Megan Schilling
Correspondent
Students enjoyed the final alternative jam session of the semester in the Brower Student Center on April 24, hosted by the College Union Board. The concert featured underground bands Remo Drive, the headliner, Nervous Dater and Ditz, the two openers.
Band members began setting up onstage while students clad in T-shirts with “Remo Drive” printed on the front filled the room.
As members of Nervous Dater packed up their equipment and made room for Remo Drive to set up on stage, an excited atmosphere swarmed the bustling crowd.
“Remo Drive has evolved from the rest of the kind of music I listen to,” said Joshua Nancing, a sophomore computer engineering major. “So I pretty much came here for Remo Drive, but I’m glad I came early because it really surprised me how great the first two bands also were.”
While everyone seemed to love the first two bands, the most hype was for the headlining band.
“Remo Drive is one of my favorite bands. I saw them earlier this month, and I’m really excited to see them again,” said Chandler Hubert, and freshman health and exercise science major. “They have an amazing stage presence and I know they’re gonna kill it tonight!”
Remo Drive, the most experienced of the bands who played at the concert have two albums out, are signed with Epitaph Records and have an entire merchandise website. From Minnesota, vocalist and guitarist Erik Paulson, bass guitarist Stephen Paulson, drummist and auxiliary percussionist Sam Mathys, demonstrated a certain professionalism and confidence on stage that was simply hard to ignore.
Remo Drive captivated the audience immediately with its first song “Song of the Summer” from its newest album titled “Pop Music.”
“Their playing is very technical and impressive and they have a lot of charisma and fun onstage,” said Jack Sofka, a sophomore English major and CUB Alt co-chair.
A huge difference between Remo Drive and the two preceding bands was that Remo Drive transitioned directly from one song into the next, rather than taking breaks in between as Ditz and Nervous Dater did. This seemed to really keep audience members in the groove.
They played many hits from their two albums, including “Yer Killin’ Me,” “I’m My Own Doctor” and “Blue Ribbon,” which most of the student audience members seemed to know all of the lyrics to.
While the band’s transitions were smooth, Paulson’s voice was flawless and the instrumentals were noteworthy. The group’s high energy and great music makes it easy to understand why Remo Drive was not only the favorite of the night.
The first band to play, Ditz, from Wrightstown, New Jersey, just recently released its debut album “Same, Same.” The band included Todd Hoisington on lead vocals and guitar, Johnny Napoline, also on guitar, and Luke Chizek on drums.
Ditz started out playing a cover from The Grateful Dead, touched on a few of their own new unreleased songs and then finished strong with music from the group’s album “Same, Same,” which featured songs such as “Spanish Subtitles,” “Melon Grab” and “Home of the Tomato Pie.”
Nervous Dater, a band hailing from Brooklyn, New York is comprised of vocalist Rachel Lightner and instrumentalists Kevin Cunningham, Andrew Goetz and Yon Heenan.
Nervous Dater played songs such as “Wavelengths” from its newest album “Don’t Be A Stranger.” While some songs were groovy and sedative, others were both musically and vocally intense and fast-paced.
“Thank you all for listening to us,” Lightner said between songs. “This is a cool show, we’re stoked to be playing for people who really want to listen to us. Anyway, this next one is about a dumpster we found that was really fun and it's called ‘Fun Dumpster.’”
Overall, students had a noticeably had a great time.
“I’m a huge fan of music,” said Jacob Dinerman, a sophomore communication studies major. “I’ve never listened to any of these bands before but they were bumpin’, it was really cool. All I gotta say is, rock and roll’s gnarly!”
