Issuu

adiana contreras, alec coy-bjork, alyssa alvarez, amelie johnson, asher herman (2), britta lundeen-hetland, calla james ruff, catherine zons, cecilia berkey, chloe brennan, cj alexander, eila planinc, fernando jimenez, graham hausken, henry burkhardt, henry “knies” nieckarz, josephine luevano [cover], kyra laur, nicky pierceralph, parker johnson, pax hayman, percy vermut [edz], rachel bond, sam miller, stewie goon, xaden gullickson, zoe voigt.

i have never been more stressed out during a term in my life. but nofi has been a bright shining light throughout the hell that my sophomore fall as tried to throw my way. thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to every single lovely beautiful face that has come to any no fidelity meeting, event, collage workshop, or submit a piece of writing or art. you are all stars in the constellation on my ceiling, i love you all. a special thank you to rachel bond, chloe brennan, and amelie johnson for being the best formatting assistants a man could ask for, and thank you to canoe house for being an unending support system. i shall not be here next term, so please treat this baby with as much love as you would a human one, and extend a lovely and warm welcome to calla james ruff, the winter term editor. well, that’s all from me! keep listening to cds and vinyl and sticking it to the man. mwuah, big kiss.

your indebted editor, percy vermut.

Absolute Pleasure - “Don’t Dream It” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Over Halloweekend I had the opportunity of attending Carleton’s shadowcasted Rocky Horror Picture Show. As a first-time viewer I didn’t quite know what to expect – it was campy, risqué, and all around lovely. All of the actors did a phenomenal job (shoutout to my sister Lizzie as Magenta!) and I would highly recommend that any other Rocky virgins give themselves over to absolute pleasure and attend a showing next year. The film’s entire soundtrack is incredible, but I wanted to write a short analysis/ramble about a piece that has been stuck in my head since seeing the show - “Don’t Dream It.”

This piece is a slow, sentimental rock ballad, differing from the high energy glam-rock pieces that make up much of the film’s first half. Tim Curry’s vocals are absolutely impeccable (as they are throughout the film) – hitting both breathy lines as well as deep vibratos. Instrumentation changes frequently during the song. It begins with solo piano and voice, gaining electric guitar and a heavy bass-drum focused drumbeat as the piece progresses. The texture becomes sparse and then builds again with bells and strings leading up to the piece’s climax, synchronizing with the reveal of Dr. Scott’s transformation. The song features a I-vi-IV-I chord progression, similar to the “doo-wop” or “icecream” progression of many popular Western songs, especially during the 50’s. The simple harmonies and lyrical repetition create a feeling of sincerity unique to this song, imploring the audience to follow their dreams.

The lyrics of “Don’t Dream It” reflect many of the film’s themes. Namely, letting go of your inhibitions, and allowing yourself to be deepened through new experiences. This is most clearly portrayed in the characters of Brad and Janet, who penetrate the veneer of their white picket fence lifestyle after being exposed to Frank-N-Furter’s decadent world. Janet in particular relishes her transformation, stating that she “feels released,” breaking through her previous naivety. Despite the film’s representational failings as a 50-year old piece of media, many fans consider it to be a landmark piece of queer cinema, and its themes of transcending your inhibitions to realize your true self resonates with viewers to this day.

By Alec Coy-Bjork

ott o benson as a ludite

an interview by alyssa alvarez

Otto Benson has found success through a variety of projects, from dreamy soundscapes to more singer-songwriter songs. No stranger to the power of machines in live performances, he takes a new approach to his current touring setup, leaving the computer and toy cash register MIDI controller and welcoming demonic red lighting with an angelic looped sound. He most recently released his single “2023013” in August of this year, under the name Otto Benson, and a collaborative album “Hobby’s” with the hyper-euro-dance-pop legend Mietze Conte in 2024. However, he has several other treasures under the names “OTTO” and “Memo Boy.” Each era comes with a unique sound, refreshingly imaginative in its own right.

AA: I was wondering, I know a lot of folks that I was talking to when we said that this show is happening, said that they discovered you at diﬀerent points in your career, and I was wondering how you would, like, deﬁne this current project that you’re doing.

OB: Hmmm

AA: Like, what is the Otto Benson sound if you will?

