History was made last Friday night when Aaron Burr and the Hamiltones, Wesleyan’s premier (and only) ska band, played where no band has played before: the open walkway between WestCo’s 2 and 3, henceforth to be known (at least in some circles) as SKABRIDGE. The band, in true punk fashion, is famous for hosting “guerrilla shows” in

random places on campus. Usually confined to the Butts, this raucous musical act with an affection for puns took a leap of faith all the way over to WestCo for their most epic show yet.

“This was something we wanted to plan like a year ago,” said Spencer Burnham ’14, who plays bass in the band.

Along with Burnham, the seven-piece band is made up of Matt Leibowitz ’14 on the trumpet, Nate Repasz ’14 on drums, Lyle Codman ’14 on trombone, Rob Roth ’14 on vocals, John Ryan ’14 on guitar, and Sean Winnik ’14 on tenor saxophone. The band played for 45 minutes to an adoring and enthusiastic crowd, much longer than expected. The whole endeavor was risky; the walkway is most certainly not set up for concerts, they had to run all the power cords out of Repasz’s rooms, and there was the constant threat of Public Safety (PSafe) hanging over their head. The Hamiltones didn’t expect that they’d be able to play an entire show without being shut down. So they were surprised when they were able to play until their last song.

Despite a slight hiccup in the beginning when a PSafe officer walked through their base of operations in Repasz’s room—not a word was said and he just kind of shook his head, attested the band.

“People were really getting into it,” Winnik said.

“We had girls moshing,” Leibowitz added.

Still, only the good die young. SKABRIDGE was not made to last, and eventually PSafe came to shut the show down.  But the Hamiltones went down fighting—by accident. Leibowitz, mistaking the officer for a rabid fan, continued playing his trumpet straight into the face of PSafe.

“I never thought you had that anarchist streak in you,” Repasz said with a laugh.

Leibowitz wasn’t the only one slow on the uptake. Most of the other members took PSafe’s flashlights to be video camera and got excited that someone was filming them. Alas, as comprehension dawned, each realized that their show was over, heralded by the officer’s calls of “You’re done” and “What made you think that was a good idea?”

The Hamiltones (minus one unnamed member) were charged with noise complaints and hosting an unauthorized event/party.

“There were more than 50 people in one place and apparently that makes it an unregistered event,” Winnik said.

“And half of them had their shoes off. I hear that might make it an orgy,” Burnham chimed in.

However, the alleged unregistered orgy at SKABRIDGE was not the first time Aaron Burr and the Hamiltones hosted a show in an unusual non-venue.

“It all started last year when we were supposed to play a show at 200 Church and it just kind of fell through last minute, “ Burnham said. “It kind of didn’t exist, but we really weren’t aware of its lack of existence, so we prepared really hard for a show and then decided once it got cancelled that we should just play a show in a double in the Butts.”

This double was Josh Cohen’s ’14 and Keegan Dufty’s ’14 room in Butt C, and following that success, the Hamiltones discovered that it was just easier to book and play shows on their own terms, without having to go through a third party or worry about finding people to open for them.

“It was easier to be like on the Wednesday of that week say, ‘Hey guys you want to play a show this weekend?,’” Winnik said. “We don’t plan ahead that much.”

Their next guerrilla show, Copen-skanking, was also in a Butts double, but this time it all went down in—you guessed it—a Copenhagen, otherwise known as “Da Club.”  This show was also a rousing success.

Yet, the combination of laziness and hatred of the bureaucracy and politics surrounding booking concerts aren’t the only reasons the Hamiltones occasionally turn to guerrilla shows. They have played shows at legitimate venues, such as Malcolm X House, Eclectic during Awesomefest, and Music House. Still, there is something about the thrill of putting on a concert in a place where you’re likely to be shut down and you’re presented with the challenge of setting up equipment in an area that is completely unsuited for it.

“The guerilla shows are more about a spontaneous display of just musical fun,” Repasz said. “This sort of music lends itself to dancing and, if you can have this sort of convergence of almost a flash mob, it’s definitely part of the whole punk aesthetic.”

Although next semester Roth and Codman are leaving the band and the Hamiltones will be changing, I’m sure we can expect more of the quick, dirty and hopelessly fun ska jams they are known for producing—I’m just not sure we can expect where they’ll be playing next. As always, Aaron Burr and the Hamiltones are committed to bringing their beloved brand of blasting horn lines, spiky guitars, and loud boisterous drums to Wesleyan at any cost.

“People like to talk about artistic freedom and stuff at school,” said Burnham. “I’m not trying to say we’re big on statement-making [sic] or anything like that, but people should be able to play music in any forum they want when they want and just for the sake of their and their friends’ enjoyment.”