Marquette Radio’s Autumn Rhythm concert welcomed three Midwest independent artists on Oct. 25 to take the stage at the university’s Union Sports Annex.
This year, MUR decided to do things a little differently by adding a Halloween costume contest. They partnered with the LGBTQ+ Resource Center who provided tickets to a showing of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Oriental Theatre as a prize for the winner.
The opening act for the show, senior in the College of Arts and Sciences Eden Paterno, started the night off with an acoustic set accompanied by bassist, Charlie Zajac, both coming from the band Miss Lonely. The duo played songs by Arctic Monkeys, Chappell Roan and a few originals such as “Cherry Moon” and Rockstar’s Girlfriend.”
Paterno said that performing at events like Autumn Rhythm helps her not be as hard on herself when putting out original music for the world to see. The show was a reminder that people love original songs when it comes to live music.
“I feel like everyone who writes music or creates anything has that voice in their head that tells them what they make is cringey or cheesy. Bringing it to a space like Autumn Rhythm was a cool opportunity because I was able to see people jamming out and enjoying it live,” Paterno said.
While the next artist prepared to go on stage, participants in the costume contest walked the runway and the panel of judges chose a winner.
Students dressed in a variety of costumes. From “Glee’s” Sue Sylvester to Taylor Swift, everyone came to the show dressed up.
While the costume contest judges calculated their scores, Milwaukee based artist 22mauri/Forever took the stage. Forever said that when it comes to his sound, he’s heavily inspired by magical realism and fantasy art, incorporating that into his music.
“It’s taken me a while to find myself in music, but I was always a singer, and I really started getting heavy into [. . .] The Weeknd and dark and contemporary R&B,” Forever said.
Before the headlining act, the costume contest winner was announced, Brennan Wills, senior in the College of Communication, who came dressed as the Joker. Judges said he was chosen for his passion and stage presence when displaying his costume.
Sweet Hudson, a band hailing from Chicago, closed out the night with a rock set, performing fast paced songs that really brought the energy out of the crowd.
The band said they get their inspiration from alternative rock bands all over the world like The Strokes, Last Dinosaurs and Number Girl. Vocalist and guitarist Oscar Rodriguez talked about his interest in working linguistics into their music during the concert and performed their song “Lonely Girl” which is entirely in Japanese.
Both Rodriguez and Jaden Epis, the band’s other vocalist and guitarist, are avid manga and anime fans. Many of their main musical influences are Japanese rock bands like Asian Kung-Fu Generation and Supercar, so “Lonely Girl” is a love letter to the genre that inspires them and an ode to the lonely youth with which these bands resonate.
The band said they have plans for two EPs next year, and maybe even an album. They hope to continue writing music in Japanese and branch out into other genres in ways that represent the context of their lives.
Yet again, Autumn Rhythm was electric and high energy. If you missed this one, MUR’s next event, Radio Roulette, is coming soon, bringing another set of live artists to campus.
This story was written by Sofía Cortés and Ellie Nelsen-Freund. They can be reached at [email protected] and e[email protected].