OB: Not entirely against my will, but just by fate, I’m becoming a singer-songwriter. I feel like I’ve, for many years, just made instrumental music in a very secret and private way, and it’s connected with people and resonated online. So a lot of what I’m doing now is trying to learn from whatever happened online, like why people are connecting with it and then pull that into physical social spaces, and the easiest, cheapest format for me to do that is to like, I guess… cultivate the role of a singer-songwriter… I’ve been yeah, connecting more with my voice. Just keeping it really simple and, and then hopefully, I don’t— I guess I don’t really have any expectations, but ideally, then I can invite friends and other musicians, peers to come into the mix and play with me and then share the experience.

AA: Were there any collaborations that you felt really pushed you or were more pivotal in your career?

OB: I’ve learned a lot from this past year. I’ve started taking more touring opportunities... So I was playing bass in porches, which kind of felt like an apprenticeship in a way. Aaron’s music, like, really connected with me when I was, especially, in my, like, high school, kind of teenage years. I don’t know, it felt like really amazing and like spiritual or something to support his practice and like learn from how he does it and partially with the intention of also developing my own, like, just learning from those systems, ﬁguring out just a way I can kind of move in a similar way, but outside of touring, maybe, I mean, just friendships too…

I feel like I know so many, like, crazily talented musicians… And they haven’t always had, like, the streaming success that I had. It’s kind of a weird, I’m a weird and random…

AA: A little bit of an anomaly?

OB: Yeah, and to me, it’s very unfair. Like, my popularity doesn’t represent, um. I don’t know. There’s a lot of people who have a lot to say and don’t get that representation because… They aren’t trying to pander to the Spotify algorithmic game in any way, which I, like, I’m not even, that’s not necessarily something I try to do, but I do it just enough so I can get by, you know, so I’m like not totally, like obtuse to it or something... I deﬁnitely have imposter syndrome, also, about a lot of the work that I do, and I feel like it’s an extension of just gifts and ideas and exchanges of things that I’ve received from other artists. So I want to try to propagate that, but I don’t know. It’s hard. We’re in a very like identity-centric society. So. Yeah.

Otto’s set at Carleton’s Cave was an amalgamation of his developing role as a singer-songwriter. With just a mic, guitar, and two-pedal setup, he captivated students and some bright-eyed parents alike. His soft vocals combined with a melodic, electric guitar made for an inspiring act in this small college town. After taking a short break from live performances and releasing new music, he came back in a big way, opening for Will Paquin in the middle chunk of his tour.

OB: Touring is a way you can kind of… you can get a really amazing perspective, so that’s kind of maybe another reason why I’m taking it on, but it’s also, after a certain point of personal growth, I feel like I have to provide something and not just be soul searching forever. I feel like I need to contribute. So this is a way I feel like I’m tangibly giving something to listeners, or, you know, just people who are interested.

AA: You mentioned in the past that you’re hoping to have, I think you said like “more humans on stage” with you when you’re doing live stuﬀ…

OB: Yeah, yeah.

AA: Is that still kind of the idea?

OB: Yeah, deﬁnitely. I was doing more like electronics before, and, I don’t know. Something that drew me to electronics was also like my disgust in those systems, and how weird and awkward they are. I’m trying to like carve out a way to coexist with them, but my ultimate conclusion has been that it’s pretty… I’m becoming a luddite in a lot of ways, and my music practice is starting to reﬂect that. I think, just like personal relationships and an exchanging music between people is far and above, you know, the best, and not even people too like it could be your environment, you know, the room that you’re in, considering all of that as like, a part of the experience.. Yeah, that’s kind of where I’ve started to head. 9

AA: Would you say you draw a lot of inspiration from physical place?

OB: Yeah, geography, spatial, like my spatial understanding of places, I feel like is really connected to how I interact with sound. I’m really interested in, like... I don’t even know how to put it into words, but like taking spaces and landscapes and sonifying them, I feel like I usually... if I like go for a really amazing walk or ﬁnd an environment that really calls to me, and then I sit down and try to to make music— it might be a very personal experience— but usually to me that place exists every time I listen back. And it kind of changes with memory a little bit, but I’m always interacting or preserving. It’s like an act of preservation of whatever that environment is. It could also be a dream too, like this kind of space within a dream. I don’t know. So I do lean into that. Touring gives me a lot of this spatial understanding and experience to pull from.

