By Carly Koziol
Correspondent
College Union Board sponsored a Student Band Night with an interesting twist on Friday, Feb. 11 — the event featured two bands and two soloists.
Deece Ham, comprised of senior statistics major Christopher Lombardi, senior communication studies major Ed Broderick, junior criminology major Kyle Falzone and sophomore mathematics secondary education major Danny Brill, took the stage first, while a group of approximately 20 wrestlers cheered on their teammates turned punk rock band.
“The last match of the season is tonight, so we’re just hanging out,” said sophomore interdisciplinary business major James Olivo, who came to see his teammates perform before they faced off with Centenary College.
The crowd rocked out to Deece Ham’s covers, including Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin’” and Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman,” which Lombardi dedicated to “all the bastards who have found a gorgeous girl.”
Lombardi and Brill donned shades and took center stage for the highlight of the performance — Run D.M.C.’s “It’s Tricky.” Brill showed off his fancy footwork while the crowd clapped to the beat.
With one year together and now three College performances under their belts, the members of Deece Ham jokingly set their goals high for 2011.
“We plan to book Kendall Hall, Madison Square Garden and Wembley Stadium for our European clientele,” Broderick said.
Next up was a group of
four students — senior Eng-lish major Dominic Rivera, freshman mathematics maj-or Chris Woidill, senior technology education major Adam Huntington and junior psychology major Robbie Blank — who had never played together before.
The impromptu pop punk group opened with blink-182’s “Dammit,” and addressed the audience after successfully nailing the cover.
“Can you tell this is our first time?” Woidill asked.
The crowd responded with hoots and howls of encouragement.
After their version of Third Eye Blind’s “Jumper” came other alternative tunes including Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” and Semisonic’s “Closing Time,” the foursome’s crowd-pleasing, “clever” choice of a closer.
“They kicked it into high gear, playing crowd-pleasers and girl-getters,” said freshman communication studies major Matt Mance.
Satisfied with their last-minute performance, the four students plan to play together in the future.
Electric guitars and drum sets were traded in for a stool and mic stand, setting the stage for the soloist acts.
First up was senior psychology major Theodore Ruxbin, equipped with an acoustic guitar and witty humor.
Ruxbin opened with a cover of Loudon Wainwright III’s poetic “The Swimming Song,” then launched into an original but held off on revealing its name.
“Some love songs are very direct,” Ruxbin said. “This is not one of those songs.”
Other covers included Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” and, briefly, Radiohead’s “Idioteque.” Ruxbin tried his instrumental hand at the song to satisfy a crowd request, but a failure to recall the lyrics cut him short.
Ruxbin made his way offstage content with his performance. He revealed the name of his original number — “Anna” — and the song’s namesake made her way over to praise him.
“This is Anna. We’ve been dating forever,” Ruxbin said.
The final act of the night was junior religious studies major Jake Ehrlich. It was his last College performance before leaving to study abroad in Japan.
“In light of the upcoming holiday, I thought I’d play songs of love and romance, which is convenient because I don’t have any other songs,” Ehrlich said.
Light humor intertwined with original, sentimental lyrics that elicited laughter from the crowd.
“The clown scared your sister / I didn’t think I looked that scary,” crooned Ehrlich in reference to meeting a lover at the carnival.
The night came to a close, and the crowd cheered Ehrlich’s name as he took off his acoustic guitar.
When asked where his inspiration for songs came from, Ehrlich had an instantaneous answer: “W-O-M-E-N!”
