First coffeehouse starts strong

October 11, 2009

Coffeehouse is back for another year of good music, fun times and crazy band names.

Of Cabbages and Kings energized the audience with their unusual cover of "Hey Ya." (From left: seniors Ian Arnold, Sammy Zeisel and David Garrison). Photo by Julia Dane.

Four Whitman bands stepped up to the mike on Friday, Oct. 9 at Bethesda’s Unitarian Universalist Congregation to provide a fairly large crowd with two hours of musical entertainment.

Junior band Edge of the Border started the night strong with a set that included covers of Heart’s “Alone,” Tom Petty’s “Free Falling” and the Academy Award winning song “Falling Slowly” from the film Once. Drummer Emily Park harmonized with vocalist Sarah Tyson on most of the songs they played. The band paused during their set to advertise their EP, “The Window” (check it out on Itunes!).

No stranger to the Coffeehouse stage is senior and vocalist Sammy Zeisel, who is back this year with a new band, Of Cabbages and Kings. Zeisel, accompanied by seniors Ian Arnold, David Garrison and Simon Engler mixed it up by playing an entire acoustic set. The audience was treated with an unexpected, but engaging new take on OutKast’s “Hey Ya.” Listeners clapped their hands during pauses and sang along energetically.

Next up was Battle Station Wagon, which consists of junior Siddhu Anandalingam, junior Max Light and sophomore Wheeler Light. They started off slow due to technical problems, but still gave a high-energy performance. Listeners couldn’t help but bob their head to the beat of their alternative sound and amazing guitar riffs. Unfortunately, the other instruments drowned Light’s vocals out.

As the room emptied, junior band Skip Stone and the Grain Farmers ended the night with a calming rock set.

Story continues below advertisement

The Black and White

The Black and White

The Black and White

First coffeehouse starts strong

The Black and White