The Southern Cafe and Music Hall hosted four student bands — Krispies, No Composure, The Coast and Loose Champagne — 8 p.m. Friday until midnight for an exhilarating four-hour long concert. Organized by Indieheads, WXTJ, University Records and V Magazine, the show brought together students and Charlottesville residents alike. In fact, it brought so many of them together that the show had sold out less than halfway through, packing the music hall with concertgoers relishing the vibrant mix of covers and original music.
Each of the four bands performed after one another, with Krispies kicking the night off with a mix of classic and 2000s rock including “Hysteria” by Muse and “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder. Their rotating singers and fiddle player provided a unique, flowing sound to help them stand out among the night’s studded lineup.
No Composure followed, performing several original tunes alongside their usual set of popular pop and rock tracks like “Say it Ain’t So" by Weezer. Their song selection and polished sound, along with their stage presence, kept the audience rapt.
Third was The Coast, featuring a range of covers of popular songs such as “Linger” by The Cranberries, “Pool House” by The Backseat Lovers and “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers, while also featuring originals. Their varied tracklist — with genres ranging from midwest emo to heavy rock — provided an engaging and distinct set.
Finally, Loose Champagne closed out the night with a jazz, R&B and hip-hop filled setlist of songs like “Crush on You” by Lil’ Kim, “Doo Wop” by Lauryn Hill and three of their originals. Their groovy set and onstage enthusiasm had the crowd on their feet, concluding a lively night of singalongs and mosh pits among audiences.
Part of this excitement arose from the opportunity for these bands to raise their production value in a professional venue. Unlike the house or bar settings near Grounds these bands frequent, The Southern provided a dedicated sound engineer behind a mixing board throughout the show.
Cavan Meade, singer and fiddle player for Krispies and fourth-year Engineering student explained that he and his fellow performers enjoyed their sonic improvements as a result.
“This kind of feels like another step up and demands a little more professionalism from everyone involved,” Meade said. “That makes it that much cooler, because we can make our sound that much stronger.”
Another factor allowing the four to light up the evening was the audience’s focus on the music as the main event. These student bands commonly perform at fraternities and house parties, where they may naturally become background noise. However, The Southern’s more musically dedicated environment encourages the opposite. Jack Leonard, lead guitarist for Krispies and fourth-year Engineering student, commented on the difference felt by both the audience and performers as a result.
“The energy is better,” Leonard said. “It feels more like a show and less like we’re just playing in the background.”
As an audience member, fourth-year College student Sarah Kim echoed this additional emphasis on the concert, noting how her experience at The Southern contrasted traditional house shows.
“You're more actively listening to it than just messing around with your friends,” Kim said. “Both [environments] are fun and I enjoy either. It's just different.”
The brevity of each band’s set also allowed bands to tailor their setlist, focusing on showmanship, stage presence and musical cohesion as opposed to length. Each group played for around 50 minutes, shorter than the typical all-night booking. Leonard said that this shorter set enabled Krispies to focus their attention on tracks that would comprise the strongest production while maintaining energy and interactivity onstage.
“When we play for three hours at a gig, we’re playing a good portion of the songs we know, there’s not so much mindfulness about what songs we play,” Leonard said. “We could not keep that up for three hours.”
In connecting the University’s student body and the Charlottesville community, The Southern was able to broaden the horizons of concertgoers and the quartet of bands alike. Fourth-year Engineering student Alex Clunan said that the mixed crowd may have been especially transformative for bands that frequent more intimate venues.
“You see the bands that you usually see in the house show setting in a venue that professionally hosts musicians,” Clunan said. “You’re bringing bands from the house show scene up into something bigger.”
Isabel Xiao, president of WXTJ Student Radio, bassist for Loose Champagne and fourth-year College student emphasized the importance of bringing students Downtown to engage with the broader community.
“We really wanted to get people Downtown and incorporate the student body into the [Charlottesville] community,” Xiao said. “U.Va. students can often live in a bubble, and they’re not aware of the town and space they’re occupying. … We really want to get students to support the city that they live in.”
This was not the first student show hosted at The Southern, but according to Xiao, it was the first to sell out. Arranged by four student groups and subsequently put on by four more, the concert’s melodic flair and substantial turnout at a premier music hall marked a memorable display of student musical engagement on every level.
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