Titus Andronicus:

Beards. Americana. Piss-flavored beer. William Lloyd Garrison. Existential angst. Springsteen. Blood. Sweat. Whiskey. The Civil War. Punk. Fucking. Rock. Bridging the Boss, the Misfits, and the Great Emancipator, hyperliterate shit-starters Titus Andronicus pummeled Eclectic late last fall with their thundering anthems about naval battles and getting the hell out of New Jersey. “You will always be a loser,” chanted frontman Patrick Stickles over the bands tangle of caterwauling guitars and rumbling percussion, triggering mosh pits and arm-in-arm, barroom sing-a-longs. Despite blowing a speaker early in the set, the Titus juggernaut roared on, ripping through their incredible 2010 LP “The Monitor,” triumphantly pounding through tracks like the 14-minute-long “Battle of Hampton Roads”, as well as pulling from 2008’s “The Airing of Grievances.” They sounded urgent, angry, and as existentially fucked as ever, but the night was not free of controversy. Blogging shortly after the show, guitarist and violinist Amy Kline described an audience member grabbing her breast while she crowd surfed at “a small, private liberal arts college in the Northeast,” an unfortunate end to an otherwise stellar night. Campus favorites Linus and the Postelles opened.

 

Spring Fling; Wavves, The Walkmen, Raekwon & Ghostface

Spring Fling lineups have become something of a science in recent years. Take your high-voltage hipster-punks, your critically-acclaimed thinking-person’s rockers, and your rap-heavy hitters, and you’ve got a foolproof end-of-semester throwdown. Flora & Fauna, winners of the annual battle of the bands competition, kicked off the afternoon with their frantic dance-rock, paving the way for noise-pop hooligans Wavves, who followed up. Invoking spliffs, skateboards, and days at the beach against grey skies, frontman Nathan Williams and co. powered through a blistering set of their warped jangle-punk before making way for New York’s The Walkmen. Combining speedfreak drumming, organs, and the awesomely-named Harrison Leihauser’s half-mumbled half-howled vocals, the stately rockers, quite unexpectedly, stole the show. Wu-Tang mega-stars Ghostface and Raekwon wrapped up the afternoon (see what I did there?), spitting verses from their respective stellar solo works “Fishscale” and “Only Built for Cuban Linx II”, as well as the considerably less stellar collaboration “Wu Massacre.” Despite high expectations, the normally agitated, frenetic rappers seemed tired and low-energy, their hype men picking up much of the slack. However, if crowd reactions mean anything, it didn’t seem to matter.

 

Static Stamina/Lightning Bolt/PNK@DKE:

The pratfalls of college weekend life. Some weekends, you’ll find you and your roaming band of Freshpeople with no destination in sight, floating drunk and lonely through a seemingly event-less campus. Thankfully, they’re few and far between. Case and point: potentially the loudest, brashest, most uproariously insane multi-day concert line up Wesleyan has seen since the days when mullet-headed kids turned their amps up to eleven.

Thursday night, campus favorites Static Stamina played their send-off show of the semester, bringing out the full force of their mob-mentalitied hip-hop-punk-pop-instantaneously-mosh-pit-starting-chaos machine in the basement of Malcolm X house. Thrashing through their delirious, catchy, and often hilarious discography, they pounded out covers of Sum 41 and Kanye West alongside much loved originals. F-bombs were dropped, crowds were surfed, and party hands were raised in what was potentially the most cathartic show of the year.

Resident all-star Blink-182 cover band Dink-583 and the awesomely named ska punks Aaron Burr and the Hamiltones got the blood flowing early in the night. In order to follow up, Wesleyan had to outsource to the monolithic noise machine that birthed the likes of the Talking Heads and Les Saavy Fav: the Rhode Island School of Design. Cloaked in mystique, masks, and thunderous waves of feedback, noise-rock fearmongers Lightning Bolt struck fear in the hearts of the weak and melted the faces of the many. Comprised of frantic drumming, cello-tuned bass, and the demented ranting of an asylum escapee, the experimental titans invoked Boredoms and Philip Glass, incited bloodshed, and busted eardrums as they steamrolled Eclectic. Haze-punk busy-bodies the Japanese and the Parents opened.

While some retreated to nurse headaches and bruised ribs, the most hardcore of Wesleyan soldiered on, trekking to the deep depths of the Delta Kappa Epsilon basement for the whirlwind of distortion and rage that is PNK@DKE. Featuring two stages for non-stop mayhem, the second annual punk bachanalia broke enough bones and bloodied enough noses to satisfy any glutton for punishment. Student favorites (The Parents, Beat the Grave, Miami Heat), out-of-state punks (White Suns, Honey Suck), and a few newcomers (Cum Tissue) hammered out short, brutal tunes as marathon moshers kept the party going.

