Holly Engel
A&E Editor
Looking for a way to unwind, listen to music and jam with your friends? Covers — a monthly event hosted by the College’s student-run literary magazine, the “Goliard” — has you … well … covered. The event allows students of all backgrounds to get together as they listen to and perform covers of their favorite songs, which they choose based on a monthly theme.
This past Friday, April 2, the “Goliard” hosted their second-to-last Covers of the semester, with “nostalgia” as their theme of choice. “Goliard” music editor Clare Griffith ’22 chose the theme in collaboration with “Goliard” president Lillie Soukup ’21. “Lillie will usually text me with like three different themes,” she says. “This time, ‘nostalgia’ kind of stuck out. It’s pretty open to interpretation.” Griffith also orchestrated and hosted the event.
Though there were only three performers at Nostalgia Covers, their diverse song choices really demonstrated the theme’s open-endedness. Student performers covered songs from Katy Perry and George Harrison, and Gunnar Holmberg ’21 jammed out to “My Shiny Teeth and Me,” which fans of Chip Skylark, from the early 2000s show The Fairly OddParents, would probably recognize. “I chose this song because it’s an entire bop,” Holmberg says. “It also reminds me of watching The Fairly OddParents with my siblings and watching my parents go progressively more bonkers from listening to the high-pitched voices.”
During COVID-19, Covers has moved online, something that both Griffith and Holmberg have mixed feelings about. Griffith recalls, “At the beginning of the year, that was one of the biggest things we had to figure out: Can we do Covers? Are people going to want to do Covers? We’ve done two Covers on Teams so far.” She mentions that she looks forward to returning to an in-person atmosphere, but there are also perks to going virtual. “I think that it’s been a good challenge to figure out how to do it virtually, and we’ve had alumni show up to virtual events as well, which is really fun. It’s a way to keep alums who really love Covers involved.”
“The virtual environment for Covers is something that I’m still getting used to,” Holmberg admits, “but it was refreshing to feed off of everyone else’s energy, especially during the dance party.” The dance party, which occurred after the three main performances, was headed by Griffith, who created a nostalgia-themed playlist and fed the music through Teams, allowing attendees to hang out and dance while staying socially distanced.
Holmberg stresses that Covers has played an integral role in his time at Wooster because it channels community and creativity. “To me, it’s one of the most important events at Wooster,” he comments. “I think it gives students an outlet to create something expressive. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to be fun … and it’s something we share together.”
Covers will occur one more time this semester, though the official date and theme is to be decided. Stay updated by checking out the “Goliard’s” Instagram, @jean_luc1989.