Gallery Art Bar came alive once again with the sounds of electronic, punk and ’80s-style exotica from the up-and-coming band Swim Ignorant Fire on Friday night.
The band, originally a solo project by lead guitarist Stephen Holliger, started in 2005. During the pandemic, he began collaborating remotely with other local musicians, exchanging recordings and ideas online until it transformed into the group that took the stage.
“Through the pandemic and COVID, I started file sharing with some of the local musicians, and then it turned into a band itself,” Holliger said. “It became a recording collaboration, but now it’s like a whole band.”
The bar was dark, illuminated by small tealight candles on every table. People talked and drank while waiting for the concert to begin. A collage of colorful, moving shapes and patterns was projected onto the walls, a classic staple of Gallery Art Bar.
The concert began abruptly, with light synth chords from a pedal steel guitar quieting the audience. The music swelled, with the drummer joining in on cymbals before the entire band pulled into the song.
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Hannah Mathwich, an academic adviser for chemical & biomolecular engineering, attended the concert after listening to some of the band’s music on Spotify. Mathwich said she really enjoyed the band’s overall vibe and unique take.
“I like that there are different elements, and it’s more experimental, but still analogical, which is nice,” Mathwich said. “You can sort of sway to it and have fun.”
A video of the performers was projected onto the walls behind the moving shapes in a surreal, pixelated filter. The shapes almost seemed to dance along with the band’s music, with colors brightening and dimming with the different tempos and dynamics.
Joshua Agterberg, a Champaign community member, said he especially enjoyed the supporting background tracks and the way they brought the music together.
“I thought it was cool how the different looping stuff was kind of going on in the background,” Agterberg said. “They use that to kind of guide everything.”
They played, seemingly entranced by the music they produced. The bass saxophonist bobbed his head, and the guitar player rocked back and forth.
As the band shifted to some lighter, more upbeat pieces, the baritone sax switched his reed for a xylophone. The music takes inspiration largely from Martin Denny, with four of the songs containing samples from his work.
“It’s kind of a nod to tropical lounge, exotica, kind of ’20s, ’70s kind of stuff, but just giving it a facelift with camelon bells, post steel and stuff like that,” Holliger said.
Although Holliger did not expect his band to grow in the way it has, he said he hopes that his music can serve as a way to bring people together.
“It’s hard enough to understand each other alone as it is these days,” Holliger said. “Music is just a familiar language for some people to create, and to feel like they belong.”
