Music makes money at HASS scholarship benefit concert
A band that plays with lights, a band that tells of epic journeys seeking for gold, a band that sports incredible vocals and instrumentals and a band with electronic beats that will blow your mind.
Far out, man.
Playing at an independent music club concert designated to benefit a HASS scholarship, four bands, Griswold, Beta.Chicks, Battle School and Orca Fair Whale, rocked out in the TSC Auditorium Saturday night.
All profits from the concert went to the “students scholarship,” available exclusively to HASS students. The scholarship was created to help students who are beyond their freshman year receive help paying for their school. It is mostly funded by events such as this concert, so in a way it is students helping out students, said Amy Nguyen, independent music club member.
Local music enthusiast Mary Jackson said she thought every band who performed did great job.
“It was a great show, all of the bands did really good. I came to watch Battle School and am very glad I got to see the other bands,” she said.
The first band to perform was Orca Fair Whale. The band’s unique sound derived from an assortment of instruments ranging from the mandolin to the piano to the African drums.
The vocals for Orca Fair Whale ranged from melodious synchronization to whistling, with quite a bit of rapping thrown into a few of their songs.
The next band to play was Griswold. With some screaming guitar work and good drums in the background, the band worked the crowd.
They were the heros of the night, Nguyen said, stepping in only a few hours before for another band that wasn’t able to make it.
Battle School played with the lights. In addition to band members playing instruments expected at a concert – drums, guitar, bass – Battle School has a band member who uses light switches on tempo with the band to produce different lighting for different parts of the song.
There was a shadow constantly cast on the back of the stage that danced as the players did. The show was a visual treat as well as a musical one, Jackson said.
Beta.Chicks was the final band of the evening, and a crowd favorite, Nguyen said.
Jackson said Beta.Chicks was a unique band which has many cool things about them.
All band members wore blue shirts, something band member Jon Jacobs said they do at every show; however, Jacobs said the band, “frequently considers dressing our auxiliary percussionist, Adam, up in a Tony the Tiger outfit for our shows.”
–adam.ward@aggiemail.usu.edu