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Briana Gilyard, who goes by the artist name BRI, learned to play guitar during her freshman year in Day Hall. With her acoustic guitar in hand, she opened the “Early Show” of University Union’s two-part concert series at Goldstein Auditorium on Saturday evening.

One of Gilyard’s friends from Day Hall, fellow Syracuse University sophomore Kevin Guimaraes, said before the show that Gilyard taught herself how to play guitar using one of their neighbors’ instruments.

“I’ve seen her grow, and it’s been one of the greatest things to watch,” Guimaraes said.

Saturday evening’s concert series included multiple firsts. For artists BRI, Malique Lewis and jewisvuitton, it was their first performance in front of SU students. For UU, this was its first in-person concert since the spring 2020 semester and its first concert to feature student performers. The concert was split into two sections, the “Early Show” and the “Late Show,” which highlighted five student performances — three solo acts and two bands.

Before Gilyard opened the show with her song “Fake Love,” she asked the crowd to respond to her music however they wanted to and assured them she would have stories to tell with each song.

Gilyard played seven songs, including a few of her original songs, such as “Goodbye,” which deals with navigating who you are at college and at home with your family. She also covered Snoh Aalegra’s “Fool For You,” which she said “really puts her in her feels.”

Throughout her performance, Gilyard’s voice filled the entire auditorium. Toward the end of “Fool For You,” Gilyard fed the crowd’s appetite for her smooth voice and crescendoed before softly singing the song’s final line: “I’m a fool for you.”

Gilyard dedicated her final song to her friend Tessa, who recently celebrated a birthday. Before starting, she told the crowd the song would go a little faster. Gilyard started swaying more and feeling comfortable, and the crowd — while seated — started to get more into her music, too.

The second performer of the night was Malique Lewis, a rapper and SU freshman from Miami. Lewis has been making music since middle school. He said he had opportunities to rap in high school, but this was the most important performance in his life so far.

“If you don’t buzz in college, I don’t think you’ll buzz period,” Lewis said.

Lewis told the crowd throughout his performance that he’s making music to inspire others, and by rapping, he’s just trying to make life amazing.

“It’s that simple,” he said.

Up to 30 students per show were allowed to attend in person and each seat was surrounded by a three-sided plastic barrier, while others who wished to watch could livestream the event online. Louis Platt | Asst. Culture Editor

Despite the noticeable lack of in-person attendees — only 30 audience members were allowed per show, and each seat was separated by 6 feet and surrounded by a personal three-side plastic barrier — Lewis said after the show that he appreciated seeing people get up and enjoy his music.

Before each show, students were encouraged to stand up and dance during performances, but they had to remain socially distanced in their plastic pod the entire time. Performers also had to wear masks throughout their sets, which occasionally forced the vocalists to multitask and pull up their masks in the middle of their verse or in between guitar notes.

But by following the rules, the chances of having more events like this in the future could happen, said Scott Casanova, associate director of Student Centers and Programming Services.

The third act of the “Early Show” was SU junior Jason Telese, who goes by the stage name jewisvuitton. Telese immediately asked everyone to stand up, and when he came on stage, about 10 of his fraternity brothers from Theta Chi rose out of their seats.

Telese was energetic on the stage, consistently jumping up and down and squatting to look directly into the camera that was broadcasting to online audience members while simultaneously pointing to the in-person audience.

The songs that got the most feedback from the crowd were his original songs “Hell’s Angel,” “let me go” and “sunshine.”

Before starting his second to last song, “Let me go,” Telese said to the audience, “This is dedicated to a very special person. If you’re watching, you know who you are.” This caused part of the crowd to gasp in suspense.

Telese’s final two songs, “Let me go” and “Sunshine,” are about romantic relationships. He expressed a lot of his emotions through stomping on stage.

“It’s hot up here. (UU) doesn’t tell you the temperature on stage before you come on,” he said when wrapping up the first half of the evening. “How inconsiderate … just kidding.”

Before leaving the stage around 7:45 p.m., Telese thanked UU for involving him in the night and giving him a platform to perform for the first time in front of SU students, a common sentiment shared among the artists.

Anish Ghosh formed a band for Saturday tonight’s performance about eight days ago shortly after learning he would be performing. Louis Platt | Asst. Culture Editor

Students were asked to leave for an hour while UU staff disinfected audience seats. Around 8:45 p.m., UU started allowing the new audience members in for the “Late Show,” which started 30 minutes later.

Junior Anish Ghosh and his bandmates — Grady Collingbouren, Max Bodner and Ben Teolis — walked on stage and assumed their positions by their instruments. Ghosh toiled with his computer for a moment and then, without any introduction, the band started playing.

Originally, Ghosh and Bodner had planned to perform hip hop tracks as a duo. But Ghosh randomly met Collingbouren in the Newhouse School of Public Communications this past week, and the crew invited Teolis to join a day or two later.

“We practiced with Grady before Ben came, and then Ben came fully prepared,” Ghosh said. “And it was super fun (working together).”

Toward the middle of their set, the band covered Frank Ocean’s “Self Control,” and Ghosh added autotune at the start of the song and in the middle.

But the performance shined most when Ghosh and his crew played heavy rock songs. Ghosh said the group chose to perform songs from the genre while having a discussion during the week that predominantly focused on metal genres.

“We were like, damn, we can really go crazy and do some fun stuff because (Collingbouren) likes doing punk stuff and I like doing the different screams,” Ghosh said.

Ghosh laughed as he introduced the last song of their set, which he sarcastically told the crowd would be chill. He then told the crowd, “When I scream, you scream after me.”

Ghosh rose in pitch, and the crowd tried to reciprocate, but he ended on a screech that none of the in-person audience members responded to. Throughout the song, viewers bobbed their heads and tapped their feet.

At the end of their set, Ghosh thanked the audience and UU for hosting the event. He also thanked his recently formed band members for joining him in private rooms to practice screaming before the show. As the band left the stage, about half of the crowd gave the four members a standing ovation.

The Whether Channel’s guitarist and vocalist Rory Stanley (left) and bassist Max Marcy performing during Saturday night’s “Late Show.” Louis Platt | Asst. Culture Editor

To cap the multi-show concert, the band The Whether Channel graced the stage for a five-song set. Not only was this the first show the band performed in over a year, but it was also their first show that wasn’t held at a house party, bassist Max Marcy said.

The band started their set with their song “Re:start,” which is about restarting cycles in life, guitarist and vocalist Andrew Garces said. While they didn’t intentionally plan to play the song for UU’s first in-person concert in over a year, Marcy said the sentiment was there.

The group also performed songs from their album they recorded during the pandemic named “Skully and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and one song from their untitled project that they told the crowd they will release this month.

After their final song, The Whether Channel’s guitarist asked the crowd to check out their social media accounts and music. The night already felt like a blast from the past, but the Whether Channel took it back another 15 years by asking the audience to follow their new MySpace account.

And before walking off stage, Garces thanked UU for organizing the event and announced to the crowd, “Y’all can leave, now.”

Published on April 4, 2021 at 2:24 am

Contact Louis: [email protected] | @JBL__98