November at the 'Sco

The past few weeks on campus have been some of the craziest music-wise. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that all these shows were packed so close together in such a short period or if it’s because the midterms breathing down my neck made the best parts of those weeks even better. Either way, the shows at the ‘Sco have been pretty insane recently. 

For those unfamiliar with the Dionysus Disco, it’s one of our most popular venue spaces on campus. Located in the basement of Wilder and right next to three dining locations, it’s the perfect place to go late at night when you’re tired of studying or just after a snack break. And one of the best things about the ‘Sco is that you’ll almost always find a reason to go in. 

The first of my three favorite ‘Sco events this year is Rando Bando. I was a little too scared in my first year on campus to commit to joining a band full of people I didn’t know, but this year I was fully ready. The basic premise of Rando Bando is this – about a month before the actual showcase at the ‘Sco, you sign up describing what you’d like to contribute to the band (what kind of instrument you play, if you’d be willing to sing, etc.), as well as any genre preferences you have so that the board members of the Gear Co-op (a student-run organization that collectively takes care of and uses a practice space full of guitars, basses, a drum kit, and a whole lot of cords) can best assign you to a group of 3-4 other musicians who are all just as excited as you are about playing and writing with other people. It sounds like it couldn’t possibly work – how do five people who have never met before, let alone played together, write three whole songs and have them stage-ready in less than a month to perform in front of people at an actual concert? My doubts about it last year were immediately squashed when the Randos assembled in their slightly planned, haphazard formations and proceeded to put on a spectacular show. The whiplash between pop-punk, folk-jazz, and everything in between was pretty consistent throughout, and it was one of the coolest things I ended up seeing last year. So needless to say, I had to do it this time. And I had a blast! We ended up writing a song about Chicken Joe from the iconic 2000s kid’s movie Surf’s Up, and I think the moshing we induced between that and the epic zombie song my friend wrote for it says enough about the performance's success level. While I wasn’t able to make it to perform at the actual show, my band pulled through and killed it. We all had such a good experience through all of it that we’re planning to continue to get together to play, just for the heck of it without a show to even prepare for. 

Next was the Cover Band Showcase – the most populated ‘Sco show of the semester. Everyone piles their coats in a sweaty heap and crams together to jump and scream at their friends who are absolutely crushing it on stage with the best impressions of their favorite real-life bands. You never really know who the bands are covering until you get there (or unless you’ve heard rumors fluttering around), as the cover bands typically name themselves according to obscure references to lines of songs or funny puns only the most die-hard fans of these original bands would understand. It makes it all the more fun, therefore, when one of your favorite songs gets played in the moment you were least expecting it to. 

The last event I want to mention is the only one I’ve recently seen that featured an off-campus performer. I wasn’t familiar with Haley Heynderickx’s music before I heard buzzes of her coming to our very own ‘Sco, but now I can say that I wholeheartedly understand why so much excitement surrounded her performance. I don’t listen to a lot of folk music, but there was something about how her voice perfectly matched the sincerity in her light guitar-picking style that stunned us all into silence. She was also the sweetest – we all sat mesmerized as she politely asked us not to film the concert. Then we were able to fully enjoy the anxious, excited, confused bliss we were transported into the moment she started playing. 

These are just a few of the tons and tons of concerts the ‘Sco has hosted this year, and I definitely plan to attend more as the year rolls on. Too often I find myself taking it for granted. I’ve really been able to appreciate the ‘Sco for what it is these past few weeks, and I’m not going to let myself forget about the insane sense of wonder it somehow inspires any time soon.