AA: Are there other spaces that you’re pulling a lot of inspiration from, maybe some, like, artists that inspire you?

OB: Um. Hmm. That’s tricky. I listened to like a lot of radio these days, and that can give me… I don’t…

AA: A whole range of things…

OB: Yeah, like half the time I don’t even know what I’m listening to. I’ll, like, Shazam what I can, but sometimes, it’s nice to leave things as a mystery, just this, like, wash. After his show, he messaged me with a “quickie list of epic artists” that he described as everything from a guitar polymath to deep creative forces to the Aphex Twin of our generation. He included in this list Wendy Eisenberg, lesser evils :P, Max Beirne Shafer, Musique Chienne, Christelle Bofale, and Mal Devisa.

AA: Well, we have one last question that we kind of ask everybody.

OB: Sure.

AA: It’s just give something you’d recommend to like your college self.

OB: Whoa… There’s this album. I have to pull it up because I don’t remember.

AA: Yeah, please!

OB: But it’s [Leaf-Playing in Quito, 1960-1965 by Biluka y Los Canibales]. It’s this guy who plays... He’s a leaf— leaf player… There’s like a whole, I guess, scene of people who just, they’ll like carry around a little tin with like a bunch of leaves, and it sounds like a clarinet. They go incredibly hard.

AA: That’s awesome... Are you going to add that to the gear setup?

OB: Maybe if I meet a leaf player, he’ll come on tour with me.

On Emily Hines’ ﬁrst album she knits together an intimate web of vocals and instrumentals simply but beautifully. If Hours Were the Birds and SABLE, fABLE had a baby it would be These Days. Hines wistfully makes one of my favorite albums of the year. If ya listen to one song listen to listen to Cowboy Suit.

- graham “cameron winter is boy bjork” hausken

cecilia berkey

fere - fela kuti, his koola lobitos

puddlehopping ooo parker johnson

duplo sentido - tetê de bahia

tekere - salif keita

evilous number - the expanders

a volta - mirna

colours and soul - dunkelziffer

lotus 72 D - zé roberto

yarab - malouma

love and death - ebo taylor

soufougne - balla et ses balladins

sing a song (ccanted mi canción) - willy chirino bakom glaset - dina ögon

admission - the ﬂaming souls

peace on arth - ebo taylor

people everywhere (still alive) - khruangbin

gyae su - pat thomas, kwashibu area band

Who Wrote This??

By Adiana Contreras

Make Believe, Weezer’s fifth studio album, includes “My Best Friend,” which is the credits song for the 2010 Yogi Bear movie, and “Freak Me Out,” a song that implies there is someone out there who managed to tweak out the king of tweakers, Rivers Cuomo. The screenshot above is the description provided with the album on Apple Music, and I have one question: WHO WROTE THIS??

I’m sorry, standard-issue pop-punk-metal group? Jump started the emo-core movement? How did they find someone living under a large enough rock to write this? Then there’s the abysmal sentence structure is it Maladroit or Make Believe where “the walls of guitar can be a bit wearing”? My guess is the sentence is missing a pivotal “that” between “guitar” and “can”, though no matter what the statement is just so untrue. They may have a bit of a point with the whole “permanent state of adolescent arrested development” thing, but too little too late there.

Man, they just let anybody write reviews huh. Man, they just let anybody write reviews huh.

“visual kei” , a un ique music a nd fash ion movement “visual kei”, a unique music and fashion movement

As a visual ar tist, I’ ve always been drawn to peculiar and unique aesthetics. They make interesting subjects for me to draw, so of course I invest my time in exploring al ternative fashion and cul tures. Over the years of exploring different al ternative cul tures and the wonderful music that accompanies these movements, none have spoken to me quite like the unique subcul ture known as Visual Kei. I have a PRETTY serious obsession with Visual Kei. Like, to the point that an intervention might be in the works. It is a truly, truly interesting movement with a spectacular range in visuals and sound.

