Andy Jordan, a junior at Longwood University, kicked off a weekend full of music and fun when he opened for WMLU’s Bandfest at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon on Lankford Mall. The lineup included: Jordan, JACT, Noiseheads, Daylight, MURS, Three-Legged Fox, and headliner SOJA with DJ Joel Cruz in between bands.
Students lined up behind the Student Union around 4 p.m. for their chance to get a free T-shirt and enjoy Jordan’s debut performance. Having only started playing and singing about two years ago, Jordan is still a bit of rookie in the music scene and went into the show without a set list.
Instead, he made it up as he went along, which worked out perfectly for him. Just glancing around at the crowd, it was obvious from the crazy dancing and clapping that everyone loved his versatile voice and twists on covers of popular songs. Jordan commented, “Bandfest is one of the highlights of my time at Longwood. It’s way up there … It’s the most exciting thing that’s happened.”
Following Jordan was JACT, a hard rock band that had a female lead. Like Jordan, they had crazy dancers and a pretty pumped up crowd. The band released their new album “Blind Leads the Blind” at Bandfest, described as “alternative, but still including their distinct sound.”
After a punk-rock set from Noiseheads, a new band to the touring scene, Daylight took the stage for their hard rock-based set. Unlike Noiseheads, Daylight isn’t new to the touring scene; they’ve been on countless tours and even played shows across Europe.
Murs then changed up the atmosphere a little bit when he began his set full of hip-hop/rap songs. He’s been in the music business since the late ‘90s and is involved in countless other hip hop groups, like Living Legends. He appeared in a few movies and added his voice to multiple collaborations, while also juggling his solo career. On stage he talked about his inspiration for songs coming from reading. He said, “I read a lot of comic books [for lyric inspiration].”
Three Legged Fox then took the stage and began to set the atmosphere for SOJA with their reggae/alternative/indie rock music.
Like JACT, they just came out with an album which they described onstage as being “pretty raw.” After being together for about eight years, this album serves as a back to the basics type experience as they “nod to the reason the whole thing was started.”
Throughout the night, sophomore student and popular DJ Joel Cruz kept the crowd excited and dancing as they eagerly awaited the next performer. However, his time to shine definitely came during the break between Three Legged Fox and SOJA.
A mob formed in front of the stage as everyone gathered together to dance to his crazy and fun remixes. One student described the little dance party by saying, “The atmosphere was almost electric. Everybody was just dancing and having a good time with all of the other random people in the crowd. It was the perfect way to kick off SOJA and Spring Weekend.”
Finally, SOJA appeared and the crowd went wild as the band took the main stage by storm. Students and community members poured in from every direction and the crowd seemed to grow exponentially as the concert continued. SOJA reportedly brought in the largest crowd that Bandfest has seen in years.
With a grooving beat, fun trumpet and saxophone add-ins, and identifiable lyrics, it was hard not to enjoy SOJA’s performance. Their music talked about things that we, as college students, can easily relate to while also being laid back and sort of relaxing.
With the amount of dancing, screaming and even crowd surfing that was going on, it was obvious that SOJA was definitely a hit.
Thanks to WMLU, Jake King and everyone else involved, Bandfest was a huge success.
With a great variety of music, dance parties and an overall exciting atmosphere, it was the perfect way to kick off the much anticipated Spring Weekend 2014.
