It’s a Friday evening and the campus is empty, with everyone partying elsewhere. Yet, those hippie folks at Slade Hall believe otherwise – their hallowed halls are too wonderful to give up even for one night. Instead, they bring the action to them.
Slade, a UVM dorm on Redstone known for its sustainable, environmentally friendly community, is also the hub of the underground music community at UVM.
And, underground it definitely is, as one must part with their shoes at the entrance to this warm house and proceed downward into an alternate realm of happiness, complete with colorful paintings on the walls of peace signs and welcoming phrases.
Known for its Wednesday night Open Mic sessions, Slade also hosts occasional Friday night concerts with bands both from UVM and the surrounding Burlington community.
On this particular Friday night, Slade hosted a benefit concert for sending UVM students to Power Shift, a national youth summit in DC focusing on climate change. The show featured dub reggae band Free Louis groovin’ the basement back to its retro roots and alt-rock band Reverse Neutral Drive.
The bands were definitely altered by the atmosphere, as they played off of the positive vibes of the perpetual shameless dancing of the packed crowd. As a result, the show was much more communal than most, even those in Burlington.
Although the crowd would have been perfectly content with any band, Free Louis did live up to their name and provide an unbound backbeat for the dance party. The primarily instrumental band focused their energies on elaborate guitar jams with dynamic crescendos in order to rev up the crowd.
While their intricate melodies showed off their delicate proficiency of the guitar, it was often wrapped up in an amped up basic bass line. The warm mood was more of a facet of the crowd, packed into the welcoming room shoulder to shoulder, but transported to a much warmer climate by the beats.
Reverse Neutral Drive offered more standard fare, upbeat rock attempting to be grungy. While the crowd ate it up, the band had little individuality, instead playing off of the style of 90’s alt. hits and serving up guitar laden college rock. This band also made sure to relish their environment, exaggerating their quirks and even reading a snippet from a “Winny the Pooh” story during an interlude.
Listening to typical college fare, Slade still performs wonders as the enthusiastically dancing crowd provides more than enough enjoyment. On the other hand, it would be that much harder to fully enjoy a top notch band at Slade because of the crowd.
On Saturday night, Radio Bean offered up its stage late night for the fan favorite rockers, the Powder Kegs. The over capacity crowd spilled onto North Winooski St., adding to the typical end of the week spirit of merriment in downtown Burlington. Unfortunately, this merriment exuded itself in the form of a fight during the show.
Earlier on Saturday night, I interviewed the Feverbreakers in an intimate practice setting. Look out for that in the next issue of the Cynic, in which the band depicts themselves up close and personal.
This weekend promises some highly acclaimed indie at the Monkey House, with Hardly Art (a Sub Pop imprint) signed art-rockers Pretty and Nice on Thursday night and Pitchfork-worthy post-punkers The Pains of Being Pure at Heart on Saturday night.
lo-fi rockin' burlington 