This past Sunday, four bands came together for one great show when We Stole the Kids, Anchors Away, Lando, and Thumbs Up Get Down performed at the venue All Asia in Cambridge.
First up was Thumbs Up Get Down, a local band featuring students from Suffolk University. With Jesse DC on lead vocals, Dave Vitola on guitar, Dalton Patton on drums and Davey Frew on electronics and keyboards, this group played an acoustic set consisting of original songs in the genre they define as a mix of pop-punk, post-hardcore and electronic.
Next up was Lando, featuring BU’s own Justin Maillet (CAS ’13) as the lead singer. The rest of his band consists of his three friends from his home, the local town of Billerica: Craig Cincotta on the drums, Corey Atkinson on guitar and Jared Smith on bass. The four friends have been playing music together for over ten years, and officially started this punk rock/melodic hardcore band in 2009. Lando performed seven original songs (one of which was written during their high school history class about Shay’s Rebellion), and then played one Against Me! cover of “Sink, Florida, Sink”.
The third act was the all-BU group Anchors Away, playing post-hardcore and pop punk songs. The group consists of five Terriers, heralding from New York, Connecticut, Tennessee and Rhode Island. Anchors Away features Evan White (CAS ’13) as the lead vocalist, Aing Kruchalee (CAS ’13) as lead guitarist, Max Cohen (SAR ’13) on the bass and featured in vocals, Josh Robison (SAR ’13) as the rhythm guitarist and John Leibold (COM ’13) on the drums. Anchors Away played some original songs and some covers, one crowd pleaser being an Against Me! cover of Kanye West and Katy Perry’s Extraterrestrial. White also incorporated audience participation by turning the mic to them and having them sing “give me heaven or hell”, the main refrain to one of their songs.
We Stole the Kids, hailing from New York, closed the show. Evan White got to know their guitarist a few years back, when the band was originally The Band Eclipse. The Band Eclipse got big and ended up having an album climb the charts higher than Eminem’s latest album at the time. When the band lost one of their rappers and started to dissolve, they managed to reform a strong group playing electro, rock, indie-pop, and hip-hop influenced music.
Megan Vice and August Coupe are the featured vocalists, with Eric Sherman on guitar, Ziya Smallens on bass, Scott Mics on the keyboard and Brett Schneider on drums. WSTK is a band on the rise, constantly growing in popularity with their dance-pop single “Find Me There.” Their unique mix of rap and hip-hop in their post-hardcore influenced songs had the audience entranced, as most BU students had not previously heard WSTK.
Both Evan White and Justin Maillet had a lot to say regarding the music scene at Boston University. Together, Anchors Away and Lando
are trying to collaborate as often as possible and truly strengthen the community base for live music on campus. With the DJ scene taking college students by storm, “it doesn’t seem like a lot of people on campus support or try to promote live music anymore,” said Maillet. He continued, “There’s a bigger focus on DJs, so we’re trying to set up and encourage more shows with bands that have members who go to BU. That way, we can get a healthy live music culture up and running on campus.”
Evan White, who ignited the BU Music & Performance Club with band mate John Leibold, added onto this by saying, “In terms of what Justin said, I share a similar sentiment regarding the general music atmosphere at BU. There’s a lot more out in Allston and such but there’s really not that much live music actually at BU in relation to the population of students.” White said he would estimate that 75% of the student population knows how to play some sort of musical instrument, yet “strangely enough, there are not many cohesive or recognized units or groups of students playing together.”
There seem to be a number of resources on campus that both Anchors Away and Lando want to put to better use. Together, the groups hope to kickstart this movement and get the ball rolling. Unfortunately, both Evan White and his bandmate John Leibold will be abroad this spring. In the mean time, during AA’s temporary hiatus, Aing Kruchalee will be working on a pop project here at BU, and Evan hopes to start a mini Auckland branch of Anchors Away for performing some fun, acoustic shows while in New Zealand. Lando expects to be playing a benefit show through the CSC this spring, and the collaborative band duo looks forward to keeping their tradition and mission alive this summer and during their senior year at BU.
For more information on these bands check out their event site/individual webpages at http://www.facebook.com/events/241214479271116/
