Every weekend in Champaign-Urbana, students pile into Green Street bars and various frat houses to party the stress of University classes away. These weekends consist of seeing countless quarter-zips and polo shirts on 20-something dudes, standing around listening to Top 100-playing DJs and crowding around a sticky bar vying for an underqualified bartender’s attention.
If that doesn’t sound appealing, there is an entirely different sector of nightlife waiting in Urbana.
House shows present an alternative style of partying for any student who prefers live music and intimate spaces to the infamous bars of campus. The nature of the house show beast, however, requires student musicians to make the grungy music. So, who are the young people behind the instruments in Urbana spaces most weekend nights?
A prominent band in the scene is Dollhouse, a small group consisting of three girls in the Urbana area. Known for their softer approach to alternative music, they have been playing at house shows for a little over a year.
“I like playing for my friends and for people who are into all of the same stuff,” said Gigi Mulvaney, junior in LAS and the bass player for Dollhouse. “It’s just great outreach, a great way to meet new people, and performing our original pieces for them just adds on top of that.”
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Dollhouse performs multiple times a semester, and their name can be seen on the bill of many venues. To perform at a DIY show in Urbana, the venues typically reach out to them, and the band makes sure their music is tight for the night of the show.
It isn’t uncommon to see the same people at every show, and the community is tight-knit. That environment garners camaraderie between both the attendees and the musicians behind the scenes.
Henry Dewaele, junior in LAS, often plays at his friends’ venues without being tied to a specific band. His connections allow him to still play music at house show-type events while being a student and pursuing the music that he enjoys.
“I honestly don’t pay too much attention to the crowd because I’m very focused on my own playing, but you know, the community here is great,” Dewaele said.
The environment of a show can often get rowdy, with the crowd moving ferociously to the music. Many performers like to get into the fun with the audience, but on occasion, it can create interesting tension.
“One time I ran into somebody at a show,” said Dax Nichols, freshman in the Department of Exploratory Studies. “They said, ‘Oh, an excuse me would have been nice.’ I just said, ‘We’re in the mosh pit for a punk band, you know, it’s a party.’”
Dax Nichols plays bass for both the band Scrumper and Papa Squat & the Magic Threehouse. He expressed his interest in the University specifically for its music scene and his ability to play for his peers.
Being a student-house show performer can accrue unique experiences that are hard to find anywhere else on a college campus.
During a Dollhouse set, the tarp flooring ripped while the audience was moshing and dancing to the music, exposing the loose dirt ground. The small basement room was filled with dust and debris while the band kept performing through the smog-like conditions.
“Dude, it was the Dust Bowl,” Mulvaney said. “You could feel it in your mouth. You could taste it. You couldn’t see anything. I was blowing my nose, and it was coming out black, really crazy.”
Another common, but dangerous, occurrence that the performers have to deal with is injuries in the crowd. Wilson Nichols, junior in Media and LAS, plays guitar for The Crown, Victoria and performs multiple shows a semester with the band. Wilson Nichols detailed a set in which one crowd member broke their foot, and another passed out in the same song.
“We had to stop the song, and then we went back on stage,” Wilson Nichols said, gesturing the scene with his hands. “Everyone was a little bit like, ‘What’s happening, what’s going on?’ Lots of confusion there.”
There is a small world of students at the University who dedicate so much of their time to making music. They have created a fun and supportive community to host shows with, and they open their arms most weekends. Many shows round up interesting people to watch, and even more interesting students who play the loud, atmospheric music that the Urbana scene is known for.