 

Zonker Harris Day:

What’s in a name? To a couple of unusually persistent WestCo presidents, unusually reasonable university administrators, and one unusually influential nationally syndicated liberal cartoonist, quite a bit, evidently. Thanks to them, the annual Spring music festival Zonker Harris Day returned to campus after several years under the infamous Ze-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named moniker. With its perpetually stoned, slacker namesake back in action, the festival brought out the big guns, pulling campus faves and underground wave-makers to brighten a pretty gray afternoon.

Sunny-sweet pop all-stars Treasure Island kicked off the afternoon, followed by experimental-space-folk-funk-jam-partystarter titans Almonds & Elephants, a major landmark in the absurdly prolific collective’s meteoric rise last year. Noise-punk upstarts Miami Heat brought a bit of Florida sun to the WestCo courtyard (along with some breakneck riffs and mosh pits), and The Band (that covers The Band) wrapped up the afternoon’s campus acts, with tight harmonies, southern bounce, and enough Dixie charm to make Levon Helm proud.

Performing under a tent as rain sputtered on and off, New-York-by-way-of-Tacoma, twee-pop-rockers Oberhofer returned to campus, their jittery, joyous choruses dueling with increasingly grey skies and wet ground. As the festival stretched into the evening, P-Safe showed up to put the kibosh on the concert, before headliners Twin Sister could hit the stage. Organizers pushed the Long Island disco-pop quintet to Eclectic later that night, turning the afternoon of sweet jams into the kind of all-day happening Zonker himself would approve of. The Doones abides.

 

Other Happenings: 

Music House Performs “Fleet Foxes”: Since 2010’s stellar cover of Arcade Fire’s album “Funeral”, it seems to have become tradition for the residents of music house to perform in full one album a year. Spring 2011 brought us a rendition of the glorious eponymous debut of baroque-folk gods Fleet Foxes. Music House pumped out aching harmonies, warm guitar fuzz, an organ, and a hell of a lot of flannel.

Matisyahu and Chiddy Bang: Despite being two of the biggest names brought to Wesleyan last year, the concert ended in disappointment, confusion, and a whole lot of questions. Held on a Tuesday night in the acoustically limited hockey rink, the show saw throngs of students, who were confined to the bleachers, file out of the door long before its finish. Bigger than the concert itself was the buzz surrounding it: a huge campus controversy arising about potential misuse of concert committee funds to book the $55,000 act.

Battle of the Bands: Six campus greats clashed in Eclectic over bragging rights and a slot to open Spring Fling. Despite veterans Flora & Fauna bringing home the gold, relative newcomers like Yeoman’s Omen and The Taste dominated the night.

Dr. Dog and The Head and the Heart: Lava-lamp-worshipers Dr. Dog kicked off the winter semester with their sunny, Beatles-esque jams and outrageous headgear.  Shaggy-haired folkies The Head and the Heart, who have since made waves at the Newport Folk Festival, opened.

Harry and the Potters: Benevolent-overlords-of-wizard rock Harry and the Potters tore through the Alpha Delt living room, banging out sweet, speedy tunes about girls, basilisks, and being a teenager with magical powers and a destiny to save the world. When P-Safe had to shut down the show because of scheduling difficulties, the duo courageously led the crowd out to the lawn to perform an acoustic, sing-along set underneath the streetlamps.

Kayo Dot: Alternating between head-down haunting minimalism and moments of punishing, otherworldly noise, post-rock godheads Kayo Dot thundered trough Eclectic in a cataclysm of sound and chaos. All your dreams and nightmares came true. Recent alumnus and musical man-about-town, Ben Seretan ’10, opened.

Kathleen Hanna: Though not really a concert, Kathleen Hanna is legendary enough to be notable in a recap of significant arts events. Torchbearer of the RiotGrrrl movement and frontwoman of feminist-punks Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, Hanna delivered a lecture in the Woodhead Lounge about her musical career and activism.

Wordsmith/Fly Machine/Bones Complex: Things got pretty funky in 200 Church that October night. Recently-graduated rapper Wordsmith and the Concert G’s brought their consistently energetic and impressive live presence to new levels, while Fly Machine and Bones Complex laid down some sweet bass lines and body moving rhythms.

Bear in Heaven: Pitchfork-approved neo-krautrockers Bear in Heaven brought their whirling, synth-driven, prog-pop machine to Eclectic, inciting crowd-surfing and some serious mustache envy.

