Each year, Longwood University hosts Spring Weekend and Bandfest, two events that mostly focus on music. It also allows student organizations to promote themselves. Bandfest took place this past Friday and Spring Weekend was held on Saturday. Bandfest is the work of WMLU 91.3, Longwood’s student-run radio station. Spring Weekend is hosted by Lancer Productions, Longwood’s event planning organization.
This year, the Bandfest lineup consisted of CADE, Dead 27s, Marc Scibilia, Love and Theft and Cheat Codes. This lineup gave a variety of genres to be heard. CADE is a pop trio, Dead 27s is a rock outfit hailing from Charleston, South Carolina, Scibilia a solo pop rock artist, Love and Theft is a country band and Cheat Codes is a trio of electronic music artists. There isn't much to say about CADE, Dead 27s and Love and Theft's acts other than the performances were all solid.
Scibillia and Cheat Codes were a bit more exceptional. Scibilia’s music was focused on love songs and his Tennessee upbringing. A good narrative to the stories he told helped draw the audience in. Cheat Codes made a satisfying performance, as well, combining humor and lyrics for a fun musical ride. In between these acts were a DJ from WMLU who performed while the next artist was setting up their instruments.
This Spring Weekend featured a larger cast of musicians, some of which were Longwood students. In between each artist was a performance by the DJs from Cruz Productions, a music business by Longwood alumnus Joel Cruz. The performances started at noon with Longwood’s own artists: Pitch Perfect (Longwood’s all-female a ‘Capella group), the Longwood Company of Belly Dancers, BASIC Gospel Choir, Blue Heat Dance Team, High St. Harmony (the men’s choir), FIERCE Hip Hop Dance Team, Lady Joan’s (another all-female a ‘Capella group) and the Longwood Company of Dancers.
Later productions came from other musicians, starting with the violinist Josh Vietti. Next was Anthem Lights, a Christian rock band from Tennessee, who brought a fun atmosphere to the school.
The Ying Yang Twins, a hip hop duo from Georgia, brought their own rap style and a fun party atmosphere.
Next was Small Pools a relatively new indie pop band formed in 2013. They continued the atmosphere that the Ying Yang Twins created, leading to the final act, Bowling for Soup.
Bowling for Soup is an older rock ban and amongst the more well-known acts compared to the others. They played several of their songs, including the title sequence that they recorded for the Disney channel show “Phineas and Ferb.” I did not expect nearly that many college students to know the lyrics to the show’s theme song, but they did. Bowling for Soup’s delightful songs and jokes were an excellent way to close out the night, even if they were a little older than most of the other artists.
