Kyle Smucker
Wooster is known for its quirky traditions: bagpipes, I.S. Monday, President Cornwell’s vespa, filling the arch with snow, that one thing the football team does, etc. Some are more visible and become part of how the college brands itself (we like sports and we don’t care who knows) while many other traditions go under the radar (or are eliminated from the Wooster quirk canon). One of the traditions you won’t find plastered on the front page of wooster.edu is our student music scene, a scene with a rich history and talented musicians, all dressed up with nowhere to jam.
Most of my best Wooster experiences have involved music – from recording original songs in my room with friends to sharing the stage with Best Coast and Reptar as a part of folk-rock juggernaut The Vageniuses, led by Jane Siegel ’13, from bluegrass jamming under Kauke Arch to playing destructive house parties as half of brogaze/bro-fi power-duo No 5th Grade (download our album, I beg of you). These experiences have all existed primarily independently of any student club, organization, official music ensemble or administrative support. They’re the kind of thing that probably won’t fit anywhere on my resume, despite the effort I put into it and the satisfaction I get out of it.
But while our underground music scene is truly grassroots, it exists in an arid landscape, devoid of fertilizer. We need a little support from the administration and some better organization from the students involved. To improve the music scene, making it accessible to the student body and more fun for everyone, we need: first, places to practice, and second, places to perform.
Getting band practices off the ground is a nightmare on Wooster’s campus if you don’t happen to live in a program house. Outside of the formal group practice room in Scheide, which is booked out by official groups like the jazz ensemble, there isn’t anywhere for student bands to practice with decent equipment. We are forced to grovel at the feet of those with program houses at the risk of waking the neighbors (and napping housemates). I’ve been on both sides of the equation and it’s not fun for anyone.
Second, performance spaces are limited. There doesn’t seem to be a place to play in town (although I did have the good fortune to play at The SoMar Wine Bar, which I recommend doing if you ever have a chance). Otherwise, musicians are relegated to Covers or Battle of the Bands at the UG – and don’t get me started on the sound equipment in the UG, a tired joke our visiting comedians have started repeating almost verbatim. Best case, we play an odd house party with 15 watt bass amps and rag-tag drum kits – parties that are typically busted by security within a few minutes of the set. And don’t you dare bring Common Grounds into this. No.
Wooster needs to recognize the underground music scene as a legitimate tradition. As a first year, I was inspired by student bands like Red Wire and the original Covers crew – and today I’m part of similar bands that I’m proud of, and we are now passing the torch to underclassmen. Square-table types got a huge bone thrown their way with the “Almighty Mecca of Abs” aka “the Blue Powerade Dome” aka “the Scot Center.” It’s time the circle types got a little of that sweet tuition cash – and it wouldn’t take much. It’s time for an informal practice room/performance space to be established in Scheide, it’s time for the UG to renovate its music equipment. Also it’s time for a student run program house primarily for informal student performance groups to perform and practice in. Only a couple of us on campus play bagpipes — but I could name about a hundred guitar players, drummers, rappers, singers and keyboardists who could use a place to share their music.