Bomb the Music Industry!: Long-Island-bred pop-punk collective Bomb the Music Industry! brought its wild, sweaty live show to the WestCo café, towing with them horns, synths, and a whole lot of chaos. Static Stamina opened.

Laura Stevenson & the Cans: Bomb the Music Industry! affiliate Laura Stevenson tore, shocked, and awed 200 Church with her folksy, melancholic wail in a set heavy on epic reprises, cartharsis, and accordian. Blues-rockers The Crutch and new-kids-on-the-block  Yeoman’s Omen opened.

The Night Kite Revival: Slam Poetry went through something of a renaissance in 2010-2011, thanks to a handful of talented, committed students/poets/performers. Kicking off a big year for spoken word, slam legends Anis Mojani and Buddy Wakefield, along with some equally awesome friends, captivated Memorial Chapel and converted innumerable students to slam-believers.

Upright Citizens: Springboard for names like Amy Pohler, Aziz Ansari, and Ed Helms, the Upright Citizens Brigade is like the Oxford of improv comedy. Or Something. Keeping the audience in stitches, the Touring Company ripped on everything and everyone available during its April performance in Memorial Chapel.

Bridesmaids: Judd Apatow’s latest gut-buster Bridesmaids made its way to the Goldsmith Family Cinema for a free early screening. Opening to critical acclaim and box office success in May, the film starred Kirsten Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Rose Byrne, as well as everyone’s favorite ad-man, Jon Hamm.

Senior Film Theses: The final result of hundreds of hours spent watching obscure Russian films and sucking up to Jeanine Basinger, the Senior Film Theses continued to attract huge crowds anxious to see short tales of storage-locker love, super-powered sloths, and a Virginia Slim-loving lotto winner, among many others.

Richard III:In the Fall of 2010, theater professor David B. Jaffe directed Shakespeare’s historical play Richard III—but this was no dry rendition of the hundreds-year old text. There were no backdrops. Instead, the only set was a two story tower made of metal scaffolding, with a bed of chain netting for actors to walk on. Additionally, the villain himself was played by not one but two actors, Ben Vigus ’11 and Emma Sherr-Ziarko ’11, both of them onstage at all times, playing against and complimenting each other’s performances. Every member of the rest of the cast played at least two characters (quite a few of whom weregender-bending in the process). It was Shakespeare like you’ve never seen it before.

 

Melancholy Play 

The Spring CFA production, directed by Michael Rau ’05, was a play about almonds. Another summary, taken from the Facebook event, describes the play as thus: “GIRL GETS SAD. WE GET HAPPY. GIRL GETS HAPPY. WE GET SAD.” At the end everyone is an almond. Or are they? Does it even matter? A supremely non-judgmental meditation on sadness and happiness, “Melancholy Play” by Sarah Ruhl had heartwarming moments, big laughs, lesbians, nurse costumes, psychiatrists, twins separated at birth, and musical numbers. The MacArthur-award-winning playwright herself, Sarah Ruhl, paid a two-day visit to campus, where she discussed her work with the cast and held a lecture for all students. Her visit and the production of her play were smashing successes with the student body. It didn’t even seem to matter that she graduated from Brown.

 

Narcoleptic Countess

There are always dance performances going on across campus, whether it’s a student group breaking it down in Usdan Commons or a visiting artist performing in the CFA, but by far the stand-out dance event from last year was “The Narcoleptic Countess,” a neo-baroque ballet written by Dance Artist in Residence Patricia Beaman. The show told the story of a widow haunted by the well-meaning ghost of her husband, and over 20 dancers were involved in making the tale come to life. The excellent choreography, versatile costumes, and original set combined to make one of the most memorable shows of the year.

 

Devotedly, Sincerely Yours

 

Samantha Joy Pearlman’s senior theater thesis about real-life WWI USO girl Louise Buckley was one of the big theater events of last spring. The mainly one-woman musical was performed by Pearlman with a band made of all men, who traded lyrics, quips, and dance numbers with her. The show was performed in the CFA Theater, the largest theater on campus, but Pearlman and her band of boys filled up the space. A show that was “98 percent found text,” according to Pearlman, showed the glamour and fun of the USO girl’s life as well as the reality of the suffering and hard times she experienced with the soldiers on the front. The show made the duality of the era, in its innocence and denial, apparent to the audience. Aside from the merit of the show itself, the herculean feat it took to even get the thesis to performance is also notable: Pearlman wrote, directed, performed in and did set design for the show while also writing an over-70-page thesis on the performed gender of the USO girl as a companion piece.