Last Thursday night, October 31, the Hall of Presidents was filled with students dressed as “Despicable Me” minions, Spongebob Squarepants, Where’s Waldo and other creative costumes for the UNICEF Charity Benefit Concert featuring The Fresh AER Movement, presented by the Blue Diamond Society and cosponsored by Gamma Phi Beta sorority.

Body Electric, a rock ‘n roll indie band comprised of Colgate seniors, kicked off the show with covers of “American Girl,” “Born to Run” and “Werewolves of London,” as well as an original song, “Daughters of the Sun.” With seniors Brendan Finn and Quinn Mongeon on guitar and vocals, senior Peter Debartolo on the keyboard, senior Mark Stagno on the bass and senior Erik Barro on the drums, Body Electric will soon record an EP of original songs and continue to perform at Colgate and in Hamilton.

Next, the much-anticipated main act, AER, was received onstage to a lot of excited energy from the audience. The duo put on a great show and clearly engaged the crowd – one of the members even shared the fact that his parents met at Colgate.

David von Mering and Carter Schultz formed The Fresh AER Movement in 2011. The duo combines aesthetics of rap, pop, indie rock and reggae to produce an original sound that has been steadily gaining popularity since their 2012 album “The Bright Side” clinched the number one spot on the iTunes Albums chart.

The concert was followed by an after party at 110 Broad Street where the fundraising continued with a raffle, awarding the winner a chance to meet the members of AER.

Two members of the Blue Diamond Society, sophomores Adam Basciano and Josh Goldstein, have worked together since June to put their idea of this fundraising event into action. The pair’s goals were to raise money for UNICEF and provide an alternative option for celebrating Halloween besides unregulated binge drinking.

“We are still collecting final donations and processing the numbers, but we are predicting reaching and possibly surpassing our goal of $5,000 raised, 100 percent of which will be sent to UNICEF’s two projects helping aid Sudanese children affected by the Darfur genocide as well as to providing equitable access to education for all genders of children around the world,” Basciano said.

Contact Jessica Capwell at [email protected].