Visual Kei (AKA “V-Kei or V系) means “Visual Style”. It is a music and fashion based al ternative movement that emerged in the 1980s in Japan and has continued to today. From this scene many rock bands have risen with a strong emphasis on visuals. These visuals range f rom extravagant costumes to dark, curated aesthetics with inspirations f rom glam rock, goth, punk, and more. Besides all the unique hairstyling and makeup, V-Kei bands are also known to put on engaging performances that can be almost theatrical. Visual Kei has a large range in sound and genre across many bands. The movement challenges gender norms and beauty standards, and the bands often create a unique worldview through their music and look.

I highly recommend a deep dive into this wonderful cul ture if you are interested in J-Fashion, J-rock, or just al ternative scenes. There are many interesting aspects such as the cul ture of the fans, the many different subgenres and styles, and the development of the cul ture over time. The best way to experience Visual Kei (besides buying a plane ticket to Japan I guess) is simply listening to the music , watching the music videos, and especially watching live performances online. The ar tist photoshoots are also ver y interesting! Some of my personal band recommendations: BUCK-TICK, DIR EN GREY (my favorite!), Plastic Tree, Malice Mizer, and deadman.

As I mentioned at first, I am an artist, and I have been very fixated on capturing the interesting looks done by V-Kei artists. Enjoy my drawings of various V-Kei artists that I have drawn in the past year!!!

Kyra Laur (Class of ’29)

No-Fi has mused before, and I’m sure will continue to muse at great

length, about how we can be more intentional listeners. But rather than looking at the big picture, I want to focus on one particular aspect relating to this goal: how we listen to music. Not our attitudes, not what we listen to, but the simple question of what you do in order to turn music on in the first place.

It’s a careful balancing act of priorities I’ve landed on local storage of

audio files on my laptop, accessed by a simple (but effective!) media player, because it’s what feels comfortable to me personally. I pick out albums I want to listen to one-by-one, and listen to each all the way through before switching to something else. The system itself encourages me to be more thoughtful in picking what I want to listen to from my library and also in choosing what to add to my library at all the fact that adding new music is a little cumbersome forces greater mindfulness. This system won’t be a good fit for everybody, but I promote it simply to argue that alternate models of listening to music on-demand that aren’t streaming services still exist and are perfectly feasible. If you want to buy a vintage Walkman and only listen to music via cassette tape from now on, that’s great too!* Just, y’know, you’ll only be able to listen to music that you can get on cassette tape. All manners of listening carry some restrictions of access there’s lots of lovely music I have downloaded on my laptop that can’t be found on Spotify, and also plenty of songs I listen to on Spotify that I unfortunately can’t find a (certifiably legal) way to download to my laptop. Such is part of the aforementioned balancing act.

Streaming services are, in the end, a service. You pay continuously in

return for consistent access to music. But it’s not just music — perhaps above that, it’s stimulation. Not unlike Twitter or TikTok, Spotify’s business model relies on users who will consume, consume, consume content, which is incentivized by Spotify Wrapped, by numbers to raise, statistics that are supposed to mean something about you, that you should show off to all your friends and maybe convince them that they should be listening to more music more often in the process. And why wouldn’t you gorge yourself? It’s so easy, after all. We don’t judge Spotify as harshly as social media, because consuming music can be a passive activity where consuming posts can’t — thus, Spotify does not grasp towards our undivided attention, just a small piece of it.

* This is an unrealistic example on purpose, but I have heard whispers of an iPod resurgence the thought of owning a dedicated music-listening device is not so far-fetched in this day and age.

deep a love and passion for music as I do mention how constantly they listen to it via Spotify or Apple Music, like a never-ending white noise to underscore their life, a constant consumption. But I don’t want to “consume” music! I don’t want it to just be content to me! I want to sit with it, and treasure it, and with each listen, hold and observe it in my hands gently as if it were a baby bird. And based on our conversations in each No-Fi meeting, I get the impression that many other people feel this way too. How often would the beauty of the sunrise strike us if the sky always looked that way?

