So it’s Saturday night, about 8 pm, and watching VH1’s I love 72 for about the fourth time is certainly not an option. So you start thinking, what better to do than head on over to the McNeil room for the annual UPAC Mainstage show? Now there are a lot of skeptics here at RPI who hear things like short film, folk music, or band not sponsored by Pepsi and decide this showcase is not for them. But any curious RPI student, no matter how critical, who made it out to Mainstage will tell you about at least one performance they enjoyed.
The night started with three short films courtesy of UPAC Cinema. One mocked the desires of true love through commercialism on a French subway; another followed a cartoon caveman around as he eagerly searched for a solution to his stubble trouble. The most bizarre, however, was a computer animation of a man exploring a large, dark cathedral, only to become part of the structure when a star rises and turns him into a tree, or something with roots. My friend’s take on this one was, “Wow, that must have been deep, ’cause it went right over my head.” Although filmed in color, all the shorts were presented in black and white due to a, “missing projector part that makes … color,” as interpreted by comedian and MC for the night, Michael Collins, who was introduced shortly after the films.
Next was the Mother’s sponsored performance of solo acoustic folk artist Erin Carly. A senior graphic design student at York College of Pennsylvania, Carly, 22, filled the McNeil room with her extremely full voice and gentle guitar rhythms. Singing original songs based on real college student issues, such as dealing with long distance relationships, her vocal range and sense of balance with her guitar was impressively keen. Though there were times when the guitar rhythms seemed a little too similar from song to song, Carly showed her strength as a musician during an impressive Michelle Branch cover. In her last song she utilized techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking, the cornerstones of punk, to give a heavier, funkier folk feeling. Stating that her Mainstage performance was the largest of her current musical career, tense nerves weren’t enough to keep this young artist from entertaining the crowd with 30 minutes of her enjoyable acoustic sound.
Now onto my favorite part of the night—UPAC Comedy has a history of booking great and well known talents for mainstage and other events. Last year, comedian Bill Burr, who since has his own half hour Comedy Central special and been a performer on the United Service Organization Comedy tour, was amazing—keeping the crowd rolling for over an hour. This year’s routine by Michael Collins was no exception. Making regularly scheduled appearances on ESPN and the USA network, and having been a caddy for the PGA tour, Collins had no shortage of material for his sometimes risqué jokes and stories. Discussing everything from his obsession with the Discovery channel, to stories about the real Tiger Woods, he actively engaged the crowd—asking questions and delivering on-the-spot comedy, always a sign of a good comedian. Besides sometimes laughing at his own jokes, Collins kept the crowd intrigued with his wide variety of topics and very animated story telling.
And for the Mainstage grand finale, the violin, bass, and drum trio Skeleton Breath filled the room with an energetic and extremely original performance of their own variety of riverdance meets rock and roll. Now, when I first heard the name Skeleton Breath, I was a little nervous, I thought; metal, loud, angry, death, destruction, pain … eek. However, this trio of very talented musicians was anything but, playing a variety of very rhythmically complex songs, constantly changing the energy and tempo of the music and evolving their show into one of the most unique I’ve ever seen. The musicians themselves were not very friendly with the crowd, and their songs had no lyrics, but when you see the crowd head-banging to a violin solo, you know something’s going right.
Overall, this year’s UPAC Mainstage followed in the tradition of years past, it was free, fun, full of laughs, and showcased another great job by our hardworking and underappreciated UPAC staff. So if you did catch the show, good for you, and don’t forget to hug your local UPAC rep. If you missed it, than you must really love 72, but don’t forget to catch it next year—it’s always a good time.
