By Ed Zhao ’12
Photo by Steve Tringali ’13/ The Lafayette
The bar is dimly lit, thought the occasional bright swath spurts from the various flat screens. A crowd gathers around one of the tavern’s corners as John Zenker ‘12 sits astride a bar stool. He’s dressed impeccably in a striking polo and slacks, and he grins when he is jokingly introduced as “that fourteen-year old.” In lieu of a glass of water, he sips on a Magic Hat microbrew before adjusting his guitar strap and repositioning the microphone.
The crowd composition is mixed; roughly a third is Lafayette students while the rest are Easton residents. Though some are here for a tavern’s more obvious attractions, most are in attendance for the first inaugural Open Mic at the College Hill Tavern (CHT).
Lafayette has traditionally held WORDs Open Mics at Gilbert’s as a way to showcase student talent. It’s an invitation for artists to publicly display their abilities and there’s simply a sign-up sheet for those interested. “It’s an excellent venue to share ideas and to just have fun seeing what you can do, and what everyone else can do,” Zenker, who has attended WORDs events since his sophomore year, said. “Whether you’ve met them or not.”
Two Easton residents, Chris Goffi and Bill Carr, organized the CHT Open Mic. They have gathered a vast assortment of both Easton and Lafayette talent.
One individual, wearing a white cowboy hat with accompanying boots, performed a number of acoustic melodies while a later guitarist had the crowd grooving through energetic strums and thumping rifts. Some gave renditions of popular covers like Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” while others displayed original music.
Zenker, one of three Lafayette sets to perform, received particularly raucous applause. He sang with distinct relish and played three of his original creations: “Shades of Grey,” “The Sun,” and ‘Holes in my Shoes.” Carl Fiorini ’12, drinking a rum and coke, said, “Jay sounded amazing. The third song he came out with so much energy and he rocked it.”
Two other Lafayette groups also demonstrated their musical talents. The Hoochie Coochie Men (Zach Gold ‘13, Alex Musso ‘13 and Joey Tumulty ‘14) played some funky folk rock while Ben & Joel (Ben Paro ‘12 and Joel Hindelang ‘12) had a few selections that veered towards indie folk pop. Sean Ryon ’12 described them, “They were great and they came out with different, unique sounds. It was really cool to hear how they played alongside the Eastonites.”
Though the acoustics of CHT weren’t perfect and a number of words were lost due to sound system, the crowd was nevertheless bobbing their heads and feeling the music. The bands were clearly talented and there were some particularly gifted Easton residents.
Ryon shared similar sentiments, “I thought it was a great mixture of people from the area just coming together to have fun and perform music. The beer didn’t hurt either.”