But still, there’s something that unnerves me when people who hold just as Believe it or not, the topic of this article was inspired by a reading for my

ceramics class. The author recalls receiving a set of teacups from American ceramicist Betty Woodman — teacups that, in his view, were beautiful but of poor functionality. He notes that, as a writer, he would drink tea and coffee near constantly, doing so absent-mindedly as he typed. But it’s upon eventually trying these teacups that that changes:

Woodman’s cups brought all that to an end. They cannot be used casually. Their balance is precarious and the act of picking up and putting down a cup became a very conscious, risky and considered action. Secondly, the liquid would become cold very rapidly. As a result I found that I would leave my work, pour the coffee, sit down in a comfortable chair and concentrate for the next three to four minutes upon this newly acquired, very relaxing habit. I drank less coffee, tasted it for the first time, and returned to my work refreshed by these breaks, the manner of which had been determined by so called badly designed cups!

It is by introducing inconvenience into his routine that turns it into a meaningful ritual, something thoughtful and considered, something he can actually appreciate. The activity returns to what it presumably began as — drinking coffee for the experience of drinking coffee, not as a routine pursued for any passive stimulatory effect. Our natural instincts may be to live our lives as quickly and efficiently as possible, but a sense of fulfillment often comes from the moments we slow down. My thesis for this article? In music listening, as in all aspects of life, find the beautiful, “poorly designed” teacup that speaks to you. Though its contents remain unchanged, you will find them more nourishing.

raditude raditude by xaden gullickson

November 3rd, 2025 marks the 16th birthday of the renowned album Ratitude by Weezer. Before you get drawn in by the title and the absolutely raw cover art of a dog jumping off a couch, you should know itʼs nothing but a facade. Hiding behind this beautiful and inspiring cover art is one of the worst albums out there. Rivers Cuomo and his band not only made the worst combination of sounds and words possible, but somehow got Lil Wayne to feature on the song “Canʼt Stop Partying” where he delivered one of the most iconic lines in a Weezer song to date:

“Itʼs Weezer and itʼs Weezy.”

Enough about the actual album though, everybody already knows about that. What isnʼt talked about enough is how much they wasted this incredible cover. Cuomo found the picture in a National Geographic magazine and he knew right away it was the perfect cover for an album. He was right. If they hadnʼt ruined this perfect cover by singing “Iʼm Your Daddy” and “Love Is the Answer,” I guarantee people would consider it alongside Abbey Road and Nevermind for their iconic covers. What I want to say is that there needs to be more outrage about this. We need rectiﬁcation. We need a super deluxe edition (it already has a deluxe for some reason) where they completely replace the current album with something even the slightest bit digestible but still with the same cover art.

Sir Chloe (with Venus and the Flytraps)

at First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN – Friday, October 24, 2025

I’ve been to First Avenue my fair share of times, but Friday night was diﬀerent: it was the first time I’d been here alone, first time I’d taken pictures here, and the first time I’d seen either Venus and the Flytraps or Sir Chloe. I arrived early enough to the historic venue to peruse the celebrity stars on the walls and check out the merch table. I made my way to the front, incredibly excited for Venus and the Flytraps. A newer band with an alternative/ indie sound, their songs center deeply on love, angst, and emotion. Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee, Venus consists of duo Ceci Tome and Brenna Kassis, who share the stage as lead singer and lead guitarist (and often switch these roles.) Performing with them were producer and guitarist Max Colbert, bassist Yej Moon, and drummer Jake Bibb. I was so excited to see Venus on the lineup with Sir Chloe–I’ve been a fan of theirs for the last year or so since I first heard their song “Boys Are Cuter When They’re Crying.” Their angsty-pop, riot-grrl-adjacent style has been a soundtrack for many of my late-night study sessions–and it was so good to hear it live. Their performance, all too short, was a series of firsts for Venus and the Flytraps as well. They told us between songs that the Minneapolis show was their first time ever opening for Sir Chloe and that they were excited for the road ahead. Likewise, their set featured songs from across their discography–including several tracks from their first ever EP, Demonette, which was actually released just a few days after that show in Minneapolis. They explained that they had no label and thus “no money” and encouraged us to come chat with them at the merch table after the show. They played a few of the songs I was really looking forward to, like “Miss Behavior” and “Swiss Army Girl,” and engaged often with the crowd and each other. The set ended with “Worse Together,” a song about the dynamics of a dysfunctional relationship.

