Last Thursday, the Audio Engineering Society (AES) hosted the second annual Capital Cover-Up, a battle of the cover band competition and costume contest.
The event began with an acoustic set from Anthony Ziliak and Raquel Houston, followed by Basement Curse, which consists of Colt Fyffe, Roman O’Brien, McCoy Martin and Brig Slinker performing more upbeat rock songs like “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads.
The third band, The Culty Women, was a randomized band that the AES officer team had assigned to perform together. Its members, Elizabeth Abrams, Evan Marentay, Will Boeck, Jackson Tessier and Jill Planisek, had never performed together as a band before this event but rocked out with several songs including a version of “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand.
According to AES Treasurer Mich Garcia, the organization puts random musicians together in one band because “it lets you get to know a lot more people in the school because the bands aren’t close knit friend groups already.” Garcia didn’t know anyone when they participated in the event last year. “I got put in a group and everyone was committed to [the performance],” Garcia said. “I liked it enough to get involved more with AES.”
The final band, The Kerplunks, who were affectionately referred to as The Antiques, consisted of professors in the music technology department and special guest Caitlyn Couch. The group performed a variety of Green Day songs.
“This was entirely the students,” said Chad Loughrige, the head of the music technology department and member of The Kerplunks. “I was just there to provide support. [The AES officer team] really thought of everything. I walked in here and was blown away with what I saw.”
At the end of the performances, the crowd voted on several different categories, and the winners were presented with small trophies. The Kerplunks won best stage presence and best group costume, and Basement Curse won best musicship.
The prizes for the best costume went to Will Boeck who beat out other amazing entries including Steve from Blue’s Clues, Team Rocket, Batman, Marty McFly, a hippie and a pirate.
In addition to hosting the event, AES also helped provide rehearsal space for the bands by converting the old TV studio in the basement of Blackmore Library into a rehearsal room. The space included an electronic drum set, amps, microphones or anything else bands may need to rehearse.
“Finding rehearsal space can be hard, so we wanted to be able to help provide that for the bands, so if they wanted to try out being in a band, they could,” Garcia said.
“That’s what we are trying to do,” AES Chapter President Paul Kramer said. “We are trying to especially get first years involved so that we can introduce them into the live sound scene. We give them freedom to try things out with help from an upperclassman of course.”
The AES officer team revealed they had already thought of ways they would love to improve next year’s Capital Cover-Up.
“We’d like to get even more people to come to our events in the future,” Kramer said. “We wanted to have two separate stages this year, so one band can play while the other is setting up. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out this year, but if we get more bands next year, we would like to make that happen.”
The next AES event will be a more acoustic event called Jingle Jam toward the end of the semester.
