Colgate Live Music Collective hosted the third annual Fall Music Festival on Saturday, Sept. 2. The live music event was held on the Burke-Pinchin Quad, lasting from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. Students, faculty and local artists showcased their musical talent, and the festival ended with a headlining set by indie rock band Speedy Ortiz. Colgate students and Hamilton community members were welcome to pizza, Gilligan’s ice cream and a food truck serving crêpes and waffles, along with the day-long music, lawn games, chalk art and a hula hoop contest to entertain the attendees. Between performances, an energetic playlist cultivated a vibrant musical atmosphere on the quad.
The lineup featured student, faculty and community talent across varying genres, consisting of: Mr. Rickey Starr Band (comprising sophomore Jack Zizza), Third Fiddle, Fiddle-Sax Fusion Band (made up of Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Brian Stark and his partner, Jessie Stark), sophomore Reem Numan, Associate Professor of English Ben Child, Reyna & The Rustics, Associate Professor of Music Seth Coluzzi, senior Charlotte Lawson, sophomore Kyle Kahn and student band Me and My Apartment.
Numan took the stage to showcase her vocal and piano skills. Along with her musical talents, Numan showcased her language skills in her performance. Numan opened with a song in Japanese, which she studies extensively. Numan also sang “Le Festin,” a French song by Camille and Michael Giacchino famous for being from the soundtrack to the film “Ratatouille.” Additionally, Numan sang in Amharic, an Ethiopian language. The song was part of the genre Tezeta (or Tizita), a popular music genre in Ethiopia. Numan explained how she connects with her culture through music and how song bridges a language gap for her as a child of parents who immigrated to the United States.
“I never got to really learn Amharic or Arabic,” Numan said. “I am Ethiopian and Yemeni, and I have felt kind of a disconnect between my cultures because of the fact that I don’t speak my mother languages — my mother tongues. […] I’ll definitely be performing more African and Arabian songs. I just want to include that in my repertoire because I feel like it’s really important for me to connect with my culture and represent that in a way that’s true and authentic.”
Numan is also a member of the Colgate Resolutions, an a cappella group on campus.
“I want to be involved in as many musical things as possible […] I just feel like it really fills my cup,” Numan said.
Professor Child also graced the event stage, showcasing his guitar and singing abilities. Child, who helps out in coordinating Colgate Live Music Collective’s initiatives and events, explained the importance of music in his life.
“In my past life — until I went to graduate school in my mid-20s — I always played in bands and wrote songs [… I] haven’t done as much of that in recent years, but it’s always fun to have occasion to reconnect,” Child said.
Speedy Ortiz, who delivered an energetic closing act, is an indie rock band based in Philadelphia and made up of Sadie Dupuis, Audrey Zee Whitesides, Andy Molholt and Joey Doubek. “Rabbit Rabbit” is the group’s first album in five years, having been in the works over the pandemic. “Rabbit Rabbit,” came out on Sept. 1, the day before the Fall Music Festival. Within the week before their album release, the band appeared in the New York Times and performed one of NPR’s famous Tiny Desk Concerts.
“[We] had kind of the few years of downtime because of lockdown,” Whitsides said. “It feels like we got a nice long time to settle in together and make a record that feels very lived in.”
The group performed songs from “Rabbit Rabbit” yesterday at a show at Rough Trade, a record store in New York City, but saved some of the new stuff for Colgate, playing a few of their songs live for the very first time at Fall Music Festival.
“We [were] like, ‘We could debut half the songs at Rough Trade and half the songs at Colgate, and then we’ll kind of have a better handle on how to play [the album] straight through,’” Dupuis said. “So we were really grateful that folks were willing to hear new things. […] So thanks for being a good audience!”
Sophomore Nizak Abdou, who attended most of the festival, expressed their enjoyment of Fall Music Festival.
“I loved the music,” Abdou said. “The whole vibe was really fun, especially in the morning. […] There was the hula hoop contest, ice cream, temporary tattoos and the food truck. It was fun just to spend time here.”
Abdou plans to come back to Colgate Live Music Collective’s fall tradition, especially because of the local, student and faculty artistry that it highlights.
“I like that this had so many different types of music, and it kind of felt more local — more homey,” Abdou said. “It was such a fun experience that I look forward to every year now.”