At the merch table, I had a brief conversation with Ceci and Brenna about the show as I admired all the beautiful things they were selling. Along with the usual (and lovely) t-shirts and posters, they also had beaded necklaces and knitted hats, handmade by the band. They also had a variety of QR codes to support various aid initiatives in Palestine and Sudan, which was so awesome too. It was some of the coolest stuﬀ I’ve ever seen sold at a show, and I walked away with a nice poster and the warmest, softest hat I’ve ever felt. My only regret is not getting a necklace too!

Sir Chloe began after a short intermission with “Squaring Up,” one of my favorites. Originally from Vermont, the alternative band was founded in 2017 by frontwoman and songwriter Dana Foote. Inspired by everything from Cage the Elephant to Claude Debussy, Foote bends genres and styles to create a unique sound–harsh and soft, sharp and gentle, powerful and feminine. Her incredible vocal presence is rivaled only by her stage presence, which was both commanding and captivating. The performance felt even more impressive when Foote told us that this show in Minneapolis was one of the first she was performing after an appendectomy! (Once this was said, the appendix-related merch at Sir Chloe’s booth made a lot more sense.)

On stage with Foote were Alina Sloan on bass, Soph Shreds on guitar, and Maya Stepansky on drums. It was incredible to see four femme-presenting people performing such potent and unapologetic songs. Tracks like “Salivate” and “Kiss,” dealing with shame, attraction, and revenge, felt especially alive as Sir Chloe paired intense guitar riﬀs with deceptively delicate vocals. “Sedona” and “Mercy” were raw and vulnerable. “Hooves” was intense and urgent. The set ended unexpectedly with “Candy,” a slow, dreamy song from Sir Chloe’s latest album, Swallow the Knife. Strangely, the band left the stage and the house lights came on without an encore, which was also another first for me. The crowd didn’t move for a long time, holding out hope that the band would be back even as First Avenue staﬀ began their post-show clean-up routine. As I eventually made my way to the exit, I heard people talking to one another about how we hadn’t heard Sir Chloe’s two biggest songs, “Too Close” and “Michelle.” Sir Chloe had promised to be back at First Avenue again next year, though, so I’ll be hoping to catch those tracks at their next appearance!

Overall, it was an unforgettable evening of firsts with two fantastic bands and a ton of wonderful music. It was awesome to hear so many of these songs live, and I’m already looking forward to seeing both Venus and the Flytraps and Sir Chloe live in Minneapolis sometime (soon!!) in the future!

Early Arcy Drive

By: Calla James Ruff

On a Thursday night in Minneapolis, deep into October, I dragged a friend to go see Arcy Drive with me. No one knows who Arcy Drive is yet. I’m letting you in on the secret early. Shhhhh. Use it wisely. Arcy Drive is a four-piece band from Northport, New York that describes itself as “attic rock”—an emerging genre the band considers a type of indie-rock that’s unpolished and raw and made by people who aren’t being paid a lot. As my sister has said, the kids are making music in the garage (the attic?) again. They feel like a group of friends whose families didn’t understand the serious indie music they were making and were surprised when the band started getting noticed. I think Arcy Drive was also a little surprised. Though they seem like they would’ve played it off as having known their break would come the entire time. (There were a lot—and I mean a LOT—of performative males at that concert.) Their first single came out in 2022, and as of November 2025, they have a good handful of singles, an EP, and a shiny new debut album that launched their very first U.S. tour.

I’d tell people I was going to see Arcy Drive and explain to blank looks, “They have half a million monthly Spotify listeners, but it’s their first tour.” That is, they’re growing. Not Day 1, but truly no one has heard of them. The friend who accompanied me got roped in last June with a “yes and” attitude and cheap tickets ($30—the same amount I paid for Noah Kahan tickets in October 2022). He was unfamiliar with the band but game for a concert, and the two of us started doing our homework in preparation. On the drive up to Minneapolis after dinner, we compared favorite songs of theirs, finding that their more famous ones (“Louie,” “Time Shrinks,” “Roll My Stone”) we had in common, but we’d both already found in their green discography our own personal hidden favorites. As with many bands who end up playing a big role in my music-loving life, my sister gave me Arcy Drive at some point in the past year, sending me “Oak Tree (Daydream)” with the tag “this song reminds me of you.” “The Itch” has become another favorite of mine, and one that doesn’t get as much attention on their sole album.

