 "Photo: CAROLINE SOLLMANN/THE BATES STUDENT")
Music lovers on campus turned out in distinct droves and waves last Friday night, March 5th, for a WRBC-sponsored concert at The Benjamin Mays Center featuring Toro Y Moi, Washed Out, Small Black and James Cook ’12. The concert was heavily promoted by the campus radio station to get students listening and excited for these up and coming groups.
The artists, who fall under the blog-spun, catch-all genre “chillwave,” all sound fairly distinct. Each group brought an enjoyable sound to audience members who were clearly very excited to dance and enjoy what the bands had to offer.
Students were first treated to Cook, who played a lengthy introductory set of his own ambient pop tracks. Cook, a history major from Woodstock, CT, played unique, sprawling drones from behind a small set up and laptop. Cook played what he thought would be his last track, but when the next group, Small Black, was nowhere to be seen, he played a few more. Cook has an EP coming out toward the end of spring on UK-based electronic label Urbantorque.
The crowd was at its height when the first touring group, Small Black from Brooklyn, took the stage. The group, consisting of a vocalist, a bassist and an electronic percussionist, played some thumping and driving electronic rock, pausing to joke with the audience. “This is like, a really nice college,” Small Black’s vocalist said. “You guys seem to really like it up here.” The crowd certainly enjoyed themselves, hoisting people onto shoulders and dancing in a pulsing mass of people.
Ernest Greene, from Georgia, was the sole member of the next group, Washed Out. His EP “Life of Leisure” has garnered acclaim and excitement on the Internet. His songs are fantastically retro, thoroughly blurry and filled with pleasant beach-like reverb and echo. Greene limited his crowd interaction to singing his songs and a few exclamations of “Yeah!” Small Black joined him for a few songs, including his set’s concluding song, “Feel it All Around,” as well as for an unrehearsed encore.
By the time Toro Y Moi had set up, many had left The Mays Center for other exploits around campus, which was unfortunate, because Chaz Bundick’s music was probably the most original and interesting of the night. The South Carolina musician played to a small, and somewhat distracted audience, but he saw the whole program out properly. His songs, mostly from his recent LP, “Causers of This,” moved between thumping bass grooves not unlike Washed Out’s, to multi-layered, reverb-heavy electro tracks, to more spaced out guitar songs, rich in echo-y vocals, which were almost reminiscent of Animal Collective at their best and most tolerable.
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