed their set with the Guided By Voices classic "Motor Away," which, in Donor Woghin's opinion, is "one bad-ass song."

The show flier begged the eternal question, "Sounds like geezer?" But no, it's Weezer. "Actually, Our Name Is Jonas," the band members might reply. By divine inspiration, most likely, seniors Ivan Brennan, Gardner Swan, David Marwick and Nate Heneghan honor the band we love and hate for their catchy reminiscences of the jukebox Buddy Holly days. Though they didn't quite capture Weezer's dry emotion, the crowd couldn't help but love them as if they were strumming, even though Swan's zipper was down for half the set.

The group's talent is clear, especially lead guitarist Brennan, who clearly knows his frets, and maybe through honoring their rock idols, Our Name Is Jonas will come to fly on their own. In the meantime, even if they weren't the tightest band in the bunch, you'd know they were Weezer.

Speaking of tight, sophomore five-piece Sneak Five wrapped up the show with a solid set of over-extended, rhythmically complex rock songs. With Bryan Russell center stage on the keys, Sneak Five rocked the late-night crowd with catchy guitar riffs and powerful singing, led by Brian Dowdy and backed by Russell and guitarist Gregory Gheorghiu. Nima Shirazi, the band's secret weapon, kept the set flowing from song to song for a solid half-hour.

Especially for playing a last-minute set - hip-hop outfit 7sip was initially slated for the closing slot - Sneak Five was a pleaser, and even got a few crazy fans dancing in the front of the club, even if they were more drunk on the booze than the music itself.

Nevertheless, Sneak Five polished off another successful chapter in the history of Campus Band Night, proving that Oberlin breeds more than hippies and scholars - it breeds rockstars, too.