Their songs range from bangers that got the lead singer crowd-surfing over an enthusiastic mass to more stripped and intimate tracks (“Louie” vs “Oak Tree”), drawing an audience of sad-but-not-too-sad people and people who want to pretend to mosh at the encouragement of a 25-year-old singer stoned out of his mind. They’re in their mid-twenties, singing about trying to learn to be an adult, trying to keep up with friends, trying to manage overwhelm. The concert population reflected this age demographic, with my friend and me being on the younger side at 19 and 20. We skipped the opener and pulled up about fifteen minutes before the band came on. Fine Line was properly packed, requiring creativity and endurance to sneak through the upstairs, only to go back down and stand on the line demarcating the walkway by the bar to the bathrooms, a spot in the deep left relative to the stage but surprisingly close up. All night, we got bumped by every passerby and nudged backwards by the tall male indie twenty-somes in front of us whose heads blocked my view every other second as they danced around. I kept my elbows close by for defense against the tipsy, and my compasion, taller and stronger than I, kept an eye on the guys jumping ever closer.

The audience was thrilled to be there: crowd-surfing and mini-moshing aside, there was crazy energy on that Thursday night. At one point, the amp gave out, and the band conferred as to what to do. Ever adaptable, they played “River” acoustic, something we were told was a first. I, for one, found it quite beautiful. Even on songs that were lesser known by the masses, cheer was high and noise was up. In recent years, I’ve sworn off large concerts for their impersonality both from the artist being unable to engage meaningfully with the audience and for the venue treating concert-goers as numbers due to sheer volume. Arcy Drive reaffirmed this choice, bringing an intimacy and conversational tone to meet the room full of enthusiasm. The band is young; the homemade quilted stage backdrop spoke to that, and the people were psyched to support them. We all hoped they’d get huge; we all hoped they’d be ours and ours alone forever.

pages by Chloe Brennan

The Cradle of All of Our Dreams by

Fernando Jimenez

(2) When making this playlist, I wanted to start with songs that truly communicate those feelings of hope intertwined with melancholy. The ﬁrst song, “Rock’n Roll, Morning Light Falls on You” by Asian Kung-fu Generation, encapsulates that perfectly.

(1) Some days just suck. But even as we lament that bad luck, we still wish for things to get better. Our great gift as people is our ability to have hope even as we face hardship. It doesn’t have to be life changing or soul touching, something as simple as looking forward to the smile of a friend after bombing a test is enough to remind us of that fact. Whenever you ﬁnd yourself in that swirl of emotions, it’s nice to just allow yourself some time to reﬂect and feel.

Rockn’ Roll, Morning Light Falls On You - Asian Kung-Fu Generation

Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Loser - Kenshi Yonezu

To Us Former Prodigies - Creepy Nuts

So What - P!nk

American Pie - Don McLean

The Longest Time - Billy Joel

Instant Crush - Daft Punk, Julian Casablancas

Piano Man - Billy Joel

JANE DOE - Kenshi Yonezu, Hikaru Utada

“If I could, I’d repaint the world Nothing as drastic like getting rid of wars But maybe, there’s a bit of that too Can’t be an actor or a movie star I can’t even laugh naturally in front of you for that matter What’s there for a guy like me to do?”

Real.

Digital Love - Daft Punk

It’s Time - Imagine Dragons

Hey, Soul Sister - Train

Brain Damage - Pink Floyd

Bad Day - Daniel Powter

Only Ones Who Know - Arctic Monkeys

Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen

Let It Be - The Beatles

Nobishiro - Creepy Nuts

I Want to Hold Your Hand - The Beatles

Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry

You Might Think - The Cars

It’s a Beautiful Day - Michael Bublé

Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra

But as important as it is to recognize sadness and disappointment, you can’t allow yourself to sink into them. That’s why I made sure to end with reminders that life can be awesome too. From sunny days to breaking up with your sucky ex, life is full of things to appreciate while you’re here.