Christmas lights twinkle to the rhythm of the drums, healing paper lanterns float like orbs, seek the stage swirls with groovy purples, greens, blues, and the crowd sways in response. This is the weekend before finals? Nothing stops the need to groove for Bostonian college kids at The Middle East in Cambridge on Friday night, especially when it comes to raising $1,760 for The Jimmy Fund for Cancer Research in ticket sales. The folks over at BU-based label Rep Records and friends decorated the stage delicately with an offbeat and fluorescent vibe for April 26th’s Friday night party at The Middle East downstairs in Cambridge, MA, for The Jimmy Fund. For those who don’t know, The Jimmy Fund is an awesome organization paired with The Dana Farber Cancer Institute which provides expert, compassionate care to children and adults with cancer.
Technicolor gel fills reflected onto Anjimile Yvonne’s Fresh Prince haircut and pearly smile. Her personality may have also matched Will Smith, but Anjimile hails from Texas (which explains the lack of Philly flair), and sings in Chichewa to represent her Malawian roots. While playing tracks off her “In The Garden EP,” she is accompanied by Drew Wilcox on drums, Will Jobst on bass, and Lindsay Sampson on backup vocals. The crowd trickled in two by four, with the occasional single traveler, and soon even 50+ year olds wandered in to groove with their spouses or just creep on the young 20 somethings with total cougar vision.
Orca Orca, Jimmy Hewitt’s pop endeavor, took the stage next which was a bit more along the post-punk, math-core edge. They gave a serving of teenage angst tied in with low-fi wobbling, guitar-heavy choruses that let listeners channel their inner post-breakup resentment and spastically shake their hair. But let us not forget their ability to channel a more “chill-wave” beach vibe complete with rhythmic guitar riffs. harmonic melodies, and syncopated beats.
Next, The Rare Occasions served up a Providence helping of boy band energy that resonated with a Shins feel. They played songs from their newly released EP “Applefork” and closed the set with “And So The Sun Must Rise Again” alongside a strongly-demanded encore.
Frank and Dependent stormed the stage last, but not least. They didn’t let the crowd of dozens down. The power of the Downstairs could be felt upstairs while Fitzsimmons rocked the mic with her platinum blond mod-rock hairdo and Mike Levinsohn shredded the guitar into the crowd. During their set of 10 songs, Fitzsimmons proceeded to jump into the crowd and dance with the fans as Lauren Mateen chilled behind her synth and tossed her head back and forth. Pat Mars held up the bass end, and Meredith Nero unleashed a symphony from her viola with an electric pickup and occasionally harmonized with Fitzsimmons. A party popper completed the band’s encore like that of a high school prom celebration giving off an unorthodox, and quirky feel. The bubbly stage antics of Frank and Dependent is what makes their eccentric, slightly nerdy, and evidently entertaining shows what they are.
These Boston University students clearly know how to have an after class jam session, and it’s always a good time to be invited in on the action for audience members. Levinsohn said afterward, “I really loved when I yelled at the crowd at the end during our encore.” Levinsohn recently helped dust the cobwebs off BU-based record label Rep Records and revamped it with his team of BU students, and their brand new website can be found at www.RepRecords.com. Levinsohn plans to pursue re-establishing Rep Records alongside his self-made label “Tegmental” and push it forward in the Boston music community. Be sure to be on the lookout for information coming soon.
The festival was an overall success, but don’t worry if you missed it! Web-surfers can donate to The Jimmy Fund at http://www.jimmyfund.org/.
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