Going to the Cro Dance, I guess.” These words of shame and resignation can be heard all the way from Ridge 1 to Johnson 301 most every Saturday night. Not that a Crozier-Williams party is always a bad thing; every so often we all enjoy the sight of a room full of people desperately trying to dance while avoiding eye contact (presumably in order to focus on the high-caliber live, pre-recorded music). But since the beginning of time — or at least since my freshman year — the question has always been asked: why isn’t there anything else to do on the weekend? Last Saturday, this question was finally answered.
By midnight, a large, sweaty crowd had assembled in Cro Pit. It was the first time since the outdoor Foam Party incident of 2012 that “The Pit,” which is what no one calls it, was so full. But this time, there would be no dishwashing liquid. A mixed demographic of Keep Conn Weird-os, rugby players and wandering freshmen assembled to witness the first ever SNL: MOBROC Show. MOBROC (Musicians Organized for Band Rights on Campus) shows have typically been on below-average nights of the week (hence, FNL) and in below-average venues (the fun-sponge that is Cro’s Nest). To make matters worse, half the off-campus bands that have “headlined” MOBROC shows in the past have been boring nobodies. This time around, SAC (in particular, Music Chair Luke Walker ’16) trusted campus bands to attract their fan bases (or at least, friend-bases) to the show. It paid off: most weeks, midnight on Saturday.
is a time when a majority of Conn kids (or, more likely, a perceived majority) are inside Cro. Last Saturday, they were beside it, in a BBQ garden. And it was a blast.
Before I describe how awesome this event was, a bias must be admitted. I was granted the esteemed role of “Hype Man” for the headlining band “The Banditos” and hence spent a considerable amount of time during the concert crowd-surfing. It’s difficult not to enjoy an occasion under these circumstances. But here’s how I remember the evening. Montreal Protocol, a new outfit on campus, impressed the early onlookers and ambitiously closed with a freestyle-live-beat version of Notorious B.I.G’s “Hypnotize.” Next up was Mollusk, a well-rounded group of very capable musicians, sounding smoother and more confident than in performances last semester. The first thing that catches your eye when you see this band is the talented lead flautist. The instrument works surprisingly well with the rest of the band, reminiscent of the groundbreaking band Jethro Tull.
And then there was the country-music party band, with that ukulele. That is the description of our Yankee campus’s most popular student band. I’m serious. The Banditos are Rock ‘n Roll in Cut-off Flannel, and they’ve replaced Liz DeLise ’13’s Camp as the student band to know at Conn. In fairness, this might be more because of their onstage antics (or on-then-quickly-off-stage antics, in the case of Floralia 2013) and gung-ho stage presence. But this year, you can see much more musical ambition complementing their fun-loving performance style. Half of their set Saturday was made up of original songs, including the opener, “Banditos Anthem,” which set the folky-country tone but also got everybody’s knees lifting and elbows swinging. Their other originals kept the camel crowd engaged, perhaps due to the relatable nature of the lyrics; they include “Jim Beam,” “Drinking Song” and “Whiskey”… well, all I can say is the song grapples with the turmoil of erectile dysfunction. Yes, one can detect a pattern in the content.
The loudest audience reaction came from the shameless sing-along crowd-pleaser “Wagon Wheel.” The Banditos — more party-starters than artistes — aren’t afraid to pull out songs we all know and love. “Country Roads” and Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” whipped up a frenzy as Cro Pit turned into a musical magnet for party seekers from all over campus. Many of these wanderers stumbled past Cro into a completely unfamiliar scene of outdoor mayhem. But as the set came to a close, many of them wished they hadn’t played that one last game of beer pong.
As shallow and borderline-alcoholic as this might sound, Saturday night is in many ways the most important time of our college week. Sure, the educational and extracurricular experiences of college are huge. But there’s no denying that an essential part of being here is social. We laugh, we cry, we run into glass doors and we grow most on Saturday nights. And more importantly, that’s when we have our fun. I doubt that a lot of us would easily admit how many hours we spend looking forward to the social climax of the week. So why not look forward to something awesome, not something kind of embarrassing? Cro Dances can be funny, maybe even fun at times. But real live music is awesome: real instruments (sorry EDM fans), real singing and real dancing.
On the subject of encores at last week’s show, The Banditos had no choice in the matter. By the end of their scheduled set, the stage was jam-packed with uninvited stage guests who actually almost ruined the sound system. This mosh insisted on not one, but two last songs, which led to an on-the-fly closer: fan favorite “The Weight” by The Band. Bandito Collier Gray ‘15 would later comment that “Everyone in the crowd knew that song… Except me!” He hadn’t played it enough to know the guitar chords, but it was not a time for excuses. The Texan pushed his head through a few stage-climbers and around his uke’ player Erik LaFrance ’14 to get a look at the chord progression from Toren Ballard ’15 on the banjo. A few moments later, Gray darted a look to fiddler Nate Wallace ’14 through the chaos, to send him on a wonderful solo.
Now, that’s live music. And I hope we’ll be seeing a lot more of it around here.
