By Julian De Ocampo ’13 & Roan Enright ’13
THE ROUNDUP
Waves of instruments flooded onto campus for the annual four-hour long Fine Arts Extravaganza held Nov. 20
The FAE served as a showcase for the musical talents of hundreds of students across all grade levels.
Choirs, orchestra and individual instrumentalists including, accordionist Michael O’Gara ’14, played in the Chapel.
The larger Black Box Theater was home to many of Brophy’s larger ensembles such as jazz bands, Weapons of Mass Percussion and Wind Ensemble.
But after 7:40 the theater became a more informal space organized by Keaton Leander ’13 that housed many larger student bands.
City Kids, a band of juniors with previous FAE experience, kicked the night off. They were followed by Reed and the Gentlemen, a band featuring Will Harris ’15.
Saint Rosemary, consisting of Leander, Jeff Bennett ’13, Mark Miller ‘13, Michael Lucero ’13 and Xavier senior Carlee Chappell played next. The band, featuring many longtime Brophy musicians, played to a packed crowd.
They were followed by underclassmen band Soldiers of Virtue.
The theater filled with students as the final act of the entire night, Backstreet Brophy (Quinn Grady ’13, Kyle Chalmers ’13, Jake Kufel ’13, Jake Petty ‘13 and Austin Groen ’13,) took the stage.
The act performed the hits of boy-bands of decades past such as the Backstreet Boys to a raucous crowd.
“I felt Backstreet Brophy’s performance went incredibly well. The crowd, girls especially, seemed really into it and sang along with all of our lyrics,” Grady said. “I think Nick Carter would be proud.”
The mall stage, organized by Jared Grady ’15, greeted new visitors early in the night with the sounds of The Band Real, a jam band coalition of various Musician’s Exchange Club members.
After an intermission, the stage was once again filled with sound as senior band You Wouldn’t Believe took the stage to play a number of alternative hits from bands like Walk the Moon and The Arctic Monkeys.
They were followed by sophomore band The Burgeois, who quickly charmed the crowd with their rendition of The Strokes’ beloved single “Someday,” which added an additional violin to the song.
A jazz combo of various students took the stage after to close out the night’s outdoor musical entertainment.
As with last year, the basement of Romley Hall housed the Brophy Art Gallery, which was opened to the public and served as a venue for smaller, often acoustic acts.
These acts ranged from stand up comedy performed by Miles Kent ’13 and Joe Skoog ’13 to a Barbershop Quartet consisting of Nick Centrella ’13, Jeff Bennett ’13, Matt Naslonski ’13 and Phillip Rapa ’14.
But most of the night consisted of acoustic sets such as that by White Noise Radio (Matthew Montes ’15 and Hayden Corwin ’15,) who covered songs by The Pixies and Nirvana.
Additional acts included a performance by Leonard Gutierrez ’14 and Mr. Paul Fisko, The Mixed Society (Steven Soto ’13 and Xavier students Laura Berens and Meg McCauley,) Chuck & Charles (Charles Dominguez ’14, Greg Goulder ’13 and Kayvon Seif-Naraghi ’14) and Jacob Browning’14.
Nick Kush ’13 and former Brophy student Matt Mclean, decided to bring in an amp into the acoustic environment.
“Matt and I are friends and we play a lot of music together,” Kush said. “We are the two consistent players in our many projects that we play around in.”
Kush added that they did not play any original material because they “are saving it for the ultimate band vision in mind.”
The duo is currently looking for additional musicians, especially drummers, who would like to join them.
Later, Brendan Bohannan ’14, the co-coordinator of the BAG performances with Kent, performed an acoustic guitar set covering different indie artists such as Neutral Milk Hotel and Father John Misty.
“I tried to make my performance different by handing out percussion instruments to people down there to almost create a drum circle of sorts. I also attempted to bribe people to come by giving out free candy,” Bohannan said.
“I think the Romley basement provides the perfect atmosphere for this kind of live performance. I have always appreciated when performances are personal,” Bohannan said, “and I think Romley is very personal because of a smaller size and a lack of a physical stage.”
Charles Dominguez closed the night after a long night having performed involved in two jazz bands, wind ensemble, orchestra and two sets in the BAG.
Editor’s Note: Charles Dominguez ’14 is a staff member on The Roundup. He was not involved in the